Dunfermline Restaurant, Jack ‘O’Bryan’s, is in the running for a top trade industry award in the Restaurant Of The Year 2024 (Fine Dining) category, organised by a publication widely considered to be the hospitality industry’s “Bible” – Scottish License Trade News (SLTN ).
First debuted in 1996, when just eight awards were given out, the SLTN Awards are now the premier awards scheme for the Scottish hospitality industry, celebrating the best operations and venues in Scottish hospitality, from restaurants and pubs, to hotels, late night venues and specialist cocktail bars, recognising both local and national operators in every corner of Scotland. This year’s Awards Night is taking place on Thursday 7th November at the Hilton Glasgow, when over seven hundred members of the Scottish hospitality and drinks industries will gather to vie for a coveted corkscrew trophy.
The recently announced shortlist sees Jack ‘O’ Bryan’s as one of only two Restaurants to reach the finals for Restaurant of The Year 2024 (Fine Dining Category) up against The Dipping Lugger Restaurant in Ullapool.
These SLTN awards have added significance for proprietor Bryan Coghill, in that in 1988, he and his wife Michelle won an SLTN award for their Hotel in St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire.
Bryan said: “We are absolutely delighted to be a finalist in this year’s prestigious SLTN Awards which we certainly feel are the benchmark for excellence in our industry. It would be fantastic if, twenty six years after winning our first SLTN award, when Michelle and I ran the hotel in the North East of Scotland, we could win again now with Jack ‘O’ Bryan’s which is very much headed up by our son Jack, who is the Head Chef and Pastry Chef for the business. He has had an incredible year, with success in other award schemes, alongside national coverage and recognition in publications such as Sainsbury’s magazine and The Sunday Times Scotland. I am celebrating forty years in the industry this year. I’ve been a chef, a restauranteur and a hotelier, as well as my son’s mentor and teacher. Winning this award would be the best possible way of marking this anniversary as a family.”
Jack Coghill explained that it had been his pleasure to welcome the judges who came from SLTN a few weeks ago to sample his food and check out the restaurant.
“We’re always pleased to put our inventive food in the spotlight,” he said. “What we cook for our customers means the world to us as it’s the food that we ourselves love to eat – Iberian food from Spain, Portugal, and Scotland’s Natural Larder.”
“The judges must have enjoyed it for us to be down to the last two finalists, but we are humbled, and appreciate that they have been sampling a great many very exceptional quality restaurants from right across the country as part of the judging process.”
“The news of being down to the last two restaurants in the Awards has come at the best time for us as we look forward to a break as a family with myself and my fiancée Sarah getting married next week,” said Jack. “We have plenty more exciting news to announce from our family business in the coming weeks. To win the Award really would be the icing on the wedding cake, (excuse the pun!) We’d like to thank our incredible staff for their efforts, as we certainly couldn’t do it without them, and of course our amazing customers too.”
The SLTN judges described this year’s entries as exceptional, with Jack ‘O’ Bryan’s food as having a “youthful verve and energy,” going on to say that it was “carving its own culinary path, serving up immaculate classics alongside impish innovations, in an array of creative meat and seafood small plates with influences of Iberia, coupled to a truly exceptional dessert menu.”
https://sltn.co.uk/sltn-awards/finalists-2024/
