When Flynn McGarry wanted to add some color to the dining area of Gem Home, he grabbed the lion-patterned rug off his living room floor and threw it on the wall. The duck-shaped nut cracker, model sailboat, and scalloped blue glass plates also came from his own holdings: he lives right upstairs and Gem Home, in his new café-store, NYC’s Little Italy, is his most personal outpost to date.
Flynn, a “former teen chef,” as his Instagram reads, and avid vintage collector, turns 26 this month and has been in the restaurant business more than half his life: he started by hosting a supper club in his childhood home in Los Angeles and opened his first New York restaurant, Gem (that’s his mother’s name backwards) at 19. We met him a year ago when he had just debuted Gem’s latest incarnation as Gem Wine, the hotspot wine bar that he built and styled himself: see 8 Design Lessons from a 25-Year-Old Star Chef’s DIY Restaurant Makeover.
Since then, he’s been planning a new formal restaurant and gigs as guest chef have sent him all over—from Todos Santos, Mexico, to Kyoto. Wherever he goes, Flynn carries an extra suitcase that he fills with local wares that catch his eye. He initially sold the overflow in periodic Gem Wine yard sales, but now has his finds on display at the entrance to Gem Home. There’s also a produce case, an open kitchen and pantry, and the aforementioned dining room with family-style tables—yes, made by Flynn.
Photography by Sean Davidson, courtesy of Gem Home.
