John hopes better days ahead for traders at St George’s Market

The market stall he loves was badly by the pandemic from March. John, who specialises in pulled pork snacks and hand crafted sauces, never gave up hope that the gates to the historic market would eventually reopen… and they did but only for short period until the current lockdown.

They will open again to traders, shoppers and tourists in the near future. And John will be back again with his delicious rib snacks, accompanying sauces in

handy flasks and some new products he’s been shaping during the forced downtime.

“It’s been an immensely difficult year, one we all want to forget,” he says. “I had launched Lagan Rib with my great friend John Graham in late 2018 and had been looking forward forward to growing the business especially last year. We had just launched a range of our own sauces at St George’s and had set up a small kitchen just around the corner from the building.

“We love the market. There’s a great vibe especially when there’s a live band. The craic is mighty particularly with visitors from abroad eager to find out how we cook the ribs and our unique marinade. We also try to use as many ingredients as possible from other traders such as bread, vegetables and spices. The ribs are sourced from Armstrong Meats at Castlereagh. Our hope is that the market gets back quickly to those days when the coronavirus has gone.

“We’d make the sauces and marinate pork ribs overnight and then take them over the road to our stall every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Business was brisk especially from hundreds of tourists who came to enjoy our freshly marinated and pulled ribs in a bun and also to buy our range of sauces. The popularity of their sauces – Irish Whiskey, Irish Cider, and Rum and Raisin – led to requests from shoppers where they could buy them outside the market. The tourists, of course, largely disappeared in 2020. And there were fewer local shoppers when the market was open.”

While the small business began initially as a street food venture specialising in pulled ribs, it was moving steadily into other channels as a result of the growing reputation for quality and tasty sauces that led to opportunities to supply delis and butchers around the Belfast area in particular.

“We certainly saw scope to build a strong business on the back of the distinctive sauces and other food we had been looking at,” he continues. “The pandemic

inhibited our work at the market and encouraged us to look at other ideas including retailing the sauces and our recent launch of a dry rub for meats. Innovation is the way ahead for us now. I had been developing the rub for some time for our street food operation and for retailing. A rub is a great way to add extra flavours to a meat dish. It’s a combination of spices and herbs. Our dry rub also has a quite different ingredient in the shape of a small sprinkling of dulse, a natural product from our coastline which many families here will know about. We are hoping that this will prove another retail success.”

The two friends have known each other for over 30 years and both worked separately in bars around Belfast. John Graham owned several local pubs while John O’Hare served his time as a chef and created tasty dishes in pubs, such as the famed Kitchen Bar, before his retirement in 2018.

“I really didn’t want to give up working with the excellent ingredients readily available here from so many dedicated suppliers. I wanted to keep on creating tasty snacks for people to experience,” he adds. “I always wanted to go into business for myself and had been talking to John, my oldest and best friend, about doing something together in food. He was also very keen on catering, a business we both knew well and loved working in.”

They took the leap into business together for the first time in October 2018, setting up the small food business in St George’s specialising in high-end ‘street food’ - delicious eat-on-the - go pork rib delicacies for snacking.

“We decided on street food because there’s been a revolution here in this type of snacking that’s largely being driven by younger consumers seeking different

tastes and focused on delicious and highly portable snacks,” he explains.

For more information visit www.visitbelfast.com.

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