Ruth Healy's culinary store in Bandon, Co Cork is a cook's dream, writes Alannah Hopkin.
When Ruth Healy left a high-flying job in sales and marketing to set up her own business, she made a major lifestyle change, which lies behind Urru, the title of her culinary store. Urru stands for urban to rural, and is deliberately palindromic, as the traffic is both ways. It is there to reassure people like Ruth, who have made the move from urban life to rural life, that they have not left all vestige of style and creature comforts behind.
You can still drop into Urru for a latte and some panini, and stock up on sour dough or spelt bread, olive oil, coffee, balsamic vinegar and other essentials. For the mostly rural food producers, Urru stands for rural into urban, providing an outlet for their produce, be it farmhouse cheese, home-made pâtés, wild smoked salmon, fruit tarts, mousses, ice cream or chocolate chip cookies.
"Everyone loves good food, whether you're rural or urban," says Ruth. "The idea at Urru is that we do the shopping around for you, so instead of going into Cork, or to several different small producers, you can come here and get it all at once."
To the rest of us, for whom Bandon is the place you take the lawnmower or the chainsaw to be serviced, Urru is an oasis in the desert. Not only salubrious, but downright stylish, it is a place where you can happily while away the time, sipping tea or coffee and browsing among the fabulous selection of cook books, and cooking accessories.
Food was Ruth Healy's hobby, and she went about her career change with thoroughness, completing a certificate course at Ballymaloe before getting stuck into her new venture. Originally from Waterfall, near Cork, she has lived in London, Japan and Dublin, and her latest transition is to the relative isolation of village life in Kilbrittain, a tiny but picturesque spot a few miles outside Bandon.
The title culinary store was carefully chosen to avoid the limited emphasis on fresh food conjured up by delicatessen (a much-abused term in Ireland), and the implication of special occasion and expensive attached to the word gourmet. "I am a passionate food lover, the whole thing, not just the eating of it, but the preparation of it, and the shopping for it," she says. "I called it a culinary store because it's not just the food itself, it's the tools you use, the books you read, the way you shop. I wanted it to be a comfortable place where there is no elitism, where people wouldn't feel intimidated coming in."
Healy has taken a gamble by locating Urru not on Bandon's main street, nor even on a through road, but on the hidden-away riverfront, in the ground floor of a converted warehouse. Currently a back street, within a year or so there will be a new community of potential customers who have chosen to live in the dramatic warehouse apartments overlooking the river's bubbling weir. At the moment, it is mainly a parking area, handy for the Friday morning Farmers' Market.
Urru, with its orange window frames and curved wood counter, sets a high standard. It was designed by the architect Patrick Power of Dublin. The finishing touches, large customised posters, were made by Ruth's business partner - her brother, Willie, a graphic designer.
There is only one large eight-seater table for tea and coffee drinkers, because Urru is first and foremost a shop. It is cleverly designed so that the everyday business of bread (fresh daily from Declan Ryan's Arbutus Bread), fresh foods, condiments, teas and coffees is to your left on entering, while the smaller right-hand area entices you in with a selection that Ruth calls "indulgences". Beyond the chocolate selection are the shelves of cookbooks, wine from Bubble Brothers, Screwpull wine accessories, and a selection of gimmicky gadgetry from Bodrum, Typhoon, Culinaire and other top quality brands. "Everything in this section you could probably live without, but would you want to?" Ruth asks, knowing very well that you do not.
Urru Culinary Store, The Mill, McSwiney Quay, Bandon, Co Cork (023-54731), www.urru.ie.