Top Irish Food Shops: The Blue Goat, Ramelton
Top Irish Food Shops: The Blue Goat, Ramelton
Des Gallen's Perfect Pitch
Des Gallen makes beautiful things. The room he has crafted to house all the foods he sells in his deli, The Blue Goat, in Ramelton, County Donegal, is a beautiful space. He has an apartment which he rents to holidaymakers in the same old building on the waterfront in the town, and it’s as beautifully composed a space as you can find: colour-filled, bright, deft.
But to see this crafter-of-beauty at his aesthetic best, just ask Des if he wouldn’t mind making you up a box of cheese to take away from the ‘Goat for a picnic lunch, or a summertime spread.
Choosing and placing all the elements of his cheese boxes shows Des to be the Joseph Cornell of the Irish artisan delicatessen. Into the tiny space of a cheese box, he will place a trio of local cheeses at the base, and then begins what seems a haphazard selection of ingredients – some olives; a sprig of fresh rosemary; a dollop or two of chutney; maybe some candied goji berries or a festoon of smoked nuts; some semi-dried tomatoes; maybe a clutch of good dried figs.
The magic is in the mixing, and when you open up the box and begin to eat the various pieces and cut into the cheeses, you realise that Des has concocted something that has morphed into something infinitely greater than the sum of its parts.
Everything complements and congratulates everything else: sweetness elides with lactic tenseness; the crack of a nut contrasts with some tender Creevey cheese; the eucalyptus scent of the fresh rosemary lingers over everything.
The artist has used his materials to create a work of art. It’s stunning.
Like a conjurer who can pull a rabbit from a top hat, Des makes it looks easy. But such aesthetic facility is actually long-won. Aeons ago Des cut his teeth in Eden, in The Mermaid Café, and Gruel, on Dublin’s Dame Street, when those were the hottest rooms to eat in Dublin. He then hiked south to Macreddin in County Wicklow to work in The Brook Lodge Inn when that iconic destination was starting up.
This time spent at the culinary coalface has given him an unerring instinct, so whilst the cheese boxes may be the signature of The Blue Goat, everything else in the shop is selected with the same apposite sense of choice. All the good things are here, from Cloud Picker coffee to Carlos Capparelli’s pasta, beautiful things in a beautiful space, conducted by a guy with perfect pitch.
What a beautiful,shop, the only one anywhere near lIke this is about 40 minutes away from where we live, so it would need to be a special trip, therefore I rely on the pretty good selection our local Supermarket has or buy online, jams and chutney I generally make my own. Thank you for sharing more on the beautiful place called Ireland.