FoodRetailing: Quality food halls are opening up in the city and suburbs to cater for time-poor types, writes Kathryn Holmquist
Young professionals living in Dublin's city centre have been dangerously close to having to go out to the suburbs to do a decent shop. Convenience stores, low-cost supermarkets, coffee shops and sandwich bars may be just about satisfactory for the office worker in search of a quick bite but, for urban dwellers, they don't compare to the long-established quality food stores in Dublin's urban villages, such as Morton's in Ranelagh, Caviston's in Glasthule, Fothergill's in Rathmines or Donnybrook Fair.
Dublin-dwellers have had to turn to restaurants for convenient, fresh, healthy food cooked daily on the premises - and even in restaurants that's not always the case.
Marks & Spencer, in Dublin since 1979, has long catered to the market for quality, ready-prepared food. With shops in Mary Street, Clarion Quay and Grafton Street - where it has recently expanded its property portfolio - Marks & Spencer has seen its profits rise. Its new emphasis on fresh, additive-free food that's ready to throw into an oven or wok is aimed at young, health-conscious professionals. While their parents may have been happy with shepherd's pie ready-to-go in the oven, 25-40-year-olds want uncooked vegetables, salads and fish that take only minutes to prepare.
Dunne Stores in South Great George's Street, meanwhile, has tailored itself to this well-heeled market, with a range to suit the consumer trend for "real" and adventurous food.
It's the property market that has created the growing demand for high quality, yet convenient, food. The building boom in Dublin has brought more young professionals to live in city apartments, while couples working in Dublin, but living outside it, need two incomes to afford a house. This makes the issue of who cooks the dinner a moot point, since both partners are too tired to do more than put a ready-meal in the microwave.
Marks & Spencer do a heavy trade from workers who come in for a take-away sandwich or salad at lunch-time, but pick up the makings of a dinner to bring home as well. M & S even sells insulated bags to keep the food fresh and offers a pick-up service so that commuters with cars can collect their shopping on their way home.
Chainstores like these have the advantage of owning property in prime locations. They prepare their food in huge centralised kitchens, then transport it to outlets. With the current trend for "slow food" and locally produced food, many consumers are turning away from ready-meals cooked on industrial estates in the midlands of England or industrial estates in Dublin, which is then trucked to outlets and sold as being nearly as good as home-made.
The Epicurean Food Hall, in Liffey Street, was probably the first Irish initiative to see the potential in artisan food. It's now being followed by Fallon & Byrne, which will market itself to consumers who aspire to eating only the best and don't mind paying a little more for it. In the suburbs, Avoca is going against the trend for chain-store croissants and coffee mall conglomerates to develop a "destination" food hall and restaurant on the Naas Road.
Profile: Fallon & Byrne
It won't just be a food hall, it will be a fabulous, Manhattan-style, meet-your-friends-there, taste-the-wine, organic-and-free-range and the chicken-died-happy food hall. It won't just be shopping: it will be unique and exclusive, put-your-feet-up, we've-sourced-the-products-so-you-don't-have-to shopping.
Opening at the end of March, Fallon & Byrne - a new 1,950sq m (21,000sq ft) food destination in Exchequer Street - is as much about property development as it is about quality food. It will have the products that foodies expect - specially sourced olive oils, artisan cheeses, fresh-baked French pastries, truffles and so on. But the food will be the co-star, even if it is top-of-the-range.
Fiona McHugh, one of three partners behind the venture, is so keen for Dubliners to share her excitement that the doors are being left open during development works so that people can have a look. McHugh, former editor of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, is developing Fallon & Byrne with her husband, developer Paul Byrne, and business partner Brian Fallon.
McHugh admits that, as much as she loves good food, it is the "fabulous" and "unique" Victorian ex-telephone exchange that had to come first. "French property developers have a phrase for it - coup de foudre - that heart-stopping moment when you know that you have found the perfect property and you absolutely have to have it," says McHugh.
It didn't even matter whether the property was located in the city or the suburbs. It had to have the "wow" factor to entice people interested in good, fresh food, who were also seeking a weekend or lunch-time outing where they could meet friends and bring the children. She won't say how much the 20-year lease is costing, adding that a year's negotiations led up to Fallon & Byrne's takeover of the property. McHugh and partners are pouring €2 million into refurbishing the property, but this figure is a little conservative because, as developers, they haven't had to hire builders.
An Italian-style coffee bar, 7ft deli counter, wine cellar with comfy leather-chair seating area and 115-seat French bistro-style restaurant are included in the plans. The term "food hall" is inadequate, she thinks, for the shopping and eating experience that Fallon & Byrne hope to offer. Prepared foods will be made on the premises as the consumers they're targeting don't want the standard, refrigerated ready-meals.
Fallon & Byrne will also be a local supermarket for young professionals living in the city. For this reason, the prices will be competitive on basics like pasta, tinned tomatoes and every-day olive oil. At the same time, the sky will be the limit for the finest olive oils, beef and truffles. She hopes that by providing a range of good value foods Fallon & Byrne will attract a "buzzy" cross-section of people. The atmosphere will make Fallon & Byrne the kind of place where people will go to meet their friends, to see and be seen.
Profile: Avoca
Opening in the autumn, the new Avoca food and shopping destination on the Naas Road will be a world apart from suburban sprawl and shopping centres.
Building from the ground up is Avoca's way of maintaining its brand identity as a place, not just a place to eat, purchase take-out food or shop for luxury gift items and clothing, according to Simon Pratt, one of Avoca's directors.
The Pratt family purchased the four-acre site, near Citywest, for €4 million and are investing €15 million in building a shop, restaurant and garden. "We're creating an oasis that will be a destination in itself," says Pratt.
The building is in the hands of Duffy, Mitchell and O'Donoghue architects, while Karl Barnes of Formality is creating the garden on a French, urban courtyard theme.
Avoca has never considered renting or leasing space in a shopping mall because, Simon believes, "shopping centres are mass market, bringing you down to the common denominator with things to deal with like multi-story car-parks and lifts. Avoca will be a complete contrast to that."
Visitors to the Avoca restaurant and shop in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, may have noticed that the building itself is a basic pre-fab shed. It's deceptive because it is screened by old, tall trees and leads the visitor through to an enormous, flagstone terrace that appears to be centuries old.
In fact, the terrace was created at the same time as the pre-fab that holds the restaurant, kitchens and shop. Yet it gives visitors a sense of being in the grounds of an elegant, old country house.
Avoca is hoping for a similar country house illusion near Citywest, although the building itself will be more substantial and of far higher quality. Pratt hopes that visitors will have the sense of arriving in a pleasant place to spend time.
The Naas Road location is ideal, he believes, not only because commuters will find it handy, but also due to the dearth of affordable, high quality restaurants selling healthy food on this part of the motorway from Dublin to Cork. The consumer who visits the new Avoca will be looking for more than a deli sandwich, a chocolate bar and a mineral.
In addition to passing trade, there are 6,500 workers at Citywest who, Pratt says, currently have no place to buy healthy, fresh, additive-free, home-cooked food. On weekends, families living in the new developments around the area will find Avoca attractive as a leisure destination.
With its reputation for healthy, wholesome food, Avoca could avoid the property issue completely and produce food in central kitchens, package it, then distribute it to mass market food stores. But Pratt won't hear of it.
"If you are purporting to sell fresh food on that basis, you either have to put preservatives in it or else give it an unrealistically short shelf life. It's just not possible for the food to be as fresh as when we prepare it ourselves in our own kitchens on the premises of our shops."
