Dublin has become the culinary capital of the island, the balance shifting relentlessly away from the south of the country over the past decade
There was a time, and it wasn't very long ago, when Dublin had precious few decent restaurants. If you wanted something a bit beyond meat and three veg in the 1980s you were not faced with limitless choices. There was Le Coq Hardi, White's on the Green, Ernie's, the Lord Edward and Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud. I may have forgotten a couple.
Slow and steady progress has brought Dublin to the point where it has maybe 30 restaurants that deliver proper food and equally proper service. In fact, Dublin has become the culinary capital of the island, the balance having been shifting relentlessly away from the south of the country over the past decade.
When I look back to this time last year I have to conclude that Dublin is now a marginally better place in which to eat. More slow and steady progress. But will it continue? Will Dublin in January 2009 be better for eating than it is today? There are some auspicious signs - although, unfortunately, I have been sworn to secrecy on the most potentially interesting project; if it happens, however, you will read of it here first.
Rather less exciting is the news that a Dublin branch of Carluccio's, the cafe-and-deli chain founded by the London-based Italian chef Antonio Carluccio, will be opening in the former Graham O'Sullivan cafe, on Dawson Street, early in the new year. The Carluccio brand has been rolled out pretty widely in recent years, and the quality is pretty good. A Carluccio's in the centre of fashionable Dublin is very appropriate, but the rent will be stiff. The restaurant will reportedly be shelling out about €700,000 a year, which amounts to an awful lot of pasta with shaved bottarga.
Dublin 2 will have something of an Italian theme, as the guys from the open a satellite in the former Sherry FitzGerald building on Merrion Row. The idea is to produce pasta and pizza in a fast-moving cafe-style environment. Ladies (and gentlemen) who lunch will doubtless be comparing the output, and the prices, with those at Carluccio's.
It is also rumoured that Dieter Bergmann, formerly of Il Primo, is considering a new Italian-themed restaurant in the city.
Anyone who wants to start a restaurant in central Dublin will have plenty of premises of choose from. At least six are lying idle, but restaurateurs are too canny a lot to pay the sort of rents being demanded. The somewhat chillier economic climate that looks likely this year will cull some of the weaker performers who have managed to make money over the past few years just by being there.
Indeed, 2008 looks like being a much quieter year for restaurants than 2007 was. We will have to wait until 2009 - doubtless with bated breath - for Marco Pierre White to open at the revamped Point. Any other high-profile opening in the meantime will be a bonus.
There is, of course, a lot to wish for. That the Shelbourne Hotel would create a first-class restaurant - or, better still, get someone in to do it for them. That would move to a premises worthy of the food. That the food at Fallon & Byrne would become worthy of the dining room. That we would attract less interest from British celebrity chefs and get on with building our own food culture. That Cork would get at least one new serious restaurant.
One trend that promises to become more pronounced this year is that of restaurateurs taking wine by the glass seriously. Random breath testing means that one glass of wine in the course of a lengthy and substantial meal is as much as anybody can afford to risk. And there's the fact that people, in general, are now much more inclined to drink less but better. This means that a proper selection of wines by the glass, including some serious gear, can be a significant selling point. The technology is available; it just takes a degree of imagination.
It would be good - brilliant, even - to see vegetables taken more seriously and to see Dublin get a vegetarian restaurant that is interested in food rather than dietary fibre. But I won't be holding my breath.
And with the demise of last year, Dublin is down one very pleasant seafood restaurant. Let's hope this gap will be plugged and that 2008 will bring us, oh, maybe three or four more worthwhile restaurants. It is, to use that awful new phrase, a big ask.