Lunch is for wimps – breakfast is now the most important meal of the day when it comes to doing business, writes Alanna Gallagher

THE DEATH knell of the business lunch was sounded way before the recession.

The business lunch has been gone a long time, says Seán McCrave, chief executive of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland.

“In the advertising industry, we can only look on in envy at what we see on television’s 1960s-set Mad Men. These days you only get to go for client lunches once a year.”

The practice was fading long before the current recession struck, says one well-known Dublin businessman. People haven’t got the time to sit down for a full-blown business lunch any more, explains John Cullen, business sector manager at Group SEB.

“There are other far more pressing matters to attend to in everyday business. If people do go for lunch, it is usually a modest affair, a quick sandwich or one course and a coffee,” says Cullen.

“It has nothing to do with money really, just time.”

In reality it’s breakfast that is the business, says McCrave.

“Breakfast is more apt and tends to take place in more low-key but upmarket cafes like Brown’s in Sandymount and the Espresso Bar on Eastmoreland Lane,” continues Cullen.

Ron Bolger, chairman of Carluccio’s Ireland and formerly of KPMG, is facilitating an increasing number of meetings at the new “power meet” time.

“Most suits prefer to hit their office first and come into us around 9.15.”

Even breakfast meetings have had all the fat trimmed. “They tend to be continental variety rather than the Full Irish,” McCrave continues.

“These meetings are designed along commute routes and tend to be half-way points for those involved.”

A good place for a discreet meeting is Residence on St Stephen’s Green. It opens for breakfast and has private rooms which aren’t charged as extras to members.

The Four Seasons and Merrion Hotels are other popular spots. Tables in both are well apart so you can talk business, says McCrave. The Drawing Room in the Merrion is popular for coffee mid-morning, but is more like a catwalk.

“It’s usually full of people going over to the Dáil or the Department of Finance or Department of An Taoiseach on delegations,” he continues.

Naoise Nunn is a Galway-based political consultant. He likes the low-key location of the lobby of the Burlington for his rendezvous. “The easy parking, free WiFi and coffee mean you can work between meetings. People are slightly less self-conscious as it’s off the business radar a bit also.”

Restaurants trying to maintain some sort of lunchtime trade now tend to offer a lunch special. For many of the diners availing of the offer, it is pleasure, not business.

Nunn admits to enjoying the odd recreational lunch at l’Ecrivain, which has a three-course lunch offer for €25. “It’s a false economy, as you always end up going a la carte,” he admits.

Another Dublin city centre eatery, One Pico, has a lunch for €19.95. It is full of Irish people with loads of money who are, at last, saying ‘I have found some value for money’,” McCrave observes.

“In contrast, the staff stomp around the place, cursing under their breaths at the philistines who won’t order bottled water and want jugs [of tap water] and lots of bread so that they feel really thrifty.”

Business lunches are a far more temperate affair. It’s being taken more seriously, admits Ron Bolger. “The days of bottles of wine and gin and tonics are over.”

Time is money. “With the ever-changing business environment, you have to be at the coal-face,” says Peter Costigan, partner of fixed income at Bloxham Stockbrokers. “A quick coffee and a sandwich is more acceptable than being out of the office for lunch.”

Whether it’s lunch or breakfast, when it comes to paying the bill cash is king, according to Darren D’Arcy, restaurant manager at l’Ecrivain. And recession or no recession, the invitee still pays, says Bolger.