We stand over our recommendations. With exacting selection and regular review processes we ensure a rewarding local Irish ingredient led experience. You can count on it!
Owners Peter and Mary are passionate about the great food in their locality and it features prominently in the store and on the menu in the cafe. On the menu you’ll discover some great food products including cheeses, fresh produce from local farmers and plenty of homestyle country cooking.
The menu changes daily, so whatever is on you can be sure it is absolutely fresh and relies on availability of seasonal ingredients. It reflects Mary and Peter’s commitment to providing an outlet for local growers and producers. If someone turns up in late summer with a box of freshly harvested plums from the garden, as they had the day we called in, you can be sure they will take them and make them into something wonderful – Mary’s plum jam and plum compote are sensational.
We also spotted the first of the new season’s Beauty of Bath apples from a local tree and a few precious punnets of late summer raspberries from a nearby grower on sale and you can bet they were snapped up pronto by the gourmands who frequent this place. Some visiting Americans took the raspberries to enjoy on a picnic that afternoon and were presented with them complete with cream poured over by one of Peter’s friendly staff. Now that’s what we call top service.
What can we say about Peter Ward’s Country Choice Gourmet Food Shop & Deli? Its reputation precedes it. The man himself is a food icon, a mover and shaker who makes things happen on the Irish culinary scene. And it all started here, at his own vibrant and packed-to-the-rafters-with-good-things-to-eat shop in the heart of Nenagh, which was founded back when Irish food was barely heard of, let alone trendy.
Peter himself chose the location because of its connections with local food – there were butchers and grocers on the same street in those days and it seemed an ideal place to start. Now, his shop is a shrine for gourmets and the pavement outside is well-trodden by locals and visitors alike.
Country Choice is deeply committed to sourcing and using the best and most natural ingredients that can be found and to pay all its producers a fair market price for foods that are good, clean and fair.