Races are slammed as ‘Rag Week for adults’

One of the leading restaurant owners in Galway has described Race Week as a “Rag Week for adults” after at least 50 bookings ended in ‘no shows’ at his three city premises during the festival.
The owner of Cava Bodega, Aniar, and Eat Massimo, J.P. McMahon, said 16 tables were left empty in Massimo last Friday evening when customers simply did not turn up after making reservations over the phone.
“Over the past two to three years, the crowd attending the Galway Races seems to have changed,” said Mr McMahon. “The crowd seems to have got younger and there seems to be an awful lot of alcohol involved.
“So much drinking seems to go on now that a lot of locals want nothing to do with the Galway Races. There is no point in having a festival if a lot of locals don’t take part. Definitely, in the last three years, it’s become far more about drinking. The races now attract much younger people who go out to get drunk and have no interest in food.”
There were seven ‘no shows’ in Galway’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, Aniar, on Thursday, or Ladies’ Day, and a further eight on Tuesday. When contacted by staff, those who had made bookings said they had either forgotten or did not bother to cancel.
“There were easily over 50 ‘no shows’ as far as I can remember,” Mr McMahon told the Galway City Tribune. “We have someone hired who just rings people to confirm their reservations and, throughout Race Week, she could not get through to a lot of them all day.
“Ladies’ Day was just a joke. People seemed to be drinking from lunch-time onwards and one or two people did not even remember booking tables when we contacted them. It’s not easy to turn people away or to give tables away when people have a booking. It’s just so hard when you have extra staff on during one of the busiest weeks of the year.”
Mr McMahon said Aniar currently takes credit card bookings on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, with a €40 charge for those who do not show up, but he was now considering extending the policy to all of Race Week at all three premises next year.
For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.