The last day of May 2014 was the first day in the life of Button & Spoon and I felt like my head would explode, may heart would stop and my legs would finally give up……I was terrified! I wanted to run into a dark room, scream, then hide from the world and apologise for this very stupid idea I had that we could open a restaurant. The panic kept coming in waves and almost drowned me in its depths but there was no turning back, at 9.30am on Saturday 31st May 2014 the doors of Button & Spoon, Bridgetown opened and you came flooding in, washing us up in a frenzy of good wishes, encouragement, and an abundance of patience.

I would be lying if I told you that I loved it all and was really enjoying every moment of our adventure, not a day went by that I didn’t think to myself ‘what the hell have you done’. Having to think about everything I did, learning to put one foot in front of the other and move forward in a world of confusion and noise, expectations and dreams was truly paralyzing at times.  But then one day I got up and did something without thinking and over analysing it, that one thing then became two, then three and before I knew what happened it became fun and I was enjoying myself. And my poor husband Nigel didn’t have to council me through every day!

Three years is a relatively short space of time, especially these days when our lives are jammed full of so much responsibility and so many jobs to do but as I sit here and think about to what has happened during this relatively short time I am forever grateful that I didn’t hide in that room because I would have missed the adventure. And that’s what this has become, a truly life changing adventure into the unknown. It has taught me so much about myself, it has challenged everything I ever believed about who I was, it has pushed Nigel and I to the edge of the cliff more than once but it has always pulled us back, together! This was always my dream, my plan but without Nigel it would have stayed just that, a dream. He is the backbone that gave strength to it all, he allows me to come up with all the hare-brained idea’s while he pays the bills, he keeps us a float.

When I think about the people on this adventure with us I am forever reminded about just how lucky we have been. We have worked with some of the best, the kindest, the most dedicated who lived every moment with us. Some of them are still part of our amazing team, some of them have moved on and some of them are sadly no longer with us. But every one of them has shaped our story and left an indelible mark on our lives. 

Then there is you, our customers, from whom we have learned to many valuable lessons and from whom we are still learning, as Nigel says, ‘every day is a school day’! Without your support, reassurance and commitment all the panic would have been for nothing. You might be wondering why I am getting so sentimental, it’s not like we are celebrating 30 years in business but for me personally to move forward I need to look back and take stock, to weigh it all up and appreciate what has happened. We opened our little tearoom in Bridgetown and it has helped to reshape our village, we have opened a second location in Wexford town and now employ 25 people. We are members of Good Food Ireland, Lucinda’s O’Sullivan’s Little Black Book of the Best Places to Eat, Top 100 Places Attractions (Top 8 in Wexford), Wexford Start-Up Business of the Year 2014, Shortlisted for SME of the Year 2017 and we are now delighted to be official Supporting Members of The Wexford Food Family. All of which would have remained just my dream without Nigel, our kids Tara & Conor, our team and most importantly you our customers. We may not always get it right but you have our promise and commitment to never, every stop trying. Thank you from the bottom of my very humble heart and happy 3rd birthday.
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Much Love, Nuala

We had the opportunity to talk about our business and our new tearoom in Church Lane with South East Radio's Business Matters host Karl Fitzpatrick. Here'e the link to the audio recording.

Finding your name up in lights in the national press having been reviewed by one of the leading food critics is a wonderful feeling and a true indictment of all the hard work our team puts in. As a result we became very proud members of Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland, Best Places to Eat. Have a read of Lucinda's review published in The Sunday Independent recently. 

Its official, after a lengthy and detailed auditing process we have become the newest and proudest members of Good Food Ireland! This is a wonderful Wexford born organisation who's purpose it is to promote, encourage and advertise food businesses that pride themselves on being Irish, local and authentic to both a domestic and the ever growing international Food Tourism market.

GFI work closely with our tourism agencies to build a sustainable food tourism industry in Ireland. We are incredibly delighted to have been selected by the Good Food team and that they feel our business represents the very best of what Wexford and Ireland has to offer!

Thank you to our amazing team for all the hard work and dedication they put into our special little restaurant every day! Follow the link here to read our lovely review and visit the Good Food website.
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Very excited to deliver our first order of pastries, cakes & tray bakes to the set of Redwater this morning. We are delighted to be baking for the spinoff Eastenders show in Dunmore East! Hopefully it will keep Kat & Alfie sweet. Keep you posted with more photos & news over the next few weeks! For those of you that want to follow it check out #redwater!

Wexford Business Awards are one of the largest and most successful Chamber of Commerce awards programs in the country and are designed to recognise ‘the entrepreneurialism, innovation, diversity and talent of businesses across all sectors’. In 2015 we were blown away to be voted winners of the ‘Start-Up Business of the Year Award’                 (http://www.wexfordbusinessawards.ie/2015/06/wexford-business-awards-2015-winners-and-runners-up ) and are over the moon to be short-listed in the Operational Excellence Category of the awards for 2016 ( http://www.wexfordbusinessawards.ie/ ) . To be recognized alongside the best businesses in Wexford is a privilege indeed!