* The Three Eagles Bar and Grill's Dyfan Hughes and Lydia Davies.
A Llangollen restaurant and bar has been named North Wales’s best eatery at the region’s tourism Oscars.
The Three
Eagles Bar and Grill’s successful transformation to provide an outdoor dining
offer won them the Go Taste of North Wales, sponsored by Bwydlyn Butchery.
A delighted
restaurant manager Lydia Davies said: “We’ve got a really good team here doing
lots of hours and their hard work has paid off.
“We made a
really big change because we wanted the Bar and Grill to be more accessible and
we’ve opened up our outdoor space which has really helped us because as well as
our regulars we’ve got lots of visitors coming in.
“We get lots of
walkers and cyclists and people walking their dogs and Llangollen itself is a
great attraction and an outdoorsy place.”
The Three Eagles received its accolade at the Go
North Wales Tourism Awards, a glittering event at Venue Cymru in Llandudno
sponsored by leading food distribution company, Harlech Foodservice, and hosted
by acclaimed journalist Sian Lloyd who hails from Wrexham.
The occasion was also a 30th anniversary
celebration for organiser North Wales Tourism which was founded in 1990 and now
represents more than 1,500 members across the region.
Other Denbighshire winners: Thornley Leisure Parks Go Holiday Park of the Year, Marine Holiday Park, Rhyl; Pero Foods Ltd Go Pet Friendly Award, Y Shed, Meliden; Bwydlyn Butchery Go Taste of North Wales Award, Three Eagles Bar and Grill, Llangollen; Design To Print Go Activity of the Year, Mynydd Sleddog Adventures, Llyn Brenig and Alwen Reservoir.
According to Chair of the judges Jim Jones, the chief executive
of North Wales Tourism, the amount of investment going into improving the
infrastructure of the tourism and hospitality sector was a vote of confidence
in the future of the industry in North Wales.
Before the pandemic, the
tourism industry was flying with the
overall income generated increasing to an all-time high of £3.6 billion in 2019
when the number of visitors rocketed to nearly 37 million.
After a massive
slump, the staycation boom this summer showed that North Wales was
still a hugely popular destination for holidaymakers.
Jim Jones said:
“Like everybody else, the tourism industry has endured an absolute nightmare
over the past 20 months and, because of the nature of the business, our sector
was disproportionately affected during the lockdown periods.
“I would like
to congratulate the winners and the other finalists tonight because was they
have achieved is utterly remarkable, particularly under the most difficult of
circumstances.
“I would
also like to stress that all the nominees are playing an absolutely vital role
in leading the economic recovery here in North Wales and I would like to thank
them for their incredible ongoing contribution.”
David Cattrall, the managing director of Harlech
Foodservice, said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to be the
headline backer of the awards and to sponsor two individual categories because
the tourism and hospitality industry represents our core customer base.
“Although we’ve all had an extremely tough time,
there are reasons to be optimistic for the future and the scale of investment
going into North Wales shows there is a strong belief that this is a
first-class, must-visit destination.”
North Wales Tourism used the occasion to raise money for their nominated charity, St David’s Hospice in Llandudno.
