'We always knew we’d return': Couple behind Pilgrim's on their next West Cork venture
Mark Jennings formerly of Pilgrim's restaurant, Rosscarbery, pictured during the Waterford Festival of Food. Picture: Joleen Cronin
In light of the merciless storm that has been battering the Irish hospitality sector in recent years, any chink of light through the clouds is to be greatly welcomed. It doesn’t get much brighter than the news that Mark Jennings and Sadie Pearce, the couple behind the late, lamented Pilgrim’s Restaurant, in Rosscarbery, are set to return with a new restaurant.
They will be opening in a former antiques/secondhand shop in Leap, a few miles down the road from their original West Cork establishment.
Pilgrim’s in Rosscarbery opened in 2015 and very rapidly developed a sterling national reputation for the quality of the food Jennings was cooking, based on some of the very best sourcing of primary produce to be found in any restaurant in the country. Pearce oversaw one of the loveliest dining rooms in the land with serenity and aplomb, and that reputation even spread further afield with National Geographic including it in their 10 best restaurants in the 32 counties of Ireland, in 2022.
Sadie Pearce and Mark Jennings are West Cork natives, from Kilbrittan and Belgooly, respectively, and Jennings’ extensive experience prior to opening Pilgrim’s included time as head chef at Cork’s Paradiso and 12 months at the highly acclaimed English restaurant, The Ethicurean, in Bristol.
As the rave reviews for their Rosscarbery restaurant came flooding in almost from the moment they opened, their burgeoning reputation eventually saw Jennings feature on RTÉ's Beyond the Menu series in 2019 with presenter Mark Moriarty, as they cooked a meal on a pier in West Cork.
This writer, wearing his food critic hat, repeatedly raved about Pilgrim’s in print and elsewhere, celebrating some of the most original and innovative cooking in Ireland of quite superb produce, and viewed them as part of a West Cork ‘culinary troika’ along with Michelin-starred Restaurant Chestnut, in Ballydehob, and Dede, in Baltimore, and also shared the sense of near-mourning that greeted news of Pilgrim’s closure last year.
However, Jennings and Pearce made clear at the time that they were not leaving hospitality for good but were instead seeking to improve their quality of life as they dealt with raising two children under five, and their family obligations informed their decision to open their new establishment primarily as a day time operation.
“Even back then, a return was always on the cards,” says Jennings of the planned new venture in Leap. “We were never getting out of hospitality forever, we always knew we’d return.”
The new operation will be a combination of restaurant and deli-style provision store, much of which was inspired by Pilgrim’s pivot during the pandemic lockdowns.
“We did pick-up meals for two years during covid,” says Jennings, “but that time also kickstarted our interest in selling produce as much as the meals, with our ‘provisions list’ which included some of our own fresh produce and vegetables, and lots of other local West Cork producers’ produce as well.
“It made a lot more sense to us to sell a bunch of radishes rather than chopping up a single one to add to a salad in the restaurant, which gives a better experience for the home cook, and we began making products in-house to use at home such as yoghurt, cashew cheese, sauces, additional elements to enhance the home dining experience.”
The new operation in Leap will be “multi-faceted”, says Jennings.
“Because of the kids and their age, it’s going to be a day-time restaurant, but it will a very mixed enterprise and venture, you have to be adaptable. We won’t be pencilled into one bracket of hospitality and we want to be flexible and able to change as needed, so there will be a lunchtime café, a deli to-go counter, a greengrocer and food shop approach, all micro-sized, and a small bakery to bake bread for sale.”
Jennings spent much of last year in the couple’s market garden and it will be a source of produce for the greengrocers.
“We will retail as much as we can from our own garden — an acre with two polytunnels up and going and maybe the opportunity to squeeze in another — but we really want to show off other local small-scale veg growers and producers, and hopefully, fresh meat as well as cheeses and charcuterie.
“We will have a strict approach, a commitment to selling Irish and local and we don’t want to sell much imported produce or goods — I never really liked cooking with imported foods even though they can sometimes be cheaper than Irish produce but we also don’t want to be too elitist; it will be more community-led and there to serve the people of Leap.”
Anyone with a finger already hovering over the booking app salivating at the bit while trying to reserve a table will have to stay their appetites for the moment as the pre-opening project is a challenging one, with the current target being a summer 2025 opening at the earliest.
“We are looking at a whole building project first,” says Jennings, “including a new roof and a new floor, and we are looking for builders, so hopefully it will be ready for next summer. The space isn’t massive but we have lots of aspirations and dreams for the place and will spend the next 12 months working out just exactly how we are going to make them work.”
