David Ellis, owner of Dublin’s Shack Restaurant is living testimony to the theory that you do not have to be a multimedia marvel to stand over a successful website

He has not invested a huge amount of time or money in www.shackrestaurant.ie, having first set the site up around four years ago with an initial investment of around £5000(€6348).

Since then with just one major overhaul to incorporate the second restaurant both his hits and e-reservations have simply grown and grown, as Ellis just sits back and watched.

Last month the site recorded over 12,000 successful hits and is now accustomed to receiving up to 50 email reservation on an average weekend.

The first Shack Restaurant in Temple Bar was born out of a slightly chequered past. In 1995 when a failed partnership in Gallagher’s Boxty House, another Temple Bar Institution saw one partner set up a new company.

The restaurant called the Chicken Shack was the result. When this venture began to fail, David Ellis, at the time a management consultant for the restaurant industry, stepped in.

He saw a branding problem with the restaurant’s name, but wanted to retain the small amount of client goodwill that had been built up in its short life.

The Shack, a homely place with traditional decorations and wrought-iron fittings, was born, and the restaurant’s luck turned, although not immediately, as Ellis is quick to point out.

The first two years were pretty gruesome. He says. It was a matter of playing with the product because Temple Bar at the time was not busy. While it was very difficult times, one always knew Temple bar was going to come good through the whole area.