A restaurant like Barrow’s Keep is what happens when a skilful chef leaves the big city to go back to his earthy, rural roots.
Stephen McArdle, together with his partner Morgan VanderKamer (one of Ireland’s best-known sommeliers), owns and operates Barrow’s Keep. As the name might imply, it was originally located in Graiguenamanagh on the banks of the River Barrow, but has since found its forever home in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
Here the duo serve up locally sourced dishes which, while steeped in Stephen’s French classical training, are relaxed and beautifully balanced – a lot like what Stephen says life is like since they moved to the countryside.
Irish Country Living Food caught up with Stephen as he and Morgan prepare for a busy summer.
Stephen's food reflects his classical training, but is modern and relaxed. \ Janine Kennedy
You were based in Dublin for many years – what drove the decision to move and start a business in a more rural area? A family move is what really brought us down to the countryside. Originally we were in Graiguenamanagh – on the other side of the bridge, so technically in Carlow – and we wanted to create a space which focused on local and organic foods. We also wanted more of a work-life balance to enable spending plenty of time with my two children. With Morgan’s background in wine and hospitality and myself in the kitchen, we make a great team. In 2019 we made the decision to move the restaurant to Thomastown. The property really drove our decision there, with increased footfall, a great amount of space on the premises and a large garden with lots of outdoor seating.
What influences your cooking style? The seasons really influence how and what I cook. The ingredients drive every dish and while it’s very classic in essence, we have a modernised approach and cater to all kinds of diners. We’re surrounded by a lot of local producers so we’re lucky there. We also provide woodfired pizzas most nights and sell fine foods and wine in the front of the restaurant.
Can you walk us through your career? Who influenced you along the way? To start off, my mother was a chef and I was always cooking foods from scratch – I had a real upbringing in food, you could say. I started out professionally in Belfast, 22 years ago, cooking with a little French company called the Olive Tree Cafe. After, I went on to work with Paul Rankin (Roscoff) and Nick Price (Nick’s Warehouse). All of those places are closed now. I worked for a few years in London before moving to Dublin, where I was head chef at Alexis and at One Pico. Then I opened my first restaurant in Dublin - The Arch Bistro. It opened in 2009, followed by Stanley’s on St Andrew’s St. Then we moved here in 2017.
Stephen sources sustainable seafood and local beef for his menus, which change weekly. \ Janine Kennedy
Is your approach to “home food” different in style to the food you cook in the restaurant? We open Barrow’s Keep on Wednesday each week and work until Sunday, so Mondays and Tuesdays are more like our weekends where we enjoy our home time. Every Monday we do a roast dinner – a nice roasted chicken or a joint of beef – and we have family meal time. We tend to make lots of soups and bread when we’re home and we do a lot of baking too. My daughter in particular loves cooking and baking but both kids are involved with our home meals.
What are some of your favourite things about living and cooking in rural Ireland? I get to meet all the actual growers and suppliers on a weekly basis. I speak with them, we discuss what’s coming up and what’s slowing down and I change the menu every week accordingly as things are coming in and out. I work really closely with our butcher – he picks from his own herd a lot – and I dry age the beef in our Himalayan salt chamber. We serve lots of wild fish, such as turbot, brill and monkfish. The only farmed seafood we purchase are scallops. We always source wild and sustainable.
Morgan makes similar choices with the wine. We’re conscious of the planet and the environment. There are things I wish we could do more with, like the beef; it would be great to get into whole-animal use in the restaurant but diners expect certain items. I suppose it requires a bit more understanding and education on our food systems. But yeah, I’d love to take steak off the menu and I’d like to see more chefs leading this kind of behaviour to try and reduce waste and increase sustainable eating.
Is there a particular local producer you enjoy working with? Vincent Grace from Riversfield Organic Farm is amazing. He works so hard – especially in this country, with our climate. For example, he has great tomatoes, but they don’t appear until late summer – that’s just our season. It’s hard for veg growers to survive and bring people along with them when you can get tomatoes from Spain at any time of the year.
How did you diversify your business to get through the COVID-19 pandemic? We had takeaways, we did pizzas, we had the food shop and we offered different food options, like meals you could finish cooking at home, breads and stuff like that. We changed all the time and didn’t sit with one thing for too long. It was tough on everyone and we’re glad it’s over.
Do you have any big plans for the summer now that things have opened up again? Yes, we’re actually opening a wine bar at the end of May in The Munster Bar in Waterford. Morgan and I will be going back and forth and hopefully it will all work out.
What are you eating for Easter dinner? Easter Dinner will more than likely be on a Monday. We might go to my parents in Co Armagh. They’ll have an outdoor fire and we might cook the lamb over that. My mother is still doing lots of cooking – not professionally anymore but still doing lots.
Read more
My Country Living: from the farm to fine dining and fermentation
No restaurant? No problem for this young couple
A restaurant like Barrow’s Keep is what happens when a skilful chef leaves the big city to go back to his earthy, rural roots.
Stephen McArdle, together with his partner Morgan VanderKamer (one of Ireland’s best-known sommeliers), owns and operates Barrow’s Keep. As the name might imply, it was originally located in Graiguenamanagh on the banks of the River Barrow, but has since found its forever home in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
Here the duo serve up locally sourced dishes which, while steeped in Stephen’s French classical training, are relaxed and beautifully balanced – a lot like what Stephen says life is like since they moved to the countryside.
Irish Country Living Food caught up with Stephen as he and Morgan prepare for a busy summer.
Stephen's food reflects his classical training, but is modern and relaxed. \ Janine Kennedy
You were based in Dublin for many years – what drove the decision to move and start a business in a more rural area? A family move is what really brought us down to the countryside. Originally we were in Graiguenamanagh – on the other side of the bridge, so technically in Carlow – and we wanted to create a space which focused on local and organic foods. We also wanted more of a work-life balance to enable spending plenty of time with my two children. With Morgan’s background in wine and hospitality and myself in the kitchen, we make a great team. In 2019 we made the decision to move the restaurant to Thomastown. The property really drove our decision there, with increased footfall, a great amount of space on the premises and a large garden with lots of outdoor seating.
What influences your cooking style? The seasons really influence how and what I cook. The ingredients drive every dish and while it’s very classic in essence, we have a modernised approach and cater to all kinds of diners. We’re surrounded by a lot of local producers so we’re lucky there. We also provide woodfired pizzas most nights and sell fine foods and wine in the front of the restaurant.
Can you walk us through your career? Who influenced you along the way? To start off, my mother was a chef and I was always cooking foods from scratch – I had a real upbringing in food, you could say. I started out professionally in Belfast, 22 years ago, cooking with a little French company called the Olive Tree Cafe. After, I went on to work with Paul Rankin (Roscoff) and Nick Price (Nick’s Warehouse). All of those places are closed now. I worked for a few years in London before moving to Dublin, where I was head chef at Alexis and at One Pico. Then I opened my first restaurant in Dublin - The Arch Bistro. It opened in 2009, followed by Stanley’s on St Andrew’s St. Then we moved here in 2017.
Stephen sources sustainable seafood and local beef for his menus, which change weekly. \ Janine Kennedy
Is your approach to “home food” different in style to the food you cook in the restaurant? We open Barrow’s Keep on Wednesday each week and work until Sunday, so Mondays and Tuesdays are more like our weekends where we enjoy our home time. Every Monday we do a roast dinner – a nice roasted chicken or a joint of beef – and we have family meal time. We tend to make lots of soups and bread when we’re home and we do a lot of baking too. My daughter in particular loves cooking and baking but both kids are involved with our home meals.
What are some of your favourite things about living and cooking in rural Ireland? I get to meet all the actual growers and suppliers on a weekly basis. I speak with them, we discuss what’s coming up and what’s slowing down and I change the menu every week accordingly as things are coming in and out. I work really closely with our butcher – he picks from his own herd a lot – and I dry age the beef in our Himalayan salt chamber. We serve lots of wild fish, such as turbot, brill and monkfish. The only farmed seafood we purchase are scallops. We always source wild and sustainable.
Morgan makes similar choices with the wine. We’re conscious of the planet and the environment. There are things I wish we could do more with, like the beef; it would be great to get into whole-animal use in the restaurant but diners expect certain items. I suppose it requires a bit more understanding and education on our food systems. But yeah, I’d love to take steak off the menu and I’d like to see more chefs leading this kind of behaviour to try and reduce waste and increase sustainable eating.
Is there a particular local producer you enjoy working with? Vincent Grace from Riversfield Organic Farm is amazing. He works so hard – especially in this country, with our climate. For example, he has great tomatoes, but they don’t appear until late summer – that’s just our season. It’s hard for veg growers to survive and bring people along with them when you can get tomatoes from Spain at any time of the year.
How did you diversify your business to get through the COVID-19 pandemic? We had takeaways, we did pizzas, we had the food shop and we offered different food options, like meals you could finish cooking at home, breads and stuff like that. We changed all the time and didn’t sit with one thing for too long. It was tough on everyone and we’re glad it’s over.
Do you have any big plans for the summer now that things have opened up again? Yes, we’re actually opening a wine bar at the end of May in The Munster Bar in Waterford. Morgan and I will be going back and forth and hopefully it will all work out.
What are you eating for Easter dinner? Easter Dinner will more than likely be on a Monday. We might go to my parents in Co Armagh. They’ll have an outdoor fire and we might cook the lamb over that. My mother is still doing lots of cooking – not professionally anymore but still doing lots.
Read more
My Country Living: from the farm to fine dining and fermentation
No restaurant? No problem for this young couple
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: