Boom for restaurants, ‘doom’ for pubs

People are eating, not drinking, their way through the recession, claims the country’s top food and accommodation critic.

John McKenna, who was speaking at the launch of the 21st editions of the Bridgestone Guides of places to stay and eat this year, said some pubs were “doomed” because people no longer wanted to sit and just drink all night.

Mr McKenna, who wrote the guides with wife, Sally, said many restaurants experienced their best year ever in business last year. “I have heard from so many restaurants and hotels who not only had their best year in business but had their best ever Christmas. What we are seeing here is a shift of the spend from pubs to restaurants. People are looking for that bigger experience rather than sitting in a pub for the evening and having drink after drink.

“A big problem for the pubs is that the drink is so much cheaper in the shops and the rural pubs, in particular, don’t seem to be able to be reinvent themselves to attract customers.”

Mr McKenna said some pubs based outside the major cities were increasingly looking like dinosaurs.

“It is hard to see how they are going to survive, and yet restaurants in rural locations are frequently doing really well,” he said.

Mr McKenna also predicted that matching restaurant food with Irish craft ales and beers is the big trend for 2012 and, as the bigger breweries stumble, craft brewers will thrive.

There are 17 new entries in the 2012 Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants. New entries include: La Boheme Restaurant, Georges Street, Waterford; Camden Kitchen, Camden Market, Dublin; The Courthouse, Kinlough, Co Leitrim; La Cucina, Castletroy, Limerick; Glebe Gardens, Baltimore, Co Cork and Jack’s Coastguard Restaurant, Killorglin, Co Kerry.

There are 12 new entries in this year’s Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland. Some of the new entries are Brook Lane, Kenmare, Co Kerry; The Inn at Ballinlough Clochan, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny; Lancaster Lodge, Western Road, Cork; Liss Ard Estate, Skibbereen, Co Cork; Mount Vernon, Burren, Co Clare; QC’s, Cahirciveen, Co Kerry; West Cork Hotel, Skibbereen, Co Cork and Wild Honey Inn, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare.

To celebrate the 21st editions of the guides, the McKennas are launching the first ever Bridgestone Guides Apps. The app for restaurants is already available and the Bridgestone Places to Stay App will be available from Friday. Each app costs €6.99.

The apps are currently only available for Apple iPhones but will soon be developed for Android phones.