The Menu: Pub of the year in Crosshaven and the perfect sandwich topping 

Lignum, in Loughrea, Co Galway, scooped restaurant of the year, for Irish-Italian chef/proprietor Danny Africano and his partner Molly Keane.

Chef of the Year went to the venerable Garrett Byrne, of Campagne, in Kilkenny, the former head chef of Chapter One who eschews fuss and drama, instead maintaining consistently high standards in the 15 years since first opening his Michelin-starred Kilkenny restaurant with wife and restaurant manager, Brid Hannon.

And it came as little surprise to see last year’s re-opening of the splendid Cashel Palace Hotel acknowledged with the 5-Star Hotel of the Year accolade, while 3-Star Hotel of the Year went to the ever-charming Blue Haven in Kinsale.

Pub of the Year goes to another great Menu favourite, Cronin’s, in Crosshaven, which endured an especially torrid time during the pandemic when hit by extensive flood damage, but they are back in business once more. As the very last restaurant The Menu reviewed before first lockdown ensued, he is very much looking forward to an emotional return.

Another recent review of The Menu’s was Union Wine Bar & Kitchen, in Waterford, so it was no surprise to learn it won GC Wine & Drinks Experience of the Year.

Another wonderful dining experience last year for The Menu was at Gaz Smith’s Little Mike’s, in Mount Merrion, and Gaz and his ever-growing culinary empire thoroughly deserved to pick up the GC Happy Place award.

Host of the Year goes to Jane O’Callaghan, of the very wonderful Longueville House Hotel, Mallow Co Cork, while Pet Friendly Destination of the Year went to Carbery Cottage Guest Lodge Durrus Co Cork. Guesthouse in the Small Stays category, went to Ballymaloe House.

• For the full list of award winners, see www.ireland-guide.com

A great loss for the industry

That good news is very much needed in what is otherwise a sad week indeed for The Menu as he learns of the closing of not one, but two of his most favourite of all Irish restaurants.

Enda McEvoy’s and Sinead Meacle’s Michelin-starred Loam restaurant in Galway was a truly pioneering hospitality enterprise, building on Enda’s work as the head chef who first achieved a Michelin star for another Galway restaurant, Aniar, and then creating one of the great Irish restaurants in Loam. Not only was sublimely sourced food delivered superbly on the plate but it was a trailblazer as a genuinely sustainable restaurant, the first Irish restaurant to be awarded three stars by the Sustainable Association and the first recipient of Michelin’s inaugural award for sustainability. In a statement on Instagram, they made it very clear where the problems lay: “The cost of running such a large space [on Fairgreen Road, in Galway] right now is insane and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier”.

Enda and Sinead still have the very excellent Éan Bakery Restaurant & Wine Bar to keep them busy and there have been tentative hints of another future project but right now The Menu deeply regrets the passing of Loam.

And then there is Pilgrim’s, in Rosscarbery, one of a troika of restaurants, along with Dede at the Customs House, in Baltimore, and Restaurant Chestnut, in Baltimore, that have reinvented West Cork, returning it to its rightful place as the best rural region in the country in which to put on the nosebag. Mark Jennings and business and life partner Sadie Pearce created one of the most beautiful spaces in Irish hospitality and served up truly gorgeous food, again, like Loam, sourced superbly by the season from a magnificent group of local growers, producers and suppliers.

Mark and Sadie say the primary reason for the closure is a quality of life issue, especially with the imminent arrival of their second child, but The Menu can’t help but feel the current cruel economic for Irish hospitality only reinforces the logic of that decision.

The Menu wishes these Irish hospitality heroes the best and very much hopes to sit down once more at their tables in the future to again enjoy what has in the past been some of the best food he has eaten anywhere in the world.

Click for your fizzing ferments

Regular readers will be aware that The Menu can’t stop raving about Terra Ignis and their fine range of small batch fermented food products and condiments all made in Cork, a condition for which he makes no apology. and for any readers wishing to find out what all the fuss is about, Terra Ignis now have an online shop which is well worth checking out.

• www.terraignis.myshopify.com

TODAY’S SPECIAL

As creators of the Irish ‘ur-relish’, the now iconic Ballymaloe Relish, The Menu is always up for trying any new products from Myrtle Allen’s daughter Yasmin Hyde’s Ballymaloe Foods, now run by her own daughter, Maxine Hyde, and the latest to fetch up on The Menu’s table is their Red Onion Relish and while the original Ballymaloe Relish employed some judicious spicing to pep up the recipe, this is straight down the line, near elemental in its simplicity, a combination of the natural sweetness of allium combined with sugar and muscovado sugar, onions first sweated in olive oil, then red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar is added and reduced, leaving a sweet and savoury relish that is just the ticket for a simple sandwich of cold meats, especially leftover roast beef, and hard cheeses, The Menu very much enjoying it with a sandwich of Hegarty’s Cheddar and fresh sourdough.

www.ballymaloefoods.ie