Flynn McGarry of Gem Restaurant Tells Us Where He’s Been & What’s Next
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.
“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.”
Flynn McGarry
“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.
“The best tasting vegetable is one that was picked a day before.”
Flynn McGarry
“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. Eureka characterized his first, youthful venture into fine dining. Then, at 19 — when most of his peers had just finished high school — Gem Restaurant marked a newfound sense of independence. Maturing into Gem Wine, McGarry explored hospitality from another angle.
“I’m dipping my toes into a different side of restaurants,” he explains. “At the end of the day, I still resonate much more with the fine dining kind of space, [but] it’s been a really interesting time, trying to find where I land in the more casual space.”
This period has also given McGarry a chance to discover different aspects of the restaurant industry — such as staffing, design, and finances — which, while challenging, has pushed him to grow.
“Food is just one part of it,” he adds. “Right now is that period where we’re really seeing: ‘Okay, what’s working here?’ We had all that time with Gem [Restaurant], which gave the team and me a lot of great information to work off of, but we’re still utilizing this time to make decisions.”
Gem Wine × Spring defines the latest phase of McGarry’s career. It’s playful, innovative, and well-connected. High-quality cuisine shows the casual confidence of someone that’s been in the game for a while. It’s easy to forget McGarry’s youth, given his strong resume. Yet in the era of pop-ups, he retains an earnest sense of experimentation.
“The goal is a happy team, cooking good food. When you look at that and you say: ‘Okay, how can I achieve that?’ [The answer] is always the most sustainable route.”
Flynn McGarry
“A lot of my time is spent meeting with purveyors, farmers — all of the different people who are actually getting us the food. That’s really where everything starts,” he explains. “From there, it’s a pretty natural process of changing [the menu] or thinking of new ideas.” There’s a bit of trial and error, to be sure, but McGarry says it’s an intuitive process. “Sometimes, things just come, which is really nice,” he laughs.
Instincts aside, McGarry says there’s a logic behind his practice. In fact, that’s what led him to embrace sustainability, from harvest to hiring. “It’s a holistic view — the goal is not to be sustainable; the goal is to have a restaurant where everything works: where the team is happy and the food is delicious. Sustainability is at the centre of that,” he says. “The best tasting vegetable is one that was picked a day before,” he explains. “[We] create this really personal relationship with the farmers. That was the original idea of using local produce; the carbon emissions reduction is a plus to it, but really, it’s about a connection.”
As a manager, McGarry takes the same approach. He ensures that employees have a sustainable schedule and work-life balance. “The goal is a happy team, cooking good food. When you look at that and you say: ‘Okay, how can I achieve that?’ [The answer] is always the most sustainable route.”
Of course, sustainable doesn’t mean static. Should things turn stale or self-referential, McGarry is quick to take flight. The goal, he explains, is to “walk away feeling like you got a picture of the geography, whether it’s from the produce, local restaurants, or whatever culture you’re experiencing there.”
Travel gives McGarry a “jump-start” in the kitchen — local produce has a fresh glow, invigorated by new methods. “Everything is incredibly seasonal,” McGarry says. “I’ve never really [said] ‘It needs to be the same ingredient.’ It’s more like, ‘Okay, it’s going to be that ingredient while it’s good.’ Then, the second that it goes out of season, it’ll have to change.”
Back home, McGarry promises a new space is in the works. Though he’s tight-lipped about the details, longevity is top priority: “We’re looking at how we can open something that stays open for 15 years, changes as it needs to, and fits my needs and my team’s needs.”
This new endeavour — no matter how it manifests — seems to share an unspoken motto with McGarry’s past projects: embrace the change.
