The Food Hub is home to an ambitious cluster of food and drink producers, educators and hospitality partners. Each business has its own story, but each chose to invest and base their business in The Food Hub for its food-grade infrastructure that facilitates growth, skilled local workforce, supportive local authority partnership, education and training links, visitor potential, and the credibility of an established food and drink enterprise cluster.
But more than that, it is a place shaped by people. The community leaders who secured the building, the funders who backed the vision, the entrepreneurs who invested, the educators who bring skills into the centre, and the local partners who continue to support its growth have all played their part. Patrick Rigney, founder of The Shed Distillery, has described this spirit as meitheal: the shared effort that happens when people bring ambition, skill and goodwill to something bigger than themselves.
Let’s meet our current tenants
Founded by Patrick J and Denise Rigney, The Shed has brought premium drinks production, international brand ambition, visitor experience, hospitality and retail activity to the Food Hub site. It is home to Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Drumshanbo Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey and a growing family of distinctive spirits created from Drumshanbo sold all over the world, with every drop distilled in Drumshanbo.
Its presence has changed the scale of the Food Hub story. The Shed brings together production, place, storytelling, tourism and hospitality through the working distillery, visitor experience, Curious Gift Shop, Online Shop, Honey Badger Bar and links with Jackalope Café.
“There’s resourcefulness in many rural communities in Ireland, a thriftiness and a desire not to waste anything that has become a big part of the way we work.”
The Shed shows the power of attracting an entrepreneur with ambition, a product with global reach and a strong belief in Drumshanbo.
McNiffe’s Bakery is Ireland’s largest producer of traditional Irish boxty products, producing pan boxty, boiled boxty dumplings, boxty loaf, potato cakes, gluten-free pan boxty and other potato-based products from Drumshanbo.
Founded by Michael and Detta McNiffe, the business has been making boxty since the 1980s, using a family recipe for Leitrim boxty that is over 150 years old. Moving from home production to The Food Hub, it has expanded a specialist product range that belongs deeply to this region: real potatoes, wheat flour, salt, skill and consistency.
McNiffe’s continues to prove the strength of traditional yet innovatove Leitrim food on a national stage. In 2025, McNiffe’s Boxty won two awards at Blas na hÉireann, The Irish Food Awards, including Gold for Traditional Irish Boxty, alongside Best in County and Best in Connacht recognition. The result builds on earlier Blas success, including Gold for Pan Boxty in 2023 and Silver for Boxty Bites in their first year on the market.
Jackalope Café gives visitors and locals a place to pause, eat, meet and enjoy the atmosphere of The Shed Distillery, now a celebrated distillery site. It is bright, relaxed and full of character, with a food offer shaped around fresh café dishes, homemade baking, coffee, treats, lunches and everyday hospitality.
The café sits beside The Shed Distillery, the Honey Badger Bar, the Curious Gift Shop and the visitor experience, so food and drink, storytelling, tourism and hospitality all meet in one place. It is where the production story becomes a visitor experience. People arrive for the distillery, for a tour, for a meeting, for lunch, for coffee, or simply because it has become part of the rhythm of the town. Jackalope Café gives them a warm, food-led way into the wider Food Hub story.
Its setting gives it real personality. It brings life and movement to the site throughout the day, connecting local customers, visitors, tour groups, tenant teams and the wider Drumshanbo community.
Jackalope Café is a key part of Leitrim’s food identity. It gives people a reason to stay longer, taste more and experience Drumshanbo
The Taste Leitrim Sustainable Food Trail, a delicious journey like no other, in a special place that values biodiversity and a slower pace. We invite you to join us to sustainably traverse Leitrim’s green landscapes, celebrate our food culture, and meet the dedicated people to authentic food.
Blakes Always Organic is a certified organic food and drink business based at The Food Hub in Drumshanbo since 2012. Its core range includes organic kefir, a probiotic health drink made with whole organic milk, and whole-bean artisan organic coffees.
Its kefir story began with small batches made in a 20-litre Bain Marie, bottled and labelled by hand. Demand grew quickly, and Blakes now produces around 1,600 litres of kefir per week, suppling national retailers and had grown production to a new unit in nearby Drumshanbo Enterprise Centre. . The company has also expanded its kefir range with flavours including Blueberry, Blackberry, and Blackcurrant & Lemon.
At The Food Hub, Blakes has developed a range of whole-bean organic coffees, including Culture Blend, Purely Arabica and Peru CO2 Decaf. Its first coffee blend won the Bord Bia Organic Award for Best Prepared Product in 2016. The coffee beans are imported from Colombia, Peru and Indonesia and roasted by Art of Coffee in Carrick-on-Shannon, with Blakes carrying out packaging, marketing and business operations from its Drumshanbo base.
Blakes is a strong example of the Food Hub model in action: a business that started, developed and scaled from Drumshanbo, while also drawing on nearby enterprise infrastructure and local food sector collaboration. Its growth shows how The Food Hub connects production space, product development, business operations, regional partners and market access around an ambitious organic food brand.
Nua Bake House is a bakery with energy, skill and personality. It is all about the craft of good baking: fresh ingredients, skilled hands, early starts and food made with care every day. Supplying one of Leitrim’s busiest food and drink visitor settings, the Jackalope Café, it specialisms span cakes, bakes and pastries to breads, savoury food and café favourites.
