Michael O’Hare’s restaurant refresh: The Man Behind The Curtain to become Psycho Sandbar
Abbey Maclure interviews Chef Michael O’Hare who is set to relaunch his Michelin-star restaurant ‘The Man Behind The Curtain’ as ‘Psycho Sandbar’ in 2024.
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00:00 I'm about to meet the man behind the man behind the curtain, soon to be Psycho Samba, as Michael
00:06 O'Hare talks to us about rebranding his Michelin star restaurant from January.
00:10 We're nine years down the line now and I just felt like there was no change and it progresses
00:17 and it moves and the menu's, you know, great. The food's better than it's ever been but
00:21 it's still very much like bottlenose in the same thing. I wanted to change the man behind
00:25 the curtain and I just think by keeping the name we potentially confuse people and we
00:31 say, "Oh, we operate in a different way now. I think a new year, it's time for a new start."
00:35 It's like, actually, you know, I kind of want to reimagine the whole space. It's still going
00:40 to be my food, it's still going to be my technique but we need to have as a business, as a restaurant
00:45 and as a team of chefs, we need to think like, "Well, what is fine dining? What makes us
00:49 so fine?" There's nothing more certain than everyone has to eat. Nothing more certain,
00:54 you know, but it's like, how are we eating? What are we eating and where are we eating
00:59 it? Are we eating more at home? Are we going out in more casual restaurants or are we going
01:03 out, which I think is probably the right direction, going out in restaurants where we have a full
01:08 entertainment package? Where being there, I don't mean like cabaret or anything like
01:12 that, we're not doing that here, but I feel like being in that space, that is an occasion.
01:18 In my extended interview with Michael for the Yorkshire Evening Post, he explains that
01:22 it's never been a better time for anyone who wants to pursue a career as a chef. He also
01:27 discusses the impact Brexit and the cost of living crisis have had on the fine dining
01:31 industry.
01:35 It costs a lot of money to eat in a place like the Man Behind the Curtain, to eat in
01:39 a Michelin-star restaurant, which is, there's only like a certain percentage of the country
01:43 can afford that. I'm not blind to that and I've never been blind to that. But the same
01:47 can be said for Ferraris, for Lamborghinis, they don't make a cheaper option. So obviously
01:52 with the change we'll hand back the star, the Michelin star will no longer be for us,
01:58 unless we were to get it again, I don't know. But I just don't feel like that really serves
02:02 us anymore. I'm incredibly grateful for it, it's one of the reasons that I personally
02:08 have been so successful, that the restaurant was so big internationally for so long, was
02:14 because of that beacon of the Michelin star. But now I feel like in the current climate
02:19 that can be quite off-putting to people. And I just like the idea of having creative freedom
02:23 again. I don't have freedom in this restaurant, we're limited to what we can do, it has to
02:28 look a certain way, it has to feel a certain way. Psycho Sandbar gives me an opportunity
02:32 to say, "I'm going to cook whatever I want, because I like it, because I think it's right,
02:36 because I think it's good." I want to come in here, have grapefruit with my friends,
02:39 eat as much, drink as much as we want, and for them to enjoy being here, not pat me on
02:44 the back for it.
02:45 So it was really interesting to hear from Michael about his plans. The menus are going
02:50 to be the main focus of the changes, bringing in an à la carte menu instead of the tasting
02:56 menus that have been at Man Behind the Curtain. It'll be a new year, new ideas, and a new
03:01 start for fine dining in Leeds.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]