When we launched the 10th edition of The Irish Food Guide last year, we trumpeted on about a quiet revolution in Irish bread, bacon and beer.
We could just as easily have added another stanchion to that trio: the dramatic improvement in Irish butchers – bread, bacon, beer, butchers.
The dynamism is most often associated with Pat Whelan of Clonmel, who has added another Dublin branch in Avoca at Rathcoole, following on from last year’s opening at Avoca Monkstown. The Avocas have heralded a new age of Irish butchers, an age we might call Boutique Butchery.
And now, another notch has been added to the post, with the dramatic styling of Rick Higgins’ butcher’s shop, at Sutton Cross, in north Dublin.
With its up-cycled wood and stone walls, its dramatically lit dry-ageing cabinets and its tip-top display of charcuterie skills, Higgins is a radical step forward. The shop has an aesthetic like no other butcher’s shop – it’s pure gorgeous.
First and foremost, it doesn’t feel like a butcher’s shop: there is none of that stereotypical antiseptic coldness that is standard in the business. And Mr Higgins has performed the most amazing edit in the display of meats and game, so everything here is top-notch.
And the shop offers an added bonus in the shape of breads and pastries from the dynamic Il Valentino, and superb Italian wines from Giuseppe Tripodi’s company Wines of Italy.
In other words, Higgins has everything you need – butchery, bread, bacon, everything save the beer. Head out to Sutton and get a glimpse of the future.
Higgins Family Butchers, Unit 2 Sutton Cross, Sutton, Dublin 13
www.higginsbutchers.ie
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