Restaurants: The elegant Ernie's Restaurant in Donnybrook reopened last week under new management.

Married couple Jean-Michel and Lorna-Jean Poulot took on a new 25-year lease with €325,000 key money and an annual rent of €75,000.

The property became available when the family of the restaurant's now deceased founder, Ernie Evans, decided to lease it as a going concern.

The couple opened to the public only last Friday with a changed décor that opens and brightens the restaurant.

Jean-Michel does the cooking while his wife is a specialist in wines, offering no less than 140 selections from which diners may choose.

The single-storey restaurant in Mulberry Gardens in the heart of Donnybrook is set around a courtyard garden and has an overall floor area of 210sq m (2,260sq ft).

The L-shaped, high ceilinged restaurant was refurbished less than two years ago and accommodates about 65 diners.

It provides space for pre-dinner drinks and also has office space, staff changing rooms and storage areas.

Trade has benefited greatly from being located close to the affluent south Dublin suburbs but also nearby office complexes.

The Poulots have a wealth of experience in the hospitality industry.

Considered to be amongst the top five chefs in Ireland, Jean-Michel worked in Michelin starred restaurants in France and Switzerland.

He was head chef at Ballylickey Manor House in Bantry and head chef in the celebrated Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge and then later at the Shelbourne Hotel and at Conrad Gallagher's Peacock Alley.

It was under Poulot's tenure that the restaurant secured its coveted Michelin star.

Lorna-Jean has 15 years experience in hotel and restaurant management. She holds a WSET diploma in wine and has worked as a wine consultant since 1999, concentrating mainly on education and promotion.

She has lectured for the Wine Development Board of Ireland and regularly provides wine courses. The two met while working at Ballylickey Manor House and they married in 1991. They worked together from then until Michel-Jean's period at Roly's Bistro.

Evans, who died in 1990, was one of the country's top chefs when he established the restaurant in 1984. He opened it after selling his hotel and restaurant business in Glenbeigh, Co Kerry.

The family kept Ernie's running in its location in a quiet enclave near Kiely's bar in Donnybrook.

Ross Shorten of Lisney handled the lease.