Fresh is a brand new supermarket for Dublin.The latest store to open is situated on the edge of Ringsend at Boland’s bridge (otherwise known as the Iron Bridge or more correctly the McMahon Bridge), where it will serve local residents of Dublin 4 and Dublin 2.

The feel of the location is distinctly modern, with high-rise buildings, a mixture of offices and residential, overlooking the basin of Grand Canal Dock. The supermarket is accessed by a wide paved walkway with the Ocean Bar across the water on the other side.

There are outdoor tables where you can sip your coffee and enjoy the dockland’s ambience and waterside view. Inside, there is a fully appointed café, a juice bar and a news stand. At 10,500 square feet, Fresh is spacious, designed to specification, and filled with familiar and specialist produce.

John Moran, the franchisee and manager, explained to me the Fresh brand concept. “We mix mainstream commercial brands with more high-end speciality food and we support small Irish producers”, he said. “Organic means local and also Irish. All of our meat is 100% Irish. The fruit and vegetables are sourced in Balbriggan with some organic, and Blazing Salads are great bread suppliers.”

I could see that the ciabatta and sourdough bread looked really good. They have a huge range of breads: flatbreads from California side-by-side with cakes and bread from Noirin’s bakery. I bought myself some bagels, which looked fresh and delicious.

As we went through the store, there was more than enough variety. There are counters for everything from hams, salamis, sausages and pates to a section dedicated to antipasti, a pizza bar and a full olive bar. There is also a fresh fish counter where you can buy all kinds of fish as well as oysters and cod roe. Beside this there was a small freezer to dive into for delicacies such as rabbit, frogs’ legs, foie gras and ostrich!

It was like a gourmand’s dream pantry. There were bottled beers from all around the world and the wine section was extensive, with wines from France, Italy, Argentina, Chile, California and more. To go with this the cheese department has upwards of 100 types of cheeses, as well as jams to accompany them.

As well as satisfying all tastes, Fresh tries to cater for coeliacs, allergy sufferers and vegetarians. To this end, they supply spelt flour products, Aines chocolate from Co. Westmeath and Safetoeat soups which are totally free of artificial flavours or preservatives. There is a full vegetarian range.

The shop was opened in December 2006. There are two other Fresh supermarkets in Dublin, one in Smithfield and another at Northern Cross on the Malahide road.

John Moran is very enthusiastic about his project and emphasises that Fresh stocks the essentials, the everyday and the extras.