Nolan’s Private Selection of Grain Fed Black Angus is the premium brand of beef that we Dry Age in house. This private selection is sourced from grain-finished yearling beef, renowned for superior product quality and is characterised by a clean juicy taste, which upon eating, delivers a light crisp flavour on the palate. This selection comes only from beef that is in compliance with the production and processing requirements to exceed the MSA eating quality money-back guarantee standards. It is on display within the restaurant and hung by the tender stretch method to enhance tenderness. ​

Here at The Gates Restaurant, we hang whole primal cuts of beef within our dry ageing room between 4-6 weeks before serving to achieve maximum concentration of flavour and tenderness. Only the finer cuts of beef are dry-aged as the process requires a large, evenly distributed marbling content and involves considerable expense. ​ Our specifically constructed and equipped dry ageing room operates in the manner of a very cold storage unit (running at 1-2 degrees Celsius), but with all moisture extracted from the room. ​

The key effects of the process of dry ageing beef are the concentration and saturation of the natural flavours, as well as the tenderisation of the meat texture. This process changes the beef by two means: Firstly, moisture is evaporated from the muscle creating a greater concentration of beef flavour and secondly, the beef's natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle which leads to more tenderised beef.

Dry-aged beef is not typically sold outside of specialist restaurants because of the time and cost involved in the process and the significant loss of weight (approximately one third) experienced by the beef. We at The Gates recommend the best ordering of all steaks to be cooked no more than medium-rare - this is due to less moisture, resulting in much dryer meat if cooked for longer periods of time.