People come from all around the area (and a stop en route to holiday in west Cork has become de rigeur) to shop at Ruth Healy’s stylish, modern culinary store on the river: a kitchen shop, deli, foodstore and café, it offers a unique combination of quality products - and great coffees and teas too, to sip with your artisan snack.
Whether you’re looking for the very best of specialist Irish foods from producers like Ummera Smokehouse, Frank Krawczyk, James McGeough, Caherbeg and Gubbeen, a cookbook or that special something for your kitchen - or top drawer larder imports like single estate olive oil, balsamic vinegar, teas, coffees, wines; you’ll find the very best of everything in this bright and colourful store, hand picked because it’s special.
And, although the café is very informal, with a choice of high stools at the beechwood counter or seating at one large table at the back of the shop, the same principles apply to the fare offered here – a daily blackboard suggests simple but unusual combinations that include artisan products that are also on sale (smoked fish and meats, salamis, farmhouse cheeses, charcuterie, breads, preserves, pastries, ice creams, honey) and, if you wish, to take away.
Wines are charged at the retail price plus €5 corkage – and, unusually, no tips are accepted.
Well worth a look, so take the town route instead of the by-pass next time you’re heading west.
Seats 16; children welcome; air conditioning. Open Mon-Sat 8.45am-5.30pm. Wine from shop plus €5 corkage. No SC. Closed Sun, Bank Hols, 25-28 Dec. Amex, MasterCard, Visa, Laser.
