Petronella

From wherever your are standing on the High Street in Kilkenny, a few minutes walk will get you to the most famous of all the slips, the Butterslip Lane and to Petronella, the city’s most recently opened Restaurant-Cafe. Over four hundred years ago horse drawn carriages trundled down this thoroughfare. The charming slip with its pretty name is steeped in history and worn with footfall and remains so today.

Duck under the archway and just on the right Petronella is becoming a regular for those who have discovered her. Guest Book entries already bear testament to culinary experiences from both near and far, the last entry from a diner from Seattle says ‘as a chef I can truly recommend the cuisine and it blew me away. The presentation was classy and flavour profiles were ‘spot on’. No less important is the nine year old from Meath who recommended the ‘great chips and good orange’.

Petronella seats fifty customers. Situated over two floors, a specially commissioned impression by local artist Brock Butler of the figure herself hangs in the stairwell and is already becoming used to the photographs. Whatever the season and whatever your taste and however much

time you have to spend, both the menu and the layout are tailored to suit. Tables are thoughtfully spaced and many have remarked on how easy it is to dine alone if preferred but few can figure out why. Window seats upstairs draw the eye to the timelessness of the lane below. Original stone walls and overhead beams draw comments all of the time and the romance and ambience are pulled together in the specially chosen background music.

Petronella is easy to drop in to but harder to leave.

The cornerstone of the culinary experience is in the welcoming and attentive staff and the

individuality of the customer. Requests and enquiries from diners form part of the spirit of a collective dining experience. Petronella’s doors open at 11.30am with lunches until 3pm

followed by those who drop in for coffee and tea until 5pm when the early bird begins,

with last orders at 9pm. Throughout the day all of the menus drawon our chefs’ wealth of experience and the personal touch of the owner whose daily presence and past years spent in the restaurant business and no less in the area of tourism, continue to be relied on. Whether in conversation or having a direct hand in for example baking Petronella’s own in house bread, his plans are to soon introduce both an old Scottish Island bread recipe to the menu and a much loved Halloween brack as soon as the Autumn sets in. Already customers have remarked on ‘the delicious tea and crackling biscuits’. The chefs’ modern approaches to current demands such as the individualized nature of, for example, gluten free or vegetarian menu, are continually researching newdishes such as Potato Rosties &Smoked; Salmon, frittatas with quinoa salads and crème brulees with ratafia biscuits. Petronella has just opened but is already warming to the coffee concerts and other musical events planned for the months to come. Locals’ pride in their interest in sharing their knowledge about Petronella becomes

apparent when they come to dine. Petronella Restaurant-Café looks forward to always

dipping into the archives on her namesakes remarkable history as the first woman to be

burnt at the stake in Europe. Situated around the corner from where Petronella met her end

is where you are invited to dine and where new histories will begin.