Six venues are this year squaring off for the coveted title, with the winner being crowned at the LCN Awards gala dinner and prize-giving on September 30, and with tickets for the big night selling fast it would be well advised to snap yours up now.

The six venues that went over and above to make shortlist are:

• Belmore Court & Motel, Enniskillen.
• Courtney’s Steakhouse, Newry
• Killeavy Castle Estate, Killeavy
• The Balmoral Hotel, Belfast
• The Belfray County Inn Hotel, Derry
• The Bushmills Inn, Bushmills

Celebrating his shortlisting, Belfray Country Inn Hotel manager Jason Deery told LCN: “My team and I are thrilled to have been both nominated and subsequently shortlisted for the Outstanding Customer Service of the year award.

“Everyone here at The Belfray Country Inn Hotel works extremely hard and prides themselves on offering our guests the highest standard of friendly service, so it is great to be recognised for what my team do so well. The hotel has been described to me by guests as an institution within the city for both locals and those who travel far and wide to visit of our award winning carvery in particular.

“We are all looking forward to a great night at the prestigious LCN award ceremony in September, which I have no doubt will be a fantastic night celebrating the best in hospitality.”

The big night itself, it includes a feast of top entertainment, with hosts Sarah Travers and Joe Lindsay returning to keep the show on the track throughout.

This year promises to bigger and better than ever, with past winners licking their lips at the prospect of a return and the possibility that they could again be among the winners of Northern Ireland’s most prestigious hospitality awards.

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The awards, handed out at The Medley in Dublin, recognise the best tourism providers and operators across the island of Ireland and internationally, with Visit Derry singled out alongside the likes of Dublin Airport, Aran Island Ferries and Galway Bay Hotel.

A key component in the award win was the new state-of-the-art visitor information centre beside the city’s iconic city walls at Waterloo Place. It offers a full range of visitor services, including expert advice, digital information kiosks, interactive maps and videos, tourism literature, tickets, and gift shop.

Odhran Dunne, Chief Executive at Visit Derry, said: “We are delighted to have won Best Local Tourist Board at this year’s Irish Travel Trade Awards and are grateful to all those who voted.

“This win recognises the work and passion that goes into the promotion of the city and region and, of course, the excellent partnerships we have with our industry.

“We are continually looking at innovative and engaging ways to raise awareness of the destination and to provide world-class visitor servicing when visitors arrive here.

‘Unique sense of place’

“As tourism recovery continues into 2022, the award is an endorsement in the work we do, as the city’s destination management organisation, to support our 200 industry partners.”

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Alderman Graham Warke added: “This is fantastic news for our tourism sector. Whether it’s our strong cultural heritage offering, unique sense of place or leading foodie scene, Derry/Londonderry offers a vibrant destination for visitors.

“As a crucial cog in the tourism ecosystem, I would like to congratulate Visit Derry on their recent award win.

“The performance of Visit Derry is vital to supporting the tourism industry as it recovers, and this award reinforces the city’s position as a must-visit destination.”

Visit Derry also recently launched the Visit Derry Pass, an innovative integrated digital ticket. As the first-of-its-kind digital pass to be launched in Northern Ireland. It provides visitors with access to 10 attractions and activities, making it even easier for visitors to plan a trip to the Walled City.

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Among those in the vanguard of the Derry-Londonderry’s evolving food culture is husband and wife team Melanie and Ciaran Breslin, whose popular Primrose restaurant brand is a prime example of the way in which small, atmospheric venues with an emphasis on local and Irish cuisine are helping drive the transformation.

The Breslins currently have two restaurants in the city – their main outlet on the Strand Road, which they opened in 2017 following a move from their original base on Carlisle Road, and a second, riverfront eatery, Primrose at the Quay, which opened in 2014.

Both venues are currently ranked 4.5 out of five on Trip Advisor and they enjoy very strong approval ratings among their local clientele – a factor that Ciaran Breslin is adamant has much to do with their reputation for providing a great value Irish breakfast:

‘Melanie and I are both food freaks and we love to travel,’ he told LCN recently ‘Everything is really food-orientated with us when we’re away and we always go out for a nice breakfast wherever we happen to be. Eventually, it struck us, that there was nowhere in Derry where you could go to get a really nice breakfast and I think the idea just grew from that.

‘We initially decided to open a coffee shop that was focused on really good produce and doing great breakfasts and lunches. Our ethos has always been to source the best local produce that we can find.’

Primrose opened its doors for the first time in 2011 on Carlisle Road.

‘As soon as we opened the doors, it grew legs and it hasn’t stopped since. It’s been fantastic,’ says Ciaran, who is a butcher by trade and still operates a successful butcher’s shop on the city’s Buncrana Road.

Another of the key planks of Primrose’s success is its famous ‘scratch bakery’, which is now based at its Strand Road premises. Melanie has been an enthusiastic baker all her life, often supplying family and friends with her highly sought-after cupcakes and scones.

As the couple began to realise the commercial potential behind Melanie’s culinary skills, they started to sell her produce via Ciaran’s butcher’s shop, eventually establishing a stand-alone bakery at the Skeoge Industrial Estate on the Beraghmore Road.

Then, when they moved the Primrose from its original base on Carlisle Road to its new home in the town centre in 2017, they took the opportunity to integrate the scratch bakery on the same site.

‘A lot of what we produce at the Primrose now is based on recipes from Melanie or her grandmother and we haven’t changed the way we do them since we started,’ adds Ciaran.

‘I don’t think that we thought Primrose would be as successful as quickly as it was,’ says Ciaran. ‘What really surprised us was the public reception, which was fantastic.

‘We always try to be innovative, to keep things evolving. I think if you just stay still in this, people will overlook you. We try to be different and to change things up as much as we can while sticking to our original ethos.’

A total of 40 staff are currently employed across both Primrose outlets. Head chef at the main Strand Road restaurant is Bryn Evans, an experienced chef and one of Ciaran’s neighbours. He stepped into the breach some months ago when the previous chef moved on and he’s become an invaluable addition to the staff, says Ciaran.

‘Bryn also has his own rare breed pig business and we use his produce extensively on our menus, including our fantastic sausages and Tirkeeran black puddings.’

The Strand Road venue seats around 40 customers at the front of the premises where they can experience a more bistro-orientated ambience. At the rear, where the atmosphere is much more that of a traditional restaurant, there is room for about 75 more diners.

Around 60 diners can be accommodated at the smaller outlet on the quay and they can enjoy stunning views across the River Foyle, which is only about 15 yards from the front door.

‘I think our success is the result of a combination of all the little things that we do,’ says Ciaran. ‘We set the bar very high and we never drop it. The whole Primrose experience is fantastic from start to finish, the food, the décor, the ambience and our staff are a credit to us, we have a fantastic team in both outlets.’

Ciaran agrees that Derry-Londonderry definitely has a burgeoning reputation as a foodie destination – and it’s a label that’s happy to encourage. He sits on a steering group which has just been formed by Derry City Council with the aim of developing the region’s culinary credentials and draw in more tourists.

‘We’re going to be presenting an action plan this month that we think is going to help traders to get behind tourism and bring more people into the city to enjoy our food offering,’ reveals Ciaran.

‘This is definitely becoming a food destination and I think it’s just down to like-minded people working together, that’s really been key I think.’

As for the future, Ciaran says that work to consolidate the business at Strand Road is still a priority, but he doesn’t rule out eventual expansion:

‘Our dream would be to open another premises somewhere outside the city,’ he adds. ‘We have nowhere in mind, but I don’t think that a third place in Derry would work.

‘I’d like to think that in the long term, w would be a running a business very similar to what we have today, with the same ethos, but perhaps with another couple of premises under our belt.’

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