Putting on the Glitz With its beautiful antiques and fantasyland decor, the Irish Acres Gallery has transformed the tiny community of Nonesuch into a virtual destination point.

Downstairs, made-fresh-daily Southern gourmet goodies tickle palates in  restaurant aptly named "The Glitz," a cavernous, silver-and-mauve basement with grapevines and silk plants twining down its limestone walls, twinkling lights draped with iridescent "fantasy paper," chairs and tables from Hialeah Race Track, and a splashy chandelier-festooned addition called Crystal Alley, with longer tables for group seating. In 1988 the eatery earned an award from Restaurants and Institutions magazine for most creative design on a restricted budget, describing its style as "absurd and honest, outrageous and ridiculous." And what's more, the decor of this 32,000 square-foot treasure trove directly reflects the vibrant personalities of its owners, Arch and Bonnie Hannigan and their daughters, Emilie McCauley and Jane Hannigan.

Since 1987, Emilie and Jane, both graduates of the Atlanta School of Interior Design, have run this unusual attraction in Nonesuch, while Arch and Bonnie have minded Irish Acres Antiques in Rush, Kentucky, near Ashland. Jane manages the gallery, arranges displays and buys giftware, while Emilie's domain is the restaurant and kitchen. With the help of neighbor Pauline Weber, Emilie does all the cooking for a full-service (appetizer, entree, dessert and beverage) luncheon menu that changes every two weeks. As this chef explains, limiting choices takes the stress out of ordering lunch and totally eliminates "dessert guilt."

"If you've paid for it, you just have to eat it!" she quips.

Woodford County organic growers Jim and Elizabeth Boggs supply much of the produce, which Emilie then incorporates into old family recipes. The only selection that's always available is The Glitz's signature dessert, the "Nonesuch Kiss," a delicate baked meringue shell topped with mocha ice cream, hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and a cherry that tastes just like a "giant, gooey malted milk ball."

A Family Investment

In the early '70s while the young Hannigan sisters showed horses, their vivacious mom would go antiquing to relieve "horse show boredom." Soon she was selling things out of their house. In fact, one morning Bonnie woke Jane up and said, "Honey, make up your bed. Someone's here to buy it." Though her mother did that twice, the younger Hannigan recalls, she promised to replace the piece with something better. And she always did, upgrading from an iron bed to a brass/iron one, and finally to solid brass.

Bonnie upgrades the inventory in both stores in the same manner. In the beginning, primitives, oaks and pie safes comprised the majority of Irish Acres' stock. Today those items are interspersed with items of "high-end taste," such as Meissen porcelains and fine French antiques. Currently, a bedroom suite

commissioned by U.S. President McKinley at the turn of the century shares center stage with a 200-year-old hand-painted Venetian bedroom suite that belonged to opera diva Maria Callas. Liberace memorabilia adds a posthumous splash with his hand-carved dining room suite, complete with inlaid Venetian mirror around the table border. And then there is perhaps one of Irish Acres' most unusual pieces, a gaudy, hot pink, gold-leaf three-seater "ménage á trois" (so named tongue-in-cheek by Jane and Emilie).

The original Ashland-area Irish Acres store began when Bonnie sold their dining room table out from under a family dinner one evening. After the customer left, Arch said, "Bonnie, if you want to be in the antique business, we have a vacant barn next door. It's time to move." So, starting with one room of merchandise, Arch drywalled, hung stained glass, laid carpet, and piped in music, gradually growing Irish Acres Antiques to 17,000 square feet, one stall at a time.

According to Jane, that's her dad's business philosophy: "Buy a big building. Lay carpet, pipe in music and keep it clean." First-time visitors to Irish Acres Gallery of Antiques often presume they'll be digging through huge rooms of dirty furniture in an antiques mall. They are shocked when they walk into spotless rooms filled with furniture groupings and decorated to the nines.

The Nonesuch property fell into the family's hands when a friend who'd purchased the old school building at a board of education auction decided the space was larger than his needs. When Arch took his wife and girls to scope it for the first time, he forgot the key and had to crawl in through a window. Shrubs reached the windows, grass grew over the sidewalk, the gym was littered with deflated basketballs, and birds and bats shared the premises.

"Structurally, it was real sound, Emilie remembers, "but aesthetically, it was a mess.

For two years Arch Hannigan lived in the old school, working day and night. The last year Emilie moved in to help. "I'd hear the power stapler at four a.m. and he'd have just gone to bed at midnight. He was a man with a mission. He loves projects."

And he kept the Hannigan ladies busy. Bonnie and Jane scurried to sell antiques, drapes and wallcoverings to cover the expenses he was incurring. By the time he hit the basement, time, energy and money were depleted, so the family improvised, gathering grapevines from nearby fields and "glitzing up" furnishings. "We call it our 23 months of blood, sweat and tears," Jane now laughs.

Old Fashioned Advertising

Irish Acres' easy-on-the-budget promotional campaign can be summed up in two words: customer service and word-of-mouth. "We've never advertised," Jane says. "My parents have always believed that you have to do it right -- keep the place pretty and be nice to people. We don't want to get so commercial and busy that we lose the personal touch."

The Hannigan method must work: the business draws an average of several hundred per day (more during the holidays) and even garnered a tourism award last year from the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce. Well over 50,000 folks find their way to Nonesuch and its delightful treasure each year during regular 10 to 5, Tuesday through Saturday hours, from mid- March through December. Sheer demand makes reservations a must for lunch.

Located beneath Irish Acres Gallery of Antiques, the decor of the Glitz provides a unique luncheon setting.

Initially, Irish Acres was open all year, but the ice storms of 1994 changed that. When the weather curtailed business drastically, Lexington's Hope Center received quantities of "Glitz gourmet," and the Hannigans decided to close for the slow winter months. "People start calling in March," Jane laughs, "and leave messages saying, 'We can't wait till you reopen."'

Looking to the future, the family plans to realize their dream of consolidating both shops under the Nonesuch roof in order to minimize maintenance for the elder Hannigans (now purchase for both locations) more on-the-road antique-buying time. "They go out on calls nearly every night," Emilie explains, "and have the best time at the thrill of the search."

Expect the Gallery to grow by 10,000 square feet and the "project man" to add an oriental rug department, a tea room with outdoor seating, landscaping with an English garden look, a distinctive gate, and fountains. Expect more glitz throughout from resourceful, high-energy Bonnie. And be sure to scout out Rae Rae, "the Route 3 hound dog," who'll probably be happily snoozing on a priceless antique sofa, just as she has for the past 12 years!

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report

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