The food lovers had been tossing around the idea of opening a retail and restaurant emporium along the lines of New York's renowned Dean & Deluca when they peered in the window of the old premises and thought it would fit the bill.

After a refurbishment that cost more than 2m (and that's at cost price, " McHugh says), they just opened Fallon & Byrne foodhall and winehall in Dublin's Exchequer Street. A 120-seat brasserie will open this week.

With the very substantial investment" financed by a mix of debt and the proceeds of property sales, the plan was to start a lifestyle business.

That lifestyle currently involves 14-hour days, as the scale of the project in the 23,000 sq ft premises is daunting for a start-up.

Open every day from 7am to 10pm, the company employs 100 staff, including 23 chefs. Executive staff Tom Meenaghan formerly worked with Terence Conran in London and opened Cruzzo restaurant in Dublin's Malahide.

Once the pair had sourced experienced division heads, finding general staff was surprisingly easy, McHugh says.

I put up an ad on jobs. ie and took it down after a day. I got 1,500 emails."

Aged oak parquet floors, industrial fans imported from the US, exposed pipes and warm colours were designed to create the feel of a an old-style European foodshop. Our marbletopped cake counter was a cheese counter 90 years ago, " McHugh says.

The foodhall, which includes everything from a full butcher, fish counter and grocery section to a wide range of Irish and imported artisan products, is unusual in that the pair decided to keep control of quality by not having concessions. The outlet stocks nearly 3,000 products.

It is massive, but it allows us to do things a smaller place couldn't do, " McHugh says. For example, the kinds of patisseries we have we couldn't do if we were a smaller place. The chefs who make them can also make cakes and desserts for the restaurant and takeaway business."

About 60% of the produce is imported directly from France, Portugal, Italy and the US. Eliminating the middleman was key to another plank of the business plan: offering good value. We took a lot of decisions some people advised us against, " McHugh says.

One was that we would keep prices accessible, in particular in commodity areas, so it would be somewhere you could shop everyday.

We've priced our vegetables at the same level as Dunnes."

The strategy seems to be paying off, she says, as repeat business is good. With someone passing the premises every six seconds, the target is to get 300-600 through the door every hour.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of eating to do. Every single product on our shelves we have tasted and tested against what is in the supermarkets, " says McHugh, who is expecting her second child in a week.

We tasted olive oil for weeks, so I can say with conviction that we have the nicest one."