FOOD FILE: Nolan's of Kilcullen is an award-winning butchers and a first stop for visiting Michelin chefs. So what's their secret?
WHAT MAKES A shopper get in a car and undertake a 90-mile round trip, perhaps braving the rigours of the notorious M50 in the process? A good sausage is the lure for customers of Nolan’s of Kilcullen, Co Kildare, who have been known to travel regularly from as far as south Co Dublin for their fix. But there’s more to this Co Kildare butchers than their prizewinning bangers, even though they make an incredible 2,000lbs of them each week.
James Nolan is the fourth generation of his family to set up his stall – in his case a vast and no-expense-spared premises – in Main Street, Kilcullen. Nolan always hasn’t had it easy. Having suffered from progressive renal failure from birth, Nolan underwent a kidney transplant when he was 20. The donor was his sister Catherine, who was a model with the Eddie Shanahan and Geraldine Brand agencies and is married to Irish international show-jumper Edward Doyle.
In recognition of the new lease of life that the operation gave him, he established the Kidney Research fundraising race at the Punchestown Festival, which has raised more than €1 million. Nolan won the race in 2002 aboard Nero’s Dancer – “and I haven’t sat on a horse since,” he says. “It was such a big goal in my life – how was I going to better it?” By turning his attentions to participating in athletics and golf at the World Transplant Games, it transpires, and he has several times been a medallist. “A participant,” he corrects me, “it’s all about taking part.”
The opening of the Kilcullen bypass could have spelled disaster for the business, established in 1886, but Nolan (whose 80-year-old father Andy still does time on the shop floor, and is the creator of that special sausage recipe) had ambitious plans in mind. He closed the original shop in June 2006, demolished all but the front façade, which has a preservation order, and reopened five months later, having reimagined the business entirely.
It now spreads over a 26,000 sq ft area, and encompasses a state-of-the art abattoir, chilling, boning and processing halls, customer parking, and a stylish, cleverly designed butcher’s shop and food hall that could be considered the Harrods of the south-east. “Last year, Bord Bia brought a group of 14 Michelin-starred chefs here; it was their first stop, they came straight from the airport,” Nolan says proudly. The shop took the FBD Retail Excellence Ireland award for best large store in Ireland for 2008.
“We hand-select beef from our own farm or local farmers, and age it for a minimum of 14 days in the old-fashioned way because in my opinion it is the best way to get really tender beef,” Nolan says. “We also locally source all our lamb, pork and poultry, and cure our own hams.” Black and white puddings are made in-house.
The shop also has a fish counter, Sheridan’s cheese, organic vegetables, artisan breads, a bewilderingly well-stocked delicatessen display, and a wine selection, lovingly tended by Nolan’s wife of just over a month, Emma, who combines lecturing in hospitality with developing the wine and delicatessen side of the business.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Nolan is planning further developments, including online ordering and delivery, a concept he is exploring with Bord Bia.