Jumpin’ juices

Juice is not just for January, say two friends who opened a slow-pressed juice shop in Dublin city centre this week. Architect and musician Jim Lawler and his business partner Daniel Ryan, former guitarist with The Thrills, believe the juice market here is ripe for change.

“In the UK and Ireland we still have this thing that a juice is either a penance or a treat, not a daily purchase, like a coffee, as it is in the States,” Lawler says.

He met Ryan about three years ago in a cafe and they bonded over a mutual interest in music: Lawler’s band Saso and Ryan’s job as manager of the Irish band Little Green Cars. The conversation moved from music to food.

“As a consumer I was never really into the whole health shop thing,” Lawler says. “It can be a little pious and righteous. We were just ordinary guys who wanted to improve our health.”

The Vitamix blender that Ryan was using had “changed the way he thought about consuming vegetables”, he says. “It’s almost like cheating your way to five-a-day.”

Partly out of frustration that they couldn’t buy slow-pressed juices in Dublin the two began a small business, delivering juices to workplaces, including Facebook’s Dublin office.

This week they opened Ness, The Juice, a shop in Dame Lane where the design shop Makers and Brothers was located until Christmas. The eight-week pop-up, in collaboration with The Fumbally Exchange, will open from 8am and customers can sit down or do the takeaway option. There’ll even be tea, coffee and buns if a kale juice isn’t your idea of a good time.

A 500ml juice will cost €5 and the 350ml serving is €4. “We’ve made the decision to make them fresh every day. If you fancy something different, we will go off-menu and experiment.

“It’s new for Dublin and it’s not just the whole detox and January thing. We want it to be friendly and informative. We want to have a conversation rather than preach at people.”

Ness, The Juice, 5 Dame Lane, Dublin 2, nessdrinks.ie