Gareth Naughton: "We want to be a really great neighbourhood restaurant – a restaurant you could stick in any town in Ireland, and people would love it"

Growing up in Dublin, Gareth Naughton was never, by his own admission, the studious type. In fact, long before he was earning accolades as an executive chef, his main focus was rugby – a career vision that was upended, however, by an injury sustained as a teenager.

“I went to a non-rugby-playing secondary school, but I played for a really good club, from about 6 to 16,” he recalls. “I was really pushing that, and trying to be professional. That was the dream.

“I wasn’t great in school,” he continues. “I didn’t really enjoy it, so rugby was an important outlet, for team-building and all of that. When I lost that, I lost my way in school. I actually failed my Leaving Cert.”

Thankfully, another passion had been simmering away below the surface throughout his younger years.

“I was really into food,” he tells me. “I watched a lot of cookery shows as a kid, and I used to read cookbooks, and Food & Wine magazine. So I wanted to be a chef – I just didn’t really know much about kitchens.

“But my sister’s best friend’s dad was a big meat wholesaler, and he got me my first job,” he adds. “I was thrown in at the deep end – I was given a week’s training and then put on the pastry section. And after about two months, I was the pastry chef in the restaurant. I fell in love with it instantly. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, it all made sense to me. The structure and the hard work made me focus.”

Credit: Cat Gundry-Beck

Fast forward a decade or two, and Gareth had established himself as one of the most buzzed-about names in Irish food, as the head chef and co-founder of Circa in Terenure – which earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand within a few months of opening in 2019.

Rising costs sadly resulted in Circa’s closure in October 2022 – though Gareth had moved on to other kitchens by then, including a spell as head chef at Charlotte Quay in Grand Canal Dock. But more recent years have seen him extend his reach beyond the capital, with the opening of the lauded Neighbourhood restaurant, in the heart of Naas.

Located in a former pub on the town’s Main Street, Neighbourhood has quickly become a hit with locals, blow-ins and culinary pilgrims alike – scoring a spot in the Michelin Guide every year since its opening in late 2022, as well as winning Restaurant of the Year at the 2023 Georgina Campbell Irish Food & Hospitality Awards, and a steady string of Irish Restaurant Awards.

While he acknowledges that Terenure and Naas are “very different towns,” Gareth feels they have their similarities too.

“Terenure is very community-driven, and so is Naas,” he says. “Everyone knows each other. Before we even came into the restaurant, everyone already knew us, and knew what was happening. It’s a small town, so it definitely wasn’t a secret around Naas what was going on!

“But everyone in Naas has been so kind to us,” he adds. “And so welcoming.”

 

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With Neighbourhood, Gareth and his team have strived to make Michelin-quality dining experiences accessible, in a local setting.

“It’s in the name: Neighbourhood,” he elaborates. “We want to be a really great neighbourhood restaurant – a restaurant that you could stick in any town in Ireland, and people would love it. That’s the goal.”

Another important part of Neighbourhood’s ethos is “to be as Irish as possible, in everything we do.”

“We wanted that to be the cornerstone of everything we do, especially because there’s such great produce in Kildare,” he resumes. “We use JJ Young as our butcher – he’s really great, and just down the road from us. And our dairy we get from a local farm. We’ve got great stuff growing locally, so we try to use as much as we can.”

That homegrown emphasis extends to the tunes in the kitchen too.

“We play such a mix of things – Florence Road, 2Pac… All the lads are quite young, and they love the Irish music scene at the moment, so we play a lot of young Irish bands.”

Music, he tells me, was another early passion.

“I wasn’t very trendy!” he laughs. “I was into progressive rock – Pink Floyd kind of style. But I went through a phase in my mid-twenties, where I was trying my best to either be in a band, or be a chef. I couldn’t do both.

“They’re very similar, creatively – but they’re very different as well. In a band, everyone has to have the same drive and ambition. But to be a chef, it’s very singular. It’s all about your passion, your creativity, your drive.

“As a chef, you can go work in Noma, or you can go work in McDonald’s. It’s totally your journey, whatever way you want to go. That’s what I loved about it. I wasn’t reliant on anyone else – I was reliant on myself, to get where I wanted to go.”

Through that hard work, Gareth has found himself in the midst of a movement of innovative Irish chefs, who have transformed the country’s culinary scene over these past few years.

“Even since Covid, it’s crazy to see how Irish food has developed,” he says of the scene here. “You can really see it – the chefs who have gone abroad, and have come back with their own ideas. They’re opening really exciting restaurants now. That’s what Ireland needs. It needs to be a destination for people around the world, when it comes to food. We have the best produce in the world – the best seafood, the best dairy, the best beef, the best lamb. We have unbelievable producers. The easy part is what we do – taking their raw ingredients, and making beautiful food out of them.”

While trends come and go, he feels these days, it’s “all about putting out the best product possible.”

“Because people can tell now, when you’re not putting your heart and soul into it,” he explains. “They can tell when it’s just a paint-by-numbers restaurant doing paint-by-numbers food. The Irish customer is so much more educated now, than they would’ve been even 10 years ago. Irish people really know good food. They’ve been abroad, and they’ve been to countries with great food scenes. So if you’re trying to give out lacklustre food, they’ll let you know, very quickly..”

 

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What would be some of Gareth’s own favourite places to eat?

“I love restaurants like BIGFAN, Grano and Kicky’s,” he continues. “Casual restaurants with really great food are the places I enjoy going to the most.”

What about his Irish beverages of choice?

“I’m not a huge drinker anymore, but a Guinness or a gin and tonic would be my drink,” he tells me. “I love Glendalough Gin – that’s always been my favourite. Shortcross have their own gin as well, and I absolutely love that.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Hope Beer too,” he adds. “I love their beers. And Rye River Brewing in Celbridge as well.”

Naas, of course, is full of top-class food and drink options – though, outside of Neighbourhood, you’re most likely to find Gareth in one of the town’s coffee shops.

“I’m a big coffee drinker,” he says. “It’s my weakness. I love Bad Habits Coffee, and PS Coffee Roasters. Hey Darling as well. That’s where I spend most of my time in Naas – those three coffee shops!”

While Neighbourhood has clearly found a happy home in Naas, looking to the future, Gareth tells me he’d “love to expand” the business.

“Our next goal would be a Neighbourhood in Dublin somewhere, hopefully in the next 12 months,” he reveals. “We’re also planning to bring chefs down to Naas to do some exciting things – and have some pop-ups, and more exposure of Neighbourhood.

“We’ve always thought of Neighbourhood as something that could be anywhere – any big town in Ireland,” he adds. “That’s the whole ethos.”

• Neighbourhood is open Wednesdays to Sundays, and is located at 1 North Main Street, Naas. For more, see neighbourhoodnaas.com