Food and Retail Awards

Archive - all the best places to eat, shop and stay in Ireland. A local guide to local places.

Shop of the Year - Glasrai and Goodies
Glasrai & Goodies is a tiny tabernacle, and it is every food lover’s dream. Siobhan Lawlor's tiny shop is crammed to the joists – literally – with the best things Ireland offers to eat and drink, all of them selected and then presented with Siobhan’s expert aesthetic eye. There is no more beguiling a destination to shop in Ireland, the food room that is like a food womb. Glasrai & Goodies

Producer of the Year - Ponaire Coffee
With a new roasting house and café at Newport, Tipperary nearing completion, Jennifer and Tommy of Ponaire are celebrating ten years in business, and are moving into 2016 the only way they know how: by moving forward, by getting better, by getting the precious roasts of Ponaire out to more people and, thereby, making their lives a whole lot better. Ponaire

Innovation of the Year - Eat Trout by Goatsbridge
We have already given Mags and Ger Kirwan a Megabites Award, for their unique trout caviar, a few years back. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Kirwans see their fish as offering a limitless stream of culinary possibilities, as they have offered us canned fish, barbecued fish, fish pates, and smoked fish, all alongside their excellent fresh trout, and all brilliantly packaged under the Eat Trout banner. You gotta work hard to keep up with these guys. Goatsbridge

Newcomer of the Year – Velvet Cloud Irish Sheep's Milk Yogurt
The one cloud that is going to be truly important in 2016, is Mayo's Velvet Cloud Sheep's Milk Yogurt. Michael and Aisling Flanagan have farmed sheep for generations and here is a product that will revolutionise your breakfast granola, as well as producing the best Labneh you've ever eaten. Velvet Cloud