Top chef James Devine to open restaurant in home town

Top chef James Devine is to open a restaurant in his home town of Dungannon after being granted planning permission to convert what was McGrath’s pub into Moghrá.

The Irish Street venue will take its name from the Irish for ‘my love’ and is expected to open next year.

James, who in 2017 was crowned National Chef of the Year, said: “It was probably one of Dungannon’s worst kept secrets!

“I have been looking to do something on my own for a while now. All chefs eventually want to open their own place in their own home own,” he said.

“It was always the dream to own a restaurant in the place where you’re from.”

James, who has worked at Michael Deane’s Michelin-starred EIPIC in Belfast and Noble in Holywood, told the Irish News he would be tapping into Dungannon’s rich cultural history.

The plans for the former pub, above, will see it open on both Irish Street and Greers Road, with a pop-up venture in the pipeline before all work is completed in late 2023 or early 2024 .

He explained: “I would like it to be an experience. I want a lot of openness, I want people to be able to see into the kitchen and blur those lines between front of house and back house.

“If you work there you’re involved in all aspects – the chefs could be serving your food as well.

“I’ll be running the kitchen. It’ll very much be like a home for me. All my thought processes have been driving towards this project for a long time.

“We’ve got planning, but we’ve been sitting on a lot of ideas, a lot of thought has gone into this and there will be even more now we can actually start to implement some of them.

“I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do for some time and breathing life into the area, for me it’s a win-win.”