IT is going to be a jamboree of good grub, Dublin's Temple market, which is baptised this very morning in Meeting House Square.
The folk who will be staffing the stalls are passionate people, passionate about the foods they produce and sell, passionate about getting this new venture just right, passionate about the very idea of the market.
Take Seamus Sheridan, who runs Sheridan's cheese shop in Galway with his brother Kevin.
Ask him for one of his special Ardrahan cheeses, made in Kanturk by Mary and Eugene Burns.
"Mary Burns made some small Ardrahans for us and sent them up to Galway, and they were just incredible," says Sheridan. "We hold them for eight weeks to mature them, and they are maybe the most incredible cheese in the country right now!"
Nobody ever speaks like that about a packet of cheese slices.
The market will be a new show-case for a band of men and women who have made the most colossal difference to Irish shopping in the past few years, shaking up every local market they have attended from Bantry to Belfast, transforming our understanding of just what a market can and should offer.
Chief among these pioneers is, of course, Toby Simmonds, of the Real Olive Co. "This market is really Toby's baby," says Una Carmody of Temple Bar Properties. Mr Simmonds has been mapping out the Temple Bar area with a view to establishing this market for some time now, assisted by Ms Carmody's determination that it should be a true artisan's market, devoted solely to food.
As Seamus Sheridan says: "We want it to be a place for Irish foods, the real specialist foods from the best producers," a statement echoed by Una Carmody. "The philosophy is to try to help the small producers, and therefore rents are minimal," she says. "We aim to make it informal and pleasant, and if people want to turn up on a particular day and sell what they have, they are welcome. All they, have to do is set up and clean up.
Keep an eye peeled for the baking of Sarali Webb, of the Gallic Kitchen, who will be bringing her sausage rolls, chocolate chip cookies, cracking vegetable burriots and a host of other goodies.
Silke Cropp will have driven down from Belturbet, Co Cavan with her own Corleggy, Drumlin and Quivvy farmhouse cheese. "I can see the market spilling out from the square and extending right through temple Bar in a few years' time," Ms Cropp comments optimistically.
Be sure to check out the splendid pates made by Isabel Sheridan, and the dazzling chutneys made by Janet Drew, and the lovely oils made by Miriam Griffith of Olvi Oils.
Mary Moran will be up from Kilcock, Co Kildare with country butter, and Denis Healey will have culled the organic vegetables and brought them up from Co Wicklow. Gerry Arnold will have the soft fruits, and will surely have more and more to offer as the season unfolds, and Barra McFeeley will have the real local food, his own Dunbarra cheese, made just across the river in Smithfield.
Make sure you do not go home without buying some of Frank Hedermann's smoked mussels. For me, they are one of the great foods to be found in the country, expertly smoked and prepared in a vinaigrette with mustard seeds, olive and sunflower oil, some white wine vinegar and some balsamic vinegar, and a little garlic.