'
J
une 2009 was not a prettymonth for VictoriaSquare's restau-
rant scene. Chilli's and Maggiano's announced first that the
chain restaurants had closed up shop. Within less than a
week Ba Mizu, House of Fraser's partner and the up-market
shopping centre's 'culinary showpiece' followed suit, closing its
doors. In the space of sevendays, more than 100 people were on their
way home with the newsthat they'd lost their jobs.
It would havebeen easy for the rot to set in, but twoentrepreneurs
saw the closureof Ba Mizu as an opportu-
nity.Step forward Strabanenative and
marketing guru Enda McShane and his
business partner,North Belfast man
Frank Shivers, who had been manager of
Chilli's and Maggiano's.
"The synergywas obviously Enda's
background in marketingand my back-
ground in the operationsside of things,"
said Frank Shivers.
"I workedfor Brinker UK Limited so I
was here [at Victoria Square] before the
restaurants were opened, dealing with
the contractors and that's how myself
and Enda met and then this opportunity
opened up and we just graspedit."
McShane owns Spirit Marketing
Group, which has offices in Belfast,
Dublin, Wimbledon, Cork and now in the
US.
"I set up Spirit in London maybeten
years ago, then the South of Ireland about five yearsthen moved to
Belfast and set up the head office," said Enda.
"Westill operate the company out of offices in Wimbledon, Belfast,
Dublin, a satellite office in Cork and we have recently just bought an
advertising agency in New York, so we're based overthere as well.
"I was out there all summer,we did a big grand opening in New
Jersey."
I caught up with the duo for lunch in their new venture called
Ivory, which they're keen to point out has an entrance outside of Vic-
toria Square for those occasions when House of Fraser is closed.
After that lunch it would be reasonable enough to say that if a
restaurant can survive on enthusiasm and passion that Ivory should
have a bright future ahead of it.
There's something infectious about these two restauranteurswho
clearly havea love for what they're doing and are confidentthat tak-
ing on a space that had closed just two weeks before they took the
space overisn't as crazy an idea as it first
sounds.
"Well, there's always a risk, but we felt
very strongly about it," admitted Enda.
"We've been involved with the market-
ing of Victoria Square and we felt that this
was a bit of a sleeping giant. This restau-
rant hadn't fulfilled anywhere near its po-
tential of what it can do and that's
primarily because it was an out of region
operator,and if it's not performing, they're
not going to spend any money on market-
ing and telling people.
"Of course I think it was a real ballsy
step for us to take on the restaurant, this
one had just shut down.
"Two or three other ones had just shut
down in Victoria Square and so yeah, there
was a risk, but it was more of a calculated
gamble than a risk.
"Frank understands the business, I un-
John Ferris speaks to Ivory co-owners Enda
McShane and Frank Shivers about the duo's
"ballsy" move to take on a restaurant space
that had just closed its doors...

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