McKillens dining out on early successes of 2018
IT has been a prosperous start to the year for developer Paddy McKillen — his French hotel, Villa La Coste, has been named hotel of the year by Mr & Mrs Smith, a luxury boutique hotel site.
According to the dissertation, “every once in a while, a hotel comes along that ruffles feathers”.
“With its cutting-edge design, arresting architecture, amazing art collection and sublime service, it’s the well-deserved winner,” gushed the site’s founders, James and Tamara Lohan.
Back in Dublin, the next generation is developing some more affordable hospitality.
Paddy McKillen Jnr and Matt Ryan are expanding with their uber trendy hospitality businesses, Pressup, at a rapid rate.
Early in the month they announced a new addition to its fast-growing portfolio — they recently bought the leasehold and business of Residence on St Stephen’s Green and closed the private members’ club and restaurant to begin “a complete new refurbishment of the building”.
They are also going to develop the Florentine Shopping Centre in Bray. This is in addition to recent openings, such as the beautiful Stella Theatre in Rathmines. Another recent investment was in Elephant & Castle, a popular restaurant in Temple Bar and one of the few reasons why locals still flock to that part of town.
I hear that Pressup is scouring the city for locations for additional Elephant & Castle outlets. So their legendary chicken wings many soon be coming to a suburb near you.