Purple Onion wins big at Georgina Campbell 2024 Awards
Celebrating Ireland’s gold standard champions of the food and hospitality industries, the winners of the Georgina Campbell Food & Hospitality Awards 2024 were announced this week. A special ‘Taste of the Waterways’ Award was won by popular Roscommon restaurant & bar, The Purple Onion in Tarmonbarry. The awards were presented by leading food and hospitality writer Georgina Campbell and one of Ireland’s best loved chefs, Richard Corrigan at a gala event in Dublin.
Georgina Campbell said of The Purple Onion: “Ireland’s inland waterways are nothing short of a national treasure yet, despite the very welcome recent opening of greenways and blueways around the country, for most people, they’re very much an adventure waiting to happen. For many years we’ve championed the waterways as an amenity for all to enjoy and by highlighting excellence in areas that may deserve to be visited more, often in the midlands, the Taste of the Waterways Award is especially dear to our hearts. And one of those special places is to be found right in the middle of Ireland, tucked in near the bridge across the River Shannon at Tarmonbarry, where Paul Dempsey and Pauline Roe not only run their busy pub The Purple Onion but it also doubles as an art gallery, with original paintings by some of Ireland’s most talented artists adding further interest to the charming old-world feeling. The best of seasonal local and Irish ingredients feature on the constantly changing menu, keeping things fresh, and the choice offered is impressive for a small restaurant. An interesting find and something different from other places in the area, you will be glad you found it. ”
Ireland’s longest running food and hospitality awards, the selections are the result of independent all-year assessments by a team of anonymous experts. This year, the great benefits of regional collaborations in creating hubs of excellence around the country were especially recognised at the awards, along with the increased importance placed by the food and hospitality sector on sustainability and supporting Irish producers – who are celebrated in a special category of the awards as providing the foundation of all of our good food.
However, celebrated food and hospitality writer, Georgina Campbell, offered a note of caution about falling standards in some areas, particularly around the most important meal of the day: breakfast.
“Cost-cutting is understandable and often necessary in the current business environment,” said Georgina, “but it needs to be done with care. Slashing the quality of breakfast in an otherwise enjoyable experience is counter-productive, and leaves guests disappointed on departure. But, as usual, this year’s Irish Breakfast Award winners are setting a gold-star standard for the famous Irish breakfast and showing how a reputation for serving an outstanding breakfast can be good for business.”
The prestigious ceremony featured an engaging panel discussion and a lively Q&A with special guest and award-winning Irish chef, Richard Corrigan, who is a great ambassador for Irish food and an inspiration for young people considering a career in hospitality. This year, Georgina particularly acknowledged the achievements of those who have been striving for high standards over many years and continue to do so in the face of all kinds of challenges.
Georgina said: “We need to encourage more young people to see the food and hospitality industry as an exciting option. Even quite young children could experience the enjoyment of doing rewarding work with a hospitality team, and that could create positive associations that would remain with them later, when career choices are to be made. It is not enough to tell a child about the hospitality sector, we must help them to develop an early interest and that could shape the sector’s future pioneers from the get-go.”
Room for improvement
Georgina did offer words of caution however, noting: “Although service has improved a lot this year and there is generally a warmer feel to hospitality, shortcuts are being taken in some establishments. We would like to see cost challenges addressed in more imaginative ways than cutting quality – by offering more choice of sizes for dishes on menus, for example, and reducing waste overall. That the shorter weeks and shorter opening hours that resulted from the pandemic are still continuing in many places – often together with higher prices – is not helping matters and must be discouraging for people thinking about having a break or a meal out.”
