Restaurant of the Year winners Garrett Byrne and Brid Hannon from Champagne in Kilkenny, with Chef of the Year Eamonn O'Reilly (right) from One Pico Restaurant at the Georgina Campbell Awards yesterday. It has been an annus horribilis for the hospitality industry but some of their top performers had reason to smile yesterday. Announcing her latest crop of award winners for 2010, food writer Georgina Campbell agreed it had been a tough year for the sector."Establishments have cut costs to the bone and their businesses are now hanging by a thread," she said.
Ms Campbell and her team travelled the country selecting the best hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, pubs and cafes for her guidebook, 'Georgina Campbell's Ireland'.
Eamonn O'Reilly, chef at Dublin restaurant One Pico, was named Chef of the Year at the awards ceremony at the Bord Bia headquarters in the capital yesterday. "It's going great, we're flying, thank God. We're pretty much booked out every day," he said. Garrett Byrne and Brid Hannon must have thought their luck was finished when they opened their restaurant, Campagne in Killkenny city, in September last year -- just as the recession bit. However, their "exceptional attention to detail" saw them go home with the award for Restaurant of the Year.
Other winners included the Doyle brothers, Evan, Eoin and Bernard, whose Brooklodge and Wells Spa in Co. Wicklow was named Hotel of the Year, while Pub of the Year went to Barry and Georgina O'Sullivan's Ballymore Inn in Co. Kildare.
