Here’s why a beloved Gables Irish pub won’t reopen after the coronavirus crisis ends
JohnMartin’s Irish Pub & Restaurant closed its doors with the rest of Miami’s restaurants over coronavirus concerns.
When the others reopen, however, the iconic Coral Gables spot won’t be among them.
The pandemic that forced America’s restaurants into a takeout and delivery model hastened the end for JohnMartin’s, one of South Florida’s longest-running restaurants, which helped revitalize a sleepy Miracle Mile more than 30 years ago.
John Clarke and Martin Lynch, joined at the hip since childhood like their pub’s name, had quietly planned not to renew their lease when it came up in May, said Lynch, 63. He and Clarke, 69, sent an email with the news to their truest friends and most trusted patrons on Monday night — what would have been the pub’s 31st anniversary.
“We’ve been at it for 31 years, and it was time to pack it in,” Lynch said.
They had planned to go out with a bang — a month-long celebration at the Irish pub that was the heart of St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Coral Gables.
The coronavirus closings changed that. They sent most of their employees home on March 17 and asked their landlord to get out of their lease a month early.
“The hardest thing I’ve had to do was tell the employees we’re closing down,” Lynch said. “It’s time to stay home and stay safe.”
Clarke and Lynch, childhood friends from Killinkere parish, in northwest Dublin, moved to Miami in the early 1980s determined to make a name for themselves.
Clarke, who arrived in 1981, is a classically trained French chef who studied in Switzerland and became the chef at the Biltmore Hotel. Lynch, who arrived four years later, was a waiter at Christy’s steakhouse in Coral Gables when they decided Miami needed an Irish pub.
“It had to be an Irish pub that was suitable for Coral Gables,” Lynch said.
With several Irish investor friends pooling $1.5 million, they turned an old Greek diner and adjacent antiques store into the pub of their dreams. They built a polished mahogany bar to run the length of the restaurant and the maple wood floors were reclaimed from a shuttered Dublin church. All the details, down to the prints, hearkened to the pubs back home.
JohnMartin’s opened in 1989 but went more than a year without being able to serve alcohol at their lavish bar because of a 1926 Coral Gables ordinance they helped overturn in November of 1990.
“From that day on, we were rockin’ and rollin’,” Lynch said.
The pub brought life to a tired Miracle Mile, long before there was a Houston’s (now Hillstone), a Starbucks or newly renovated sidewalks to bring throngs to the heart of Coral Gables.
“Before, you could roll a bowling ball down the center of the street and not hit anything,” Lynch recalled.
JohnMartin’s became a late-night South Florida destination.
On St. Patrick’s Day, they were the life of a party that closed down the Mile every year. They might easily go through 200 pounds of corned beef and 125 kegs of beer at their peak, Lynch told the Miami Herald in 2014.
But as Miami grew, Lynch said, so did competition.
“There was no Wynwood, no Brickell, no scene in South Miami,” Lynch said.
Over the years they added trivia nights and karaoke, which reinvigorated the bar and brought in a second (and third) generation of patrons. It was enough for Lynch and Clarke to put four children each through school.
But as each man slowed down, they realized it was time to leave the business. Their only regret, Lynch said, is not being able to lavish a month’s worth of planned parties on the staff and patrons that supported them over the years.
“COVID-19 put a quick stop to those plans,” Lynch said. “But it put eight kids through college. It’s been a great little business.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 7:37 PM.
