Pity the poor secretary at one Baggot Street office who is dispatched across town to Liffey Street at lunchtime. Despite the plethora of sandwich bars in the area, the powers-that-be in that office have decided that nothing but bagels from Itsabagel in the Epicurean Food Hall will do. Still, those picky eaters in Baggot Street are in good company - the Itsabagel bagels are also eaten by Cher, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks. It's not that Liffey Street has turned into some celebrity hangout, it's just that the bagels are made by H&H in New York, where they're eaten by Streisand, Hoffman, Hanks and now Dubliners.
The enterprising folk who decided to bring H&H bagels all the way from the docks in Manhattan to the banks of the Liffey are Domini and Peaches Kemp. "I've wanted to sell real bagels for a couple of years now," says Domini, declaring that the bread rolls we call bagels in Ireland are "revolting".
After doing her research, Domini decided the only way to get real bagels was to import them straight from H&H. "We looked into doing them ourselves, but they're phenomenally difficult to make - honestly, you need to do a year-long stage in a Jewish bakery to get it right."
Although H&H concocts some 200 million bagels a year, sending them to Germany, Japan, France and Israel, it took a bit of convincing before H&H would take their order. "They all thought we were mad. We asked the American operator for the number once and she said: `You're bringing bagels to Ireland, are you crazy?' " laughs Domini's sister, Peaches. The production process is shrouded in mystery, but it involves a particular gluten-rich American blend of flour, salt, yeast, no fat, a good dose of boiling and a round of baking. Once they'd convinced the family-run H&H Bagels that they were for real, a 40-foot container with 80,000 bagels was dispatched and arrived into Dublin port some two and a half weeks later. The plain, poppyseed and pumpernickel bagels arrived 95 per cent cooked and frozen in bags. They mystified customs officials, who said, quite understandably, that there was nothing in the book to cover a consignment of 80,000 bagels.
In the meantime, the Kemps were looking for a premises and finally settled on a unit in the Epicurean Food Hall. "We wondered about opening this side of the Liffey, but something like this was badly needed in this area." They thought their 80,000 bagels, which are taken out of frozen storage down on the docks and baked daily, would do them for six months, but four months in, they placed another order.
"We had regulars from day one. I think people were just delighted to find there was an alternative to tuna mayonnaise with margarine on big thick pieces of sliced pan," says Peaches. Instead, hungry punters can choose between The Gourmet Veggie (with goat's cheese, roasted red peppers, and hummus topped with onion marmalade and tapenade - freshly made by the Kemps) or Itsa Reuben (pumpernickel bagel with pastrami, swiss cheese and caramelised onions). Then there's the all-day breakfast bagel, the traditional smear of cream cheese or you can create your own bagel if you don't want to venture too far from the ham 'n' cheese sandwich.
It's a slick operation, but then the Kemps have good foodie pedigrees. Domini worked with chef Conrad Gallagher for three years, and was involved in opening Lloyd's and Christopher's, moving Peacock Alley to the Fitzwilliam Hotel and writing Gallagher's first cookbook. She was also his partner and they have a daughter, Lauren, although their relationship has now ended. Working and living together was "tough; I wouldn't do it again".
Meanwhile, Peaches ran a catering company in Dublin during the early 1980s, having done a course with Alix Gardner.
Yet it could all have been different, as the pair are both equally passionate about horses. Domini competes full-time on the show-jumping circuit, representing the Bahamas (where the Kemp family lived until 1983, when her father died) at international level. Peaches was married to jockey Tom Taaffe, trained horses for show-jumper Eddie Macken and eventually trained racehorses. Domini says of her change of career: "The catering was always to pay for the horses, but there eventually came a stage when I had to choose and I went for food. Show-jumping is just so tough."
The pair went into business together in January 1999 and have not looked back. For the moment they're concentrating on perfecting a formula in the Liffey Street premises, but they have big plans for their business. "We're definitely looking at more sites in Dublin and we'd also like to open in Cork and Galway. But if I've learned anything, it's that you have to learn to walk before you run," says Domini.
Then there's the wholesale bagel business - the Kemps are the agents for H&H bagels in Ireland and the UK, already supplying some prestigious hotels, such as the K Club and some Northern Ireland outlets. "We want to keep it small and tight and make sure we're selling to people who will sell the product well," says Domini. "People only get annoyed if you offer them something that you can't deliver."
Itsabagel, Epicurean Food Hall, Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1. Tel: 01 8740486. Web link:www.itsabagel.com