[1] Soon after opening, it became the favourite meeting place for the Belfast business and arts community, and people travelled from Dublin simply to experience what was considered to be the best cooking in Northern Ireland at the time.

[7] However, the restaurant finally closed on Sunday 24 March 2013 with Rankin citing the economic climate and disruptive protests in the city as being two of the reasons for the closure.

[9] His first foray into television was in the series Gourmet Ireland, produced by Irish company Waddell Productions, and shown on both BBC and RTE.

He has written five cookery books and ran The Rankin Group chain of restaurants and cafés, including Cayenne and Roscoff in Belfast.

[citation needed] In 2006 Rankin competed in the Northern Ireland heat of the BBC's Great British Menu, a competition to cook for the Queen on her 80th birthday.

[citation needed] In 2006, Rankin appeared on The X Factor: Battle of the Stars, along with fellow chefs Jean-Christophe Novelli, Aldo Zilli and Ross Burden.

[14] Rankin supported a campaign to keep Finnebrogue's venison factory open when it was threatened with closure, saying it was "world class and something for Northern Ireland to be proud of".