In this year’s Reader Travel Awards, our Judges’ Award for Best Newcomer celebrates ‘one new tourism and hospitality business, person or initiative that has caught the imagination and injected new energy in to Irish holidays’.
If you’ve visited Roundwood, you’ll probably have stopped off at the Roundwood Stores, the little shop, bakery and cafe that has established itself as the beating heart of the local community since opening in 2021. Simon Pratt and his partner, Monique McQuaid, live locally and wanted somewhere handy to pick up a loaf of sourdough and decent coffee, and perhaps a few organic veg, so they created it themselves. Pratt’s parents, Donald and Hilary, founded Avoca, and Simon was involved on the food side until some time after the family sold to Aramark. Roundwood Stores reminds me of the original Avoca, where a sense of generosity was woven into the fabric of the business.
?There’s an open road before us. A fresh year of travel planning, of new adventures and old favourites. The cost of our holidays is only going up, but our desire to take them feels as passionate as ever in this post-pandemic world.
New year, new me and, after a lot of thought, I’ve decided to go vegan. So it’s out with the cotes de boeuf and the oysters, and farewell to the Mont d’Or. There’ll be no more bacon sarnies, no sneaky prawn cocktails, no sushi, no clams, no crab, no legs of lamb, no roast chicken, no anchovies… Instead, I’ll be content with vegetables, really very happy. Honestly. Not pulling your legs at all, readers!