Nash 19 Champions Local Producers. The Customer Wins

Nash 19 Champions Local Producers.

The Customer Wins

Superb pork, crowned with crackling

Quite a few new restaurants, all types, sizes, styles, in Cork these days, some of them grabbing the attention. But a experienced and still enthusiastic troop of the old reliables can teach these new kids on the block a thing or two. Take Nash 19 for instance, established in 1992 and now a treasure of good food and good cooking right in the heart of the city: seasonal, local, consistent and so welcoming.

Good to keep these places in mind and I reaped the benefit last Tuesday when I accepted an offer to a birthday lunch (mine) and we decided on Nash 19. Some new faces in the crew but all come with big smiles and they soon had us seated, the menus in our hands, water at hand. It was a good start and gradually got better.

Warm Chicken Salad

Lots to pick from here, various salads, four fish dishes, traditional offerings such as Lamb’s Liver and Irish Stew. And if you couldn’t make up your mind you could do worse than choose the Local Producer Plate, their signature tasting plate.

The one that caught my eye was the Pork Loin, baked in Bombay Aloo (potato) & Fennel, with crackling (15.90). Crowe’s Farm are their regular supplier so I had no worries about the pork and in addition to the described elements there was also a helping of cracking kale (from Waterfall Farm), gratin potato and root vegetables. Overall, a superb mains, well thought out and equally well executed.

CL meanwhile was enjoying her Chicken Warm Salad, Mexican style, guacamole, tortillas and salsa (13.90), a bowl packed with colour, flavour and texture. 

Wines are supplied mainly by Liberty and Le Caveau and the birthday boy was invited to help himself by his driver for the day. Our server was confident about the wines and suggested I try the light unoaked and organic Mesta Tempranillo, a 2018 joven, from Ucles in Spain. She was spot on and I enjoyed the pairing!

We had each started with a “small” bowl of Rich Tomato and bean soup; they also had a chowder on offer. The soup took the cold out of the system and we settled back to enjoy our mains.

Nash believe in quality. Not alone do they source the best but they handle it well all the way from delivery to the plate. And it is not just quality. Quantity is never lacking here. So we were pretty full when the dessert question came up!

I studied the list, again no shortage of choice. The legendary Raspberry Mille Feuille caught my attention immediately but then I spotted something that might better suit the cool October day and so we decided to share the Pillow Meringue with spiced plums and hot chocolate sauce (6.60). Glad to report my hunch was right on the money. Indeed, those mildly spiced plums were worth the money on their own.

So there you are. What’s another year? Let’s see.