Kevin Aherne on his next plan after Midleton’s Sage Restaurant closes 

He said the closure symbolises the “progressing” story of a business, from its humble beginnings in 2008 up until it reached its pinnacle before covid times.

Mr Aherne, who opened Sage when he was 24, reflecting on starting out, said: “It was never for a love of food, it was never a case of being at my mother’s knee when she was cooking.”

After the Leaving Certificate, Mr Aherne visited his brother in America for the summer, where he ended up working in a kitchen, as he was too young to work in a bar.

Over the years, the opportunity arose to take over the restaurant in Midleton in which he was working at the time, and after a lot of “graft and hard work”, he eventually built Sage up as a household name in Cork.

When the covid pandemic struck, the Ahernes transitioned into take-home food, opening a deli shop and then branching into retail with a new range of Sage2Go ready meals that are now available in supermarkets such as Dunnes Stores and SuperValu.

This transition included a revamp of the business, including the upscaling of the production side of things to cater for different markets across the country.

However, the long-time chef has admitted the difficulties he faces while running multiple businesses has “just come to the stage now of me being too busy running two separate companies with a small family in an industry that takes a lot of time and effort in both places”.

Mr Aherne said he is “running out of energy” to juggle both the restaurant and the catering business, while caring for his young family, sparking the decision to sell the business.

The restaurant will be taken over by another owner, with plans to be revealed in time.

“I suppose I’m just at the point in my life now I’ve reached my 40s, I’m not in my 20s anymore and I’ve got two kids. Life for me should be about the adventure and not just be about working all the time,” Mr Aherne added.

The chef explained the decision to focus solely on his production company called Sage Products, given the new production facility built just outside Cork City. Mr Aherne also hints at “a few more things in the fire” as well, namely a central ordering system for restaurants and cafe kitchens.

He said he will take care of food preparation in his kitchen, while “supplying other restaurants and cafes to keep food and labour costs down,” he said. “We’ll prepare Irish foods and goods that they can use for addition on their menus.”

Mr Aherne said the most difficult parts of running a restaurant are “staff and labour costs and quality and consistency”.

The long-standing restaurant also experienced hardship last October during the Midleton flooding, resulting in the forced closure of the business for two weeks. However, Mr Aherne is adamant that this flooding did not play a role in the closure.

“We’re kind of trying to stay away from the doom and gloom of the restaurant closure; That’s not really what this is about, it was our decision.”

The restaurant owner said he came to the harsh realisation that “you can’t have two businesses that you’re only giving half your work to and have a family life as well”.

The business, which began with two employees before transitioning to 14 members of staff, will take on another three staff members to keep up with production demands, making it “more of a good news story than a bad story”, Mr Aherne said.

The Cork-based chef said he felt the restaurant had “reached its pinnacle” and so felt it was right to move on, concentrate on a new business and lifestyle and centre his family around that also.

Although “heartbroken” about the closure, Mr Aherne said Sage has been a “labour of love” for his family, admitting his admiration for all of their staff that passed through over the years.

“We love the relationships that we’ve had throughout the years, be it producers, or customers or staff,” he said.

Mr Aherne also admitted his excitement and nerves at the thought of a new life decision, adding: “Of course, for anybody who’s in their 40s and kind of taking a life chance again and going a different route in their life after doing what you have been doing for 16 years, it’s a bit of a change but I look forward to my weekends off.

“I’m definitely looking forward to trying to create more of a balance in our lives and excited as well to have the opportunity in a new business to be able to do new things and try new things and progress and scale my business as much as I possibly can,” he said.