Byron Beach Cafe has won the coveted Best Restaurant and Catering Service award at the Australian Tourism Awards in Adelaide.
It is the first northern NSW restaurant to win the highly sought after national prize and was the only business in the region to be nominated in any category, including major festivals, ecotourism, indigenous tourism and destination marketing.
Owner Ben Kirkwood said he was ‘humbled and elated’ at the win.
‘It’s a wonderful feeling to have been honoured by the industry’s premier awards program as the best restaurant and catering service in Australia! In competing with so many outstanding Australian restaurants, we were taken aback by the recognition given to our regional NSW business. It’s overwhelming. We are incredibly grateful, not only for ourselves, our team and our local suppliers but also in helping to reinforce Byron Bay’s place on the culinary map of great Australian food destinations and taking a lead role in Tourism Australia’s Restaurant Australia campaign.’
President of Destination Byron, Cameron Arnold described the result as ‘a coup for Byron Bay’.
‘The Byron Beach Cafe are leaders within the Byron tourism industry and their involvement and support of Byron as a destination is only surpassed by their passion for high-quality food and delivering an exceptional dining experience. Tourism is undoubtedly the most important industry for Byron Bay, underpinning the local economy and creating thousands of jobs for the Byron community.’
The award comes only months after the Byron Beach Cafe received the Best Cafe in Australia Award at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards. In the past 12 months, the Byron Beach Cafe has also been named in The Australian Financial Review Australia’s Top 500 Restaurants, won the NSW Tourism Awards, North Coast Tourism Awards and the NSW Business Chamber Regional Awards.
