In a seaside town in Co Waterford, two people who met the demands of ordinary life with a practical answer, a bowl of oats soaked overnight, have turned a home kitchen habit into a café and a wholesale business. Bernie Murphy and Liam Maher began in the way many small enterprises do, with a personal need, a few willing friends, and a neighbour's curiosity. Their growth from kitchen table to business park reflects a familiar human pattern: small generosity, shared taste, and the courage to let something outgrow its first home.
From Home Kitchen to Tramore Café: How Slow and Steady Built a Build-Your-Own Oats Business
More fridges in the house than places to sit down
Mark
Why does this small Tramore story matter?
Mimi
It's a clear example of a home-kitchen idea becoming a business with a shopfront, wholesale customers across eight counties and 15 jobs.
Mark
How did it actually begin?
Mimi
Bernie Murphy wanted a high-protein, high-fibre breakfast she could eat on the go. Her training clients asked to try it, and Liam Maher's pots caught the eye of the owner of Under the Clock coffee shop.
Luke
Worth noting the growth story comes from the founders themselves. We have no sales figures or revenue.
Mark
True. What we do have is the move to Riverstown Business Park in 2023 and the headcount.
Mimi
And the prices: €4.90 for a pot with toppings in the café, €8.50 for baked oats, and €4.20 to €4.50 for the shop pots.
Mark
The menu mixes health food and Biscoff. Is that a contradiction?
Mimi
Murphy acknowledges Biscoff isn't top of anyone's health list, but it sells. The Kinder Bueno version uses dates for sweetness, so there's a middle path.
Luke
Claims like high fibre and health benefits are Murphy's own descriptions. The piece offers no nutritional analysis.
Mark
And the protein figure?
Luke
15g to 20g per pot is stated, but it's the business's own label information as reported, not independently checked.
Mimi
Fair. What's plain is the product is plant-based, flax-bound, and now sold from garages to supermarkets.
The Pulse
- A kitchen that could no longer hold the demand forced the founders out of their house and into a business park unit in 2023.
- Wholesale pots now travel to shops, garages and supermarkets across eight counties, stretching a small operation across a wide map.
- The café's oat bar invites customers to build their own breakfast, with choices spanning Greek yogurt and chia jam to Biscoff frosting and hot sauce.
- Fifteen staff now keep the pots moving, and the founders are steering toward continued growth in wholesale and the café.
In a seaside town in Co Waterford, two people who met the demands of ordinary life with a practical answer, a bowl of oats soaked overnight, have turned a home kitchen habit into a café and a wholesale business. Bernie Murphy and Liam Maher began in the way many small enterprises do, with a personal need, a few willing friends, and a neighbour's curiosity. Their growth from kitchen table to business park reflects a familiar human pattern: small generosity, shared taste, and the courage to let something outgrow its first home.
In the Slow and Steady café in Tramore, breakfast is a matter of choice. Customers at the oat bar build their own bowls, from simple, sensible toppings to richly indulgent ones. The café is the public face of a business that Bernie Murphy and Liam Maher, partners in life and in work, started at their kitchen table.
Murphy, a fitness instructor with an interest in nutrition, wanted an easy, protein-rich breakfast she could eat on the go. She experimented with flavours, turning anything she loved as a cake into overnight oats. Her training clients wanted to try them, and the idea spread. Maher, then a car salesman near a popular Waterford coffee shop, took pots to work, and the shop's owner became the first wholesale customer.
The kitchen soon overflowed with mixers, oats, oat milk and pots, and there were more fridges than places to sit. In 2023 they moved to a unit at Riverstown Business Park, which allowed them to expand wholesale and open a bright café that has proven an unexpected success.
Today the pots reach shops across eight counties, identifiable by their tortoise logo, and the business employs 15 people. Everything is plant-based, and the founders see their food as fuel for any time of day.
In the Slow and Steady café in Tramore, Co Waterford, breakfast comes with a choice. Customers at the oat bar pick their own toppings, and the range runs from sensible to unapologetically indulgent. The café is the public face of a business that Bernie Murphy and Liam Maher, partners in life and in work, began at their own kitchen table.
Murphy's background is in fitness instruction, and she has a keen interest in nutrition. She was looking for an easy breakfast she could eat on the go, something with plenty of protein and fibre. She started experimenting with flavours, and anything she liked as a cake she tried to turn into overnight oats. The people she was training asked to try them, and the idea spread from there. Maher took pots to work. He was then a car salesman, based beside a popular Waterford coffee shop called Under the Clock, and its owner grew curious.
That curiosity became the first wholesale customer. The couple began supplying Under the Clock, along with Murphy's personal training clients, with pots of her customised overnight oats. Her flavours included peanut butter and banana, banoffee, hazelnut, and raspberry and vanilla. As Maher puts it, a little business was brewing in the kitchen at home before they knew it.
It soon outgrew the house. Murphy describes a big mixer in the kitchen, boxes of oats, trays of oat milk and boxes of pots everywhere, and says there were more fridges than places to sit down. In 2023 they moved to a unit at Riverstown Business Park in Tramore. The space let them expand wholesale and also open a bright café, which has turned into an unexpected success.
At the oat bar, the choices are wide. Murphy says you can go the healthy route with Greek yogurt, fruit, seeds, nuts or granola, using pumpkin, hemp or chia seeds, mixed nuts or pistachios. There are stewed apples, stewed rhubarb and the café's own chia jams. Or you can go all out with Biscoff frosting, crumb and hot sauce. Biscoff is a big seller, and the berry Biscoff, with strawberries and a ripple of spread, is always on. There is also a Kinder Bueno version sweetened with dates and topped with hazelnuts.
Beyond overnight oats, the café serves hot porridge and baked oats. The baked oats are made in large pans in the oven, set, sliced and served warm with toppings, in rotating flavours. They are made in large batches and sold only in the café. Everything is plant-based, with no dairy and no eggs, and flax acts as the binder, which Murphy says keeps the fibre high. With toppings, a regular overnight pot starts at €4.90, protein porridge is €6.90, and baked oats are €8.50, which Maher says would keep you full for the day.
The wholesale side continues alongside the café. The 250g pots sell for between €4.20 and €4.50 and contain 15g to 20g of protein, depending on flavour. They are stocked in shops, cafés, garages, workplaces, sports clubs and supermarkets across Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary, Limerick, Cork and Kerry, and are recognisable by a tortoise logo. Between wholesale and café, the business employs 15 people, whom Maher calls absolute legends. He pitches the pots as food for any time of day, handy on the go and as pre- or post-workout fuel.
For home cooks, Murphy keeps the base simple: rolled oats, chia seeds, protein powder and soy milk. The trick, she says, is proportion. Too many chia seeds make it too thick, and too much milk makes it too liquid. Beyond that, it's a matter of finding the consistency you like and choosing your own toppings.
Notable Quotes
You can definitely do one or the other.— Bernie Murphy, co-founder of Slow and Steady
Before we knew it, there was a little business brewing in the kitchen at home.— Liam Maher, co-founder of Slow and Steady
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