B&Bs are "dying like snow on a ditch" because they cannot compete with property developers who open up cheap hotels, according to food writer John McKenna.
At the launch in Dublin yesterday of the 2007 Bridgestone Guides which he compiled with his wife Sally, Mr McKenna said our hospitality culture was under threat "from anonymous hotels, pretentious joints and chain developments" built by property developers who were reinventing themselves as hoteliers.
"But we now see the downside of that tax-break scenario because those hotels are able to operate at an artificially reduced price level. They are able to offer you value that competes with B&Bs, but they've got a swimming pool.
"So the B&Bs are dying like snow on a ditch and that's bad, bad news because it was probably the most unique thing we had in our hospitality culture.
"The visitor from overseas could actually be in somebody else's house, in somebody else's kitchen. That doesn't happen in other countries."
Mr McKenna said B&Bs could survive if they stopped being "all-purpose B&Bs" and specialised in some area such as regional cooking, or targeted a genre of tourists, such as walkers or golfers.
The 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2007 and the 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland 2007 guides mark Dublin's reassertion of its superiority, Mr McKenna said. "The capital has reclaimed Ireland's culinary crown," he said.
However, Cork restaurants fared less well. "There are many brilliant new addresses opening both in Dublin city and down the east coast, but by way of contrast, there have been no new restaurant openings in Cork that merit entry in the Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2007," he said. "The new Cork restaurants featured are either changes of location or direction, or the steady improvement of an existing offer."
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud continues to be controversially excluded by the guide, but Mr Guilbaud's son Charles is featured with his new restaurant Venu, off South Anne Street in Dublin.
Restaurants such as Chapter One and Thorntons were more "quintessentially Irish, the cutting edge of contemporary Irish cuisine" and that's why they were recommended over Guilbauds, Mr McKenna said.
Dunne & Crescenzi's popular South Frederick Street restaurant was also dropped from the guide, but its Nonna Valentina restaurant on Portobello Road made the cut.
Mr McKenna said it wasn't just restaurants on the east coast that had impressed him this year.
"The best new Irish artisan cheeses are all being made on the east coast - Kilkenny, Carlow, Louth - and the east coast farmers' markets are striding forward," he said.
Bridgestone guides: Dublin restaurants do best this year
Who's in . . .
Venu, off South Anne Street, Dublin
Fish Fishy Café, Kinsale
Fallon & Byrne, Exchequer Street, Dublin
The G, Galway
Nonna Valentina, Portobello Road, Dublin
Sha Roe Bistro, Clonegal, Co Carlow
The Winding Stair, Ormond Quay, Dublin
The Mill at Lyons, Newcastle, Co Kildare
. . . and
who's out?
Dunne & Crescenzi, South Frederick St, Dublin
Bodega, Waterford
Red Bank, Skerries
Ivory Tower, Cork
Jacob's Ladder, Dublin
Crawford Gallery, Cork
Nimmos, Galway
Sheen Falls Lodge, Kenmare
