You first knew him as a boy wonder. With four restaurants under his belt by the age of 27, it’s clear Flynn McGarry’s ambition is going nowhere—and neither is his knack for an overhaul. He turned the wine bar that made him a downtown New York staple into a coffee shop and translates produce grown in Isabella Rossellini’s Long Island garden into California-inflected fare at Cove.
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
The last few years of determining a growth direction have been very hard. As our team grows, the decisions I make are now for a much larger group of people, which adds significantly more weight to each decision.
What grounds you, and what invigorates you?
Eating in a nice restaurant grounds me. Being on a farm surrounded by produce invigorates me.
What are you looking forward to this year?
This year, I’m really looking forward to cooking through all of the seasons at Cove. We had a pretty rough winter, and it has been very limiting creatively. I’m excited to start from scratch in spring and allow the year to shape what we do.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
I would love to see more individuality, more restaurants that feel unique to the people working there. Less restaurants that feel geared to general interest. It’s hard to move against the grain, especially in New York, but my favorite restaurants have always felt personal over cultural.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
Dries Van Noten. I spent some time with him years ago, and the way he looks at clothes, gardens, spaces, and their colors really broadened my view.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
Is this worth the work? And the answer has usually steered me in the correct direction.
Where do you feel most at home?
The beach or my bathtub.
What would you like the headline of your obituary to be?
“Solved as Many Problems as He Could.”
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
I would love to work in design and architecture. It is already something I sort of do, but I would love to see what it would be like to fully immerse myself in that.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
