Eathos cafe and eatery is the brainchild of healthy foodie, Lisa Murrin.
The social-media-savvy 28-year-old’s achievements far exceed her years.
Lisa spotted the emerging health trend early, and combined it with her own personal experience and passion – as well as the economic turnaround – to create something really special.
Located on Upper Baggot St, Eathos maintains a unique, fresh approach to food that has Dublin community spirit at its heart.
It’s no surprise that people and ideas are the real currency of the business, as Lisa is a keen social media savant who has amassed more than 5,000 followers on her Instagram “The Health Balance”.
Here, Lisa shares how she made her dream a reality.
Tell us a bit about your food journey so far… How did you become so interested in food and healthy living?
My food journey started at a very early age, probably due to the fact that my dad’s family were involved in the food industry. Food was always the number one topic in the house from the time I was a child.
I started working in the family catering business in my early teens and I think this is where my passion for really clean, high quality healthy food came from.
I always loved cooking and ended up doing an honours degree in Culinary Arts when I left school.
All along the way I was greatly encouraged by my aunt Fran Murrin who was one of the founders of With Taste, the family catering company – and my nana Anne who was a legendary cook.
I learnt along the way that my own body was sensitive to certain types of foods and I really do think this helped deepen my understanding of when and how to use flavours and ingredients.
What inspired you to take on Eathos?
For several years I have wanted to have a cafe in Dublin that offered the quality and variety of food that I myself would want to buy.
You can’t be in the food industry and you can’t travel the world without picking up a lot of influences along the way.
Dublin has certainly had a gap in the “fresh and healthy” space during the last 5 years.
One of my greater influences has been Ottolenghi in London and I remember the first time I saw it and that was 8 years ago. I remember coming away saying to myself, some day we will do something like this in Dublin.
What’s Eathos all about and what makes it different?
The roots of Eathos lie in my own particular approach to really clean and healthy food combined with wonderful natural flavours and ingredients with the added attraction of some really fabulous patisserie which is all made in house, again focusing on the highest quality ingredients I can source.
There is quite a big team behind Eathos and the culinary skills that we draw on are some of the finest in the country.
I feel extremely lucky to work with such talented people and I continue to learn from them everyday.
I guess the challenge for the Eathos team is to repeat the experience for our customers every day of the week, every hour we are open.
A lot of our following is female which is to do with the look, feel and style of the cafe. We are also seeing an ever increasing number of men using the cafe aswell, it definitely seems to have caught people’s imagination.
What does the future hold for Eathos?
Keeping standards high is our number one goal and our business is building solidly every week. It’s to do with satisfied customers using digital media and spreading the word about Eathos.
We keep our own website, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages fresh with new food photography which helps customers to see how our offering is evolving as the weeks go by.
The Eathos team is actively working to find our next site which we hope to have open around spring of 2016.
Talk us through a typical day in your life.
There is no one day that is alike and I truely never get bored.
I absolutely love what I do and I feel very lucky for that.
There is not a day that goes by where I am not in a kitchen, going to see new cafes around the country, talking about food or recipe testing.
You can never stop learning in this industry and I find it very exciting.
You have a great Instagram following – how important do you think social media is when running a business?
I started using Instagram a few years ago and changed my name to The Health Balance to focus purely on food and health.
It started as a way for me to monitor what I was eating everyday. I started to get a steady following and it continues to grow everyday. I never expected to have over 5000 followers. For me it was a great way to give all of my followers information in the lead up to opening Eathos and everyone was so supportive.
Social media is so important today for a new business and it is so important to stay current. We have built a great following in the last few months and we like to keep Twitter, Facebook and Instagram different so that our followers never get bored.
What are your tips for capturing stunning foodie photos on Instagram?
I think when you are passionate about something you want to make sure you are putting out the best version of what that is.
Good lighting and very little filters is the key. The food should speak for itself.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Make sure you surround yourself with people who care about you and will give you sound advice.
If you firmly believe in something, give it your best shot without rushing into it.
Think every aspect of it through – both good and bad – and when the time is right, and you have put the work in, everything should fall into place.
Everyday I put myself in the customers shoes to try and see things through their eyes.
It constantly keeps me on my toes and I try to better their experience everyday.
For all things Eathos related, check out eathosdublin.com or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Check out Lisa’s Instagram here.
