Food Champion: Ruth Healy of Urru, Cork

Urru is my lovingly-run business. It’s what I spend most of my time doing, of course – but it’s also the way I try to spread the good news about Irish food to the public! There are so many great craft producers out there, doing amazing things.
First and foremost we’re a shop, but we have a café integrated into it. So, we have people coming in here to do their shopping, browsing the shelves for wine, kitchenware, cookery books, that kind of thing. A lot of the time, people decide, “Well, while I’m here exploring, I might as well sit down and have a bite to eat.”
The focus for us is very different to most businesses I know. We’re a contemporary space in a very traditional market town – and what we offer is what people might find in the likes of Fallon & Byrne, Avoca or Brown Thomas. It is all about seeking out quality. We’re also very interested in opening people’s minds and getting them to sample things they might not ordinarily try.
Everything that we serve in our cafe, we also sell in-store – so there are no different ‘tiers’ of food. That’s what customers love about it: our café experience is a taster. So, for example, if you’ve never had our smoked chicken before, you can try a smoked chicken sandwich in our café for lunch, and then buy it in our shop.
Our sandwiches would be one of the signature things on our menu, because we’ve taken a lot of time to find the best locally-sourced ingredients. And if I do say so myself – we’ve created something truly unique with them!

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