Page 78 - BFM F/W 2024

Run it Back
Why New York’s culinary wunderkind, Flynn McGarry,
closed up shop to plant seeds for the future
By Cormac Newman Photography by Sean Davidson
FLYNN MCGARRY IS NO STRANGER TO GOOD TASTE. IN FACT, McGarry was barely a teenager when his supper club, Eureka — which, at the time, he hosted from his parents’ home in the San Fernando Valley — was featured in The New Yorker. By 19, McGarry had moved to the Lower East Side, where his first permanent restaurant, Gem, earned widespread praise. Yet in 2023, after five years of steady success, McGarry hit pause on Gem Restaurant.
Don’t mistake Gem’s departure for McGarry’s, though: the chef remains as busy as ever. Gem Wine, the restaurant’s swanky younger sister, recently moved into Gem’s old location. The wine bar attracts downtown diners in droves, treating them to a rotating list of by-the- glass sips and an equally chic selection of small plates and entrees. And,
while Gem Restaurant is on hiatus, it promises to return.
“I need to change things up to move things forward,” McGarry says. He’s
just returned from his annual break — four days spent “off the grid” — when we talk on the phone. McGarry treasures that time; it’s a rare moment of calm amidst the demands of a thriving culinary career. With work claiming the lion’s share of his time (“like, 90 percent,” he laughs), every second counts.
The cool-off is crucial. Upon return, McGarry’s schedule is slammed as ever — business meetings wait for no one — but he arrives with a fresh perspective. “It’s nice to go away, have a little break,” McGarry admits. “But today, my first
day back, I have to have something every minute. I think the most exciting thing is having a little more gas in the chamber, to be able to push on both sides.”
When he’s on the clock, McGarry splits his time between running Gem Wine and developing new projects. It’s easy to picture this as a frenzied affair, but the 25-year-old says the relationship is symbiotic: Gem Wine cultivates a regular audience, while myriad pop-ups ensure a steady stream of innovation.
Creatively, McGarry’s approach pays dividends. From June to September, Gem Wine hopped over to Tribeca, setting up shop on the sleek rooftop of Spring Studios. The pop-up, Gem Wine x Spring, served new offerings — spritzes, small plates, and communal seafood towers made with local fruits de mer — alongside its signature low-intervention wines.
“We’re very slowly getting to work on a new project that will be more of a restaurant than Gem Wine,” McGarry explains. “That’s why we wanted to do this pop-up in the meantime — to get some more perspective.”
If the pop-up was a gamble, McGarry won big. It’s valuable for his team to see how other kitchens are run, he adds. The larger, outdoor space presents new challenges from which to grow.
“Living the life that I live in New York every day — going to the same place, seeing the same ingredients, working in the same space — it’s impossible to find a new way to look at things unless you pull yourself out of it,” he explains.
It’s a bold mandate, but a fitting one; reinvention colours McGarry’s career.
78 BFM / FW24 FEATURES / RUN IT BACK