HE'S been Belfast hospitality's man with the Midas touch for two decades now.
Yet despite some well-documented recent setbacks, king of clubs Mark Beirne has lost none of his lustre.
And the entrepreneur - famed for acquiring pubs in run-down parts of town and transforming them from spit-and-sawdust into chic before selling them on for a profit - is about to embark on an exciting new partnership which he believes will help Belfast rival the likes of Dublin or London in the hospitality sector.
Beirne (45) is something of an enigma - very much man-about-town yet fiercely protective of his privacy and often misunderstood.
He's preferred to operate his business interests under the radar, and indeed he hasn't even given a media interview in more than 10 years.
But speaking exclusively to the Irish News, Beirne admits he now in a "different place" and believes he's a man with "more pluses than minuses".
He fell headlong into the pubs trade at 18, working in a variety of clubs and hostelries across the city learning his trade, including spending two years in New York.
"I simply adored the whole buzz - and was good at what I did," he said.
By 24 he'd gathered up sufficient funds to buy Magennis's in Belfast, which he transformed from a modest bar into a leading hotspot, thus laying the foundations for a career as the trade's 'turnaround man'.
Then came Milk in Tomb Street, a seven-nights-a-week venue in a back street warehouse in an area of town still not opened up (people thought he was a nutter).
"In those early days people's ideas of a cocktail probably only stretched to a 'Sea Breeze' a 'Woo Woo' or a 'Sex on The Beach'. But to compete with Dublin and London and attract the punters, Belfast had to up its game, and that's the job I chose to take on," he says.
Sponging up ideas and experience from industry veterans like Jas Mooney ("he taught he everything I know and really took me under his wing"), Beirne's passion and vision put his fingerprints all over town, with input into a clutch of venues.
By now managing director of Life Inns, one of his many stellar projects included developing the Potthouse in Hill Street (to get his hands on the 17th century site he even had to negotiate a land swap with Laganside), which he turned into a six-storey building comprising glass-floored nightclub and bar-restaurant along with three floors of offices.
It was different to anything Belfast had ever seen. But that was nothing new for Beirne, whose stamp of panache was all over other prestige venues like the Advocate and El Divino, and later the Perch and Filthy McNasty's.
But while still in his mid-30s, the beer went flat and the fizz left Beirne.
"I was always told you should stick to what you know. I didn't. I had zero knowledge of the property game, yet I weighed in. It was full on and it was stupid, totally crazy. It cost me dear," he admits.
"I was hit hard personally as my businesses crashed. I asked myself: 'Am I really finished?' It was a humbling experience. But as a risk-taker I suppose it was something which had to come my way."
What actually came his way was an eight-year directorship disqualification imposed after Life Inns collapsed owing close to a million quid.
That ban's still active, but an unabashed Beirne is back with the bit between his teeth, although he admits to have slowed down a bit, courtesy of his 16-month old daughter Savannah, "who has changed everything for me".
"Everything's a learning curve, but I feel like I've come out the other end," he says.
His role now is not as a director but as a consultant, using his vast knowledge of the bar game to transform struggling venues "to go from maybe £2,000 a week to £30,000 a week" - and that means more than a lick of paint.
Last month he bought the 40,000 sq ft Frames building in Belfast's Little Donegall Street (the price was reputedly £2.4 million) from the Magee brothers and has already opened a new trendy pub there called 'The Bear and The Doll'.
"I'm excited about this one, but it will be a slow burner," he confesses.
"I'm planning 67 serviced apartments, with the ground floor comprising retail and a licensed venue. It's a longer-term investment for me."
Beirne doesn't stand still though, and in the coming days he will announce an exclusive partnership with a high-profile property developer which could change the face of the hotels and drinks sector in Belfast.
But a once-bitten-twice-shy Beirne is swift to point out: "He'll fill the rooms - my role will be to design and fill the bars!"
