The Northern Ireland village becoming a destination spot for foodies

Just twenty minutes from Belfast, the village features no shortage of award-winning restaurants and local producers

The picturesque village of Moira is small but mighty, having a vast array of unique boutiques, craft shops, and independent traders lining its Main Street.

But the village is fast becoming known for being a destination spot for foodies, with no shortage of award-winning restaurants and local producers. Many of these traders are showcased each year at the Moira Speciality Food Fair, which returns to Moira Demesne this weekend.

Ahead of the food fair, Belfast Live stopped by the friendly and well-loved village for a chat with local food businesses, about what makes the area a must-visit spot for food fans.

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Wine & Brine is celebrating its 10th year in business, and is a key feature on the village’s Main Street. The restaurant is operated by chef Chris McGowan – who appeared on Great British Menu and has worked in a number of Michelin starred restaurants – alongside his wife Davina.

The award-winning restaurant focuses on offering seasonal fare, specialising in showcasing pickled, brined, and fermented dishes made with local produce.

Chris said: “We moved back from London 11 years ago and were trying to set down roots with a young family, so were trying to find a spot with schools nearby and a place to set up business. We wanted somewhere we could walk to work for a change, after having lived in London and commuted most of my career.

“We looked in excess of 100 sites north and south of the border. But this site came up on two occasions, the first time we weren’t able to get it, a property developer got it and flipped it. Then it went to auction and we picked it, we bought it without seeing inside.”

As for what makes Moira an ideal foodie destination, Chris said: “We’re from the North Coast, but did a lot of research into Moira and found there’s a really good agri-food culture around here. Obviously Peter Hannan up the road at The Meat Merchant is widely known not just on this island, but across the water and further afield all over Europe.

“People in this area know their food, there’s a big farming culture, so it was something that fitted this style of food we wanted to do, seasonal local produce we would have to go out and source.

“Being in the centre of Moira is great because people can walk to you, but a lot of people would drive from further afield to us. We have people from all over the country who come down for Sunday lunch and family events.

“There are a lot of businesses who have been here for a long time then you have people like us that have been here for ten years, and newer businesses like the bakery Glume that has been open for a few years. They’re a young couple who have come to the village, bringing a skill set that’s doing something very different than anything else out there, and I love that.

“There’s a real buzz in the village’s food scene, and I love the uniqueness of the food businesses here. I think it helps that Moira is only 20 minutes from Belfast, it has really good railway connections and the station is about a ten minute walk away.

“This place has a completely different vibe to Belfast, and there’s a real sense of community. Having lived here for 11 years now and working in the village, I walk down the street and it’s nice that everyone will say hi to each other. That’s nice to experience after living in London where it was very survival of the fittest – there’s a very different pace to life here.”

Despite their accolades and award wins over the year, Chris said on a day-to-day basis, he loves the interaction they’re able to have with the community. Ten years ago, they attended the first Moira Speciality Food Fair soon before opening their doors, and used it as a chance to introduce themselves to the village.

“We wanted to get a sense of what people in Moira wanted from the restaurant,” he explained. “It was about having something people could buy into and felt comfortable with. We deliberately set up an open kitchen so when people come through the door, it’s less formal and more relaxed.

“We wanted to create a space people would feel is approachable. We will have people come through the door with loads of wild blackberries, or apples – stuff they’ve got in their gardens that they won’t be able to use up.

“They bring it in to us, and I love that. They’ll come in with their little Quality Street box filled with redcurrants and blackberries – to me, that’s what a real local restaurant is. They feel is their place they want to come and they want to share that with you. I love that they’ll come in and sit down to have something on the menu they’ve brought in to us.

“We’ve won awards and that’s all great and you work hard for it, but none of that compares to the feeling when you know you’ve created a space people love and are comfortable in. That means more to me than any of the other stuff that comes as a byproduct from doing your craft. The human aspect of people coming in and loving it is where the real success is for me.”

One of the village’s newest food spots is just a few doors down at The Pie Shop, which has been open for around a year and a half. The idea came from a family barbecue, where chef David Kenny said after spending 35 years in the industry, would love to just “make pies all day.”

His sister-in-law, Mandie Brankin, said the past year has been a whirlwind. She said: “We thought of numerous names, but then when all the work was going on, people kept asking us ‘How’s the Pie Shop coming along?’ So we thought, why change it?

“What we do is nice and simple. David is a big believer in only using local ingredients, and everything’s handmade on the premises, we don’t use any preservatives or additives. He butchers his own beef, the likes of topside and kidneys are all cooked for 20 hours.

“The pastry we use is hot water pastry, which is a real labour of love because you can only work with it while it’s hot. Once it goes cold, it goes like a brick, so you only have a short time to work with it, but we think it’s the best pastry. We have a 93 year old pie press we use for our shells, we make sure to use traditional pie making methods.

“On a typical day, we ususally have around 15 different flavours of pies, we have our staples on the menu then a fridge full of specials.”

Mandie said they have noticed people travelling from all over Ireland and further afield travelling to Moira to try the food offerings.

“I think Moira is a very attractive village, and over the past ten or so years it’s really grown with attracting a lot of really good restaurants,” she added.

“The amount of visitors we get is incredible, until I opened the shop I didn’t realise how many people come to the village to shop. We have customers coming from Dublin and Galway, we even had a guy from Chicago come in who follows us on social media.

“We were never going to open anywhere else – it was always going to be Moira.”

Jonny Cuddy started Ispini Charcuterie nine years ago. A pig farmer by trade, he was wanting to try something a bit different, and learned about salami making from a coffee table book.

Now, he makes an exciting range of award-winning charcuterie, and is this year opening a production facility beside his supplier, The Meat Merchant.

“I had never even tasted salami before, I didn’t know what it was really. But I learned about the process of making it,” he said.

“As a typical Tyrone farmer I was reared on sausage and bacon, so I plucked up the courage to try a salami. I picked the name Ispini as I wanted some sort of Irish heritage, and it means sausages in Gaelic, and it’s also an Italian surname, so it ticketed all the boxes well.”

Jonny said through the business, he has been able to research old methods and recipes for meat curing. He explained: “Northern Ireland was famous for linen, but it’s next biggest export was cured meats.

“We had things like the Irish roll and Belfast ham, which were hung in the mills above the looms to dry them out. We keep trying to bring that heritage back into what we do, we try to put our own wee spin onto it.

“We have one that’s a stout and molsasses lomo, a dried pork loin which is in a Belfast bacon cure I found the recipe for in a 1738 edition of the Belfast News Letter. We’re trying to bring more of those traditional influences back into our recipes.”

Ispini Charcuterie opened an outlet in Moira back in 2020 due to the pandemic, with Jonny saying they have a very exciting couple of years ahead. He is looking forward to opening their new production facility in the town, and for attending the Speciality Food Fair over the weekend.

He said: “In Moira, we’re really spoiled for choice with the food businesses, and it’s all within walking distance too. We get all our pork and everything from The Meat Merchant, so it makes even more sense to be here, our supply chain is literally across the street.

“This will be our eighth year at the food fair and there’s nowhere else like it. You have people coming who have a real interest in the food, tasting it, and supporting local producers which is fantastic.

“It’s just the setting of the park and Demesne, there’s something really special about it, and I think the fair has helped push Moira on to be known as a foodie hotspot, and it’s really lovely just showcasing the village like that.”

The Moira Speciality Food Fair takes place on August 16 and 17 from 10am to 6pm at Moira Demesne. For more information, click here.

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