He Built One of Ireland’s Most Ambitious Restaurants. His Best Customer Satisfaction Tip Starts With a Drink Coaster.
He lost the bid on his dream restaurant and got a second chance. Here’s what he learned about the details that actually keep customers coming back.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- Alan Clancy believes the customer journey begins before anyone reaches the table.
- After COVID forced him to rethink his hospitality business, he returned with a clearer vision.
- His approach to hospitality and customer experience offers a useful blueprint for anyone launching a new concept.
The elevator stopped at the eighth floor.
To reach the unfinished roof of Dublin’s former Central Bank of Ireland building, Alan Clancy had to climb a small stepladder. The redevelopment plan called for two additional floors, but Clancy initially saw more problems than possibilities.
“There was so much going on up here,” Clancy says. “That’s gonna take a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of effort.”
Today, the top of the building is home to DÍON, an 18,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant overlooking the center of Dublin. Its glass structure, Irish colors and design details frame a venue that brings dining, drinks and entertainment together.
The name also connects the restaurant to its location. Clancy says DÍON is an Irish word meaning roof and shelter.
Getting there required Clancy, a hospitality entrepreneur, to hold onto an idea that almost belonged to someone else.
As international restaurant brands entered Dublin, Clancy questioned why an Irish operator couldn’t create something equally ambitious. He entered the formal tender process in 2019 with a concept rooted in Ireland, but he didn’t win.
Then COVID hit his hospitality businesses. One of his major Dublin bars remained closed for nearly two years. At House, another of his venues, Clancy and his team expanded the food operation and created a popular restaurant and garden. After visiting House during a busy rugby weekend, the managing director of Hines asked Clancy whether he was disappointed about losing the rooftop.
Hines invited him back.
“If I was looking at it again, I’d look with different eyes,” Clancy says.
Clancy traveled to study restaurants, including SUSHISAMBA in Dubai and Delilah in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He asked hospitality professionals about their mistakes and recruited designers who could help execute his idea. A financial backer eventually saw the same potential and offered to support the entire project.
The finished restaurant combines the international influences Clancy studied with the Irish identity he wanted to protect. Guests can celebrate an important occasion, stop in for lunch or spend an entire evening there.
“I wanted it to be a special occasion, but I wanted it to be every occasion,” Clancy says.
The coaster code
Clancy has a problem with the front door at DÍON. Guests walk into an 18,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant filled with custom design elements, views of Dublin and details built around Irish history. Clancy still notices how hard they have to pull the door.
“The front door is too heavy at the moment,” Clancy says with a laugh. “I have a real gripe over that.”
It may seem minor, but it represents how Clancy thinks about hospitality. The customer’s experience begins before the food reaches the table, and no part of that journey is too small to reconsider.
“What are we without customers?” he says. “We’re nobody.”
That attention continues throughout DÍON. The restaurant’s cocktail book connects drinks to locations around Dublin. Each signature cocktail is paired with a latitude and a story explaining why it was chosen.
There was one part of the cocktail book Clancy could not develop himself.
“I’m gonna give away one of my secrets,” he says. “I’ve never had a drink.”
Clancy relied on people with more experience tasting drinks, but the original concept was his. He wanted the cocktail book to help guests engage with the city around them.
Even the coasters carry instructions. One side tells the staff a guest wants still water. Flip it over, and it signals sparkling. The system is subtle enough that customers may never realize it is there.
“Someone’s put a bit of thought into it,” Clancy says.
Irish references appear throughout the restaurant. Green and gold run through the carpet, while a diamond pattern inspired by the glass roof is repeated across the space.
Clancy sees those details as part of building something larger than a single restaurant. He wants DÍON to become a recognizable brand, but that ambition still comes back to the person pulling on the front door.
For Clancy, a memorable restaurant is not created by one impressive feature. It is built through a series of decisions that tell every guest someone was thinking about them.
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