There are many individuals across the island of Ireland who are game changers in how they passionately engage within the restaurant and bar industry. On the Beár Bia podcast, we like to call them "Hospitality Heroes" and whenever we can, we like to showcase them and the great work they do. And that's exactly what we've done with our latest episode …

It took them long enough, but Dee Laffan and Oisin Davis of the Beár Bia travelling podcast finally made it to Cork! And not only did they get to hang out with one of their favourite drinks producers - the wonderful Daniel Emerson of Stonewell Cider, but they also got to do it in the legendary pub, Cronin's of Crosshaven on a sun-filled day, so the…

It's one of Ireland's largest gatherings of top tier Irish food & drink producers, so it's always great to be down at Bord Bia Bloom in the Phoenix Park. This year, the Bloom team there engaged with Irishbeer.ie and Beár Bia to highlight pairings made with breweries and food makers who would all be at Bloom. Produced over two episodes, our first sa…

Kickstarting things off for 2025, the first two episodes of this new season will highlight beer and food producers who are exhibiting at one of Ireland's largest festivals, Bord Bia Bloom at Phoenix Park. With a little help from IrishBeer.ie, they decided to first see which of the participating beers would work best paired with fish and seafood. Th…

When we saw that our final two episodes would land in late December, we knew we had to go festive! So we called upon a few friends to see if they could share their favourite Irish Christmas and Irish New Year's Day meals and we would pair some Irish drinks with them. Each pairing falls into a different episode but they both feature the same guests …

Our first season of Beár Bia has been one hell of an adventure. We have recorded in 12 different locations across 6 counties. Along the way, we have showcased 24 different Irish food producers, 22 Irish drinks producers as well as 13 hospitality or retail businesses. It's been extremely inspiring getting to know all the remarkable makers of some of…

The county of Kildare is renowned the world over for its thriving equine industry but more recently, its food & drink producers have taken a bigger share of the spotlight. At the invitation of Kildare Local Enterprise Office, we were thrilled to pop down and check out a couple of leading lights from the county's ever-burgeoning culinary scene. It i…

The wonderful Smithwick's is one of Ireland's most iconic brands. It is deeply connected to its hometown of Kilkenny and is particularly well celebrated by the local hospitality community there. Kilkenny also boasts a highly active festival circuit so we wanted to tick a couple of boxes while down there. A fantastic trip was had where we hung out i…

It's just a couple of hours from Dublin and boasts spectacular coastlines, amazing heritage sites and some rather brilliant food & drink producers. We're talking about north county Down and the Ards peninsula, a culinary destination to rival any other on the island of Ireland. Thanks to a kind invitation from the Irish Food Writers Guild and Visit …

Tipperary might well be renowned the world over for its majestic castles and monuments, but here at Beár Bia HQ - the most important thing you need to know about it, is that it's Dee's home county! So it was obviously just a question of time before we made the "trip to Tipp" and tasted some of its best culinary offerings. The Tipperary Food Produce…

Up and down the 32 counties, there are vast amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners whose great work in celebrating the entire Irish culinary landscape needs to be showcased. They are Irish Hospitality Heroes and for our sixth episode, we wanted to shine a light on what the newly reopened Coppinger team are doing. So we sat down with co-owner a…

Showcasing hospitality heroes within the Irish food & drink scene was something that we always wanted to do on the Beár Bia podcast. All around the 32 counties, there are huge amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners who are game changers when it comes to pairing our native culinary offerings. None more so than Seáneen Sullivan from L Mulligan G…

For episode four, we are taking a trip to Dublin's Liberties and making our way to Roe & Co Irish Whiskey Distillery. Their 2024 Summer Garden Series is in full swing. Now in its fifth year, it sees the front outdoor space of the James's Street distillery turned into a dining area with a rotating set of guest chefs and restaurants who each create a…

For episode three, we shifted our focus to Big Grill, Europe's largest BBQ and food festival, which takes place in Herbert Park, Dublin on August 22nd - 25th. We wanted to engage with one of their Irish drinks partners and pair their drinks with dishes from participating festival restaurants. Dingle Distillery were keen to collaborate and their Din…

In this special episode, supported by Bord Bia, we ventured to Bloom in the Park on the June bank holiday weekend, where we curated three pairings from the huge array of Irish food and drink producers that were present for the event. We were joined by each producer pairing as follows: Kinsale Mead Co. and Burren Smokehouse Micíl Cream Liqueur and Á…

Our first episode focuses on the garden county as we pair two different Wicklow drinks with two different Wicklow foods. We picked up some amazing Ridgeway wagyu beef, cooked and served by Barry Walllace of Dash Burger, and paired with Wicklow Wolf Brewery's Solstice Tropical Sour. The other pairing featured Ballyhubbock Farm's sheep's milk halloum…