SommiT conference 'raising the bar' for Irish hospitality

When you walk into a restaurant, what is the first thing you notice? Is it the ambience, or is it the warmth with which you are greeted? For most of us, it is the latter – the warm welcome.

Diners could be forgiven for thinking that a restaurant is all about the food, or the chef. In fact, it is the service combined with those other crucial elements which make (or break) your restaurant experience.

When hospitality professionals refer to the “front of house”, they mean everyone who works at the service end of a restaurant. This includes servers, bartenders, sommeliers, maître d’s and bussers.

Alternately, “back of house” refers to the people diners traditionally don’t see: chefs, line cooks, prep cooks and dishwashers. Each job in a restaurant is a crucial element to the overall service, and when one component isn’t working well, the entire operation can suffer.

Daróg Wine Bar

“You can have the best food in the world, but if there is no appropriate framework around it to make people feel comfortable, it’s just not going to work,” says Zsolt Lukács, a Galway-based sommelier who operates Daróg Wine Bar with his wife, Edel McMahon-Lukács.

“That applies to drink service, as well. If you’re not able to provide a drink service that matches the food, you’re going to fall behind.”

Originally from southern Germany, Zsolt has lived and worked in Galway since 2007. After spending 12 years in Michelin-starred restaurant Aniar as their sommelier, he and Edel opened Daróg Wine Bar in July of 2023.

That was our idea: to have something small, casual, relaxed and kind of intimate with the added elements of good wine and food

Though barely open a year, they have already been awarded several impressive accolades, including the RAI Award for Best Wine Experience in Connaught and the Food & Wine Award for Best Wine Experience in Connaught.

Zsolt delights in finding unique wines from interesting producers throughout the world. Combined with a food offering which focuses on local, seasonal plates led by chef Atilla Galambos, he says Daróg Wine Bar is everything he and Edel would have looked for as diners themselves.

“We wanted to create a space where we would want to go on an evening out,” he says.

“It’s good fun to sit down and have a nice bottle of wine with the conversation flowing. That was our idea: to have something small, casual, relaxed and kind of intimate with the added elements of good wine and food.”

Wine Geese

Zsolt tells Irish Country Living that while most Irish diners probably think that Ireland has very little connection to the wine world, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Aside from The Wine Geese – a historic term given to Irish emigrants who set up winemaking businesses in France and Australia – there are many other more modern Irish names in wine, both abroad and at home.

“There is a new wave of Irish winemakers,” Zsolt says. “Liam and Sinéad Cabot, who are from Westport and make Roka Estate wine in Slovenia, started with two hectares and now they grow on four hectares. Róisín Curley is also from Co Mayo and is making wine in Burgundy.

Then, there is Deirdre O’Brien from Co Offaly, who is making Italian wines with her husband in the Piedmont.

“As for Irish winemakers in Ireland – the flagbearer is surely David Llewellyn in north Co Dublin, but I am hearing about different and interesting new projects, as well. There is a future in Ireland for wine and we will see more in the next few years.”

SommiT conference

Ireland regularly hosts food summits which celebrate the best of Irish cuisine, but for the past few years, there has also been a conference focused on Irish front of house hospitality operating quietly in the background (like that amazing server who took your plate away and refilled your water glass without you even realising).

It’s called SommiT, and it exists to highlight best practise, learn new approaches to service and – of course – discuss and taste different wines at length.

Taking place this year in Waterford from 13-15 October, SommiT also highlights what is happening on the ground with Irish winemakers and growers.

Morgan VanderKamer co-owns and operates Union Wine Bar & Restaurant in Waterford city and is the current president of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers, the organisation which hosts SommiT each year.

She says this year’s conference offers a variety of table talks, panel discussions, tastings, food pairings and winemaker features.

“We have eight table talks over two days [of the conference],” Morgan tells Irish Country Living.

“This year, we are focusing on pinot gris and Syrah. Pinot gris winemakers from around the world will be in conversation with Harriet Tindal [Tindal Wine], while Mick O’Connell [Sunday Business Post] will host the Syrah session. These sessions are often done with the winemakers attending remotely, because this is a very busy time of year for them.

“We also have Gearoid Devaney, who is a master sommelier and owns Flint Wines in the United Kingdom,” she adds. “He has now just opened another branch in Ireland called Selix Wines.”

Range of attendees

As with past years, the guild expects a wide range of attendees, including sommeliers, front of house professionals, buyers, journalists, importers, producers and growers.

SommiT operates using a fully accredited experiential programme known as the Zing! Thing (thezingthing.com), offering a unique synergy which marries food and wine while highlighting the art of warm hospitality.

On Sunday, the focus will be on the small, but increasing, number of Irish winemakers. There will also be the annual ‘Style Council’, which involves four teams of one chef and one sommelier or front of house expert. Each team gets two different wines and must make a small plate to bring out the best of each bottle.

“It’s not really a competition,” Morgan explains. “It’s more to be exposed to different foods paired with different wines.”

The conference will finish with the announcement of the Star Wine List, which is a guide for the best food and wine experiences throughout the world. They will announce their wine list awards for Ireland, which will hopefully end the conference on a high for many attendees.

Zsolt has been attending the conference since its induction in 2021, both as a social outing and as a chance to upskill.

“It’s now my third time attending SommiT,” he says. “It is definitely a holiday, but it is a holiday where you take a lot in.

“It’s amazing to have all of these people there with one aim – to offer better service and better wine service to the hospitality industry.”

For tickets and more information, visit sommit.ie

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