Hotels are set to close at the rate of one a week, pub trade will be decimated but restaurants will survive the recession, a leading food writer claimed today.
Speaking at the publication of this year's 2009 Bridgestone Guides in Dublin this morning, food writer John McKenna said that many of the hotels which have opened in Ireland during the past ten to fifteen years represent a 'black hole' in terms of hospitality and culture.
"For more than a decade, we have littered the country with preposterously large, impersonal, international-style, unsustainable hotels. These reflect the energy and money we have squandered in Ireland over the last fifteen years as they reveal the absurd short-sightedness of an economy drunk on the lure of money," said Mr McKenna.
"Many of these self-same establishments are already experiencing difficulties. This recession will kill a significant amount of these monoliths stone-dead. I estimate we will see one hotel close each week – comparable to the one a week which opened up over the past number of years."
The
2009 Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants in Irelandand
Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay. which are co-written by Mr McKenna and his wife Sally, are now in their 20th year.
There are 16 new entries in the
2009 Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants, seven of which are in Dublin, three in Cork and one each in Clare, Donegal, Kilkenny, Limerick, Waterford and Wicklow. In addition, there are 11 new entries in the
Best 100 Places to Stayguide. Carlow, Clare and Galway account for two each while Waterford, Kerry, Laois, Mayo and Dublin each have one new entry.
Although, Mr McKenna claimed that many hotels and pubs would fall by the wayside this year, he said the best restaurants would emerge unscathed.
"The reality is that the best restaurants are recession-proof. The change in our lifestyle, most fundamentally the fact that we drink now in restaurants and less and less often in pubs, means that pubs will be decimated by the recession, a process already underway," he said.
"Our pub culture is dying, whilst our restaurant culture is thriving. The Irish have decided to choose restaurants over pubs, simply because restaurants offer us service as part of the experience and service is a concept that is alien to so many public houses. The era of the pub is over. The era of the world-class Irish restaurant is in full swing."
