][1]Looking back on 2011, at least through the eyes of the 5pm blog, it has been a tough but not disastrous year for Scotland’s restaurant scene.
As always, plenty of restaurants closed their doors but just as many seemed to open.
January
Among the new openings that we noted at the start of the year were Ian Brown Restaurant in Glasgow’s Eastwood; Mark Greenaway at what was then Hawke and Hunter; Opium in Glasgow city centre and, in Edinburgh’s New Town, Jean Michel Gauffre replaced his high end veggie restaurant, L’Artichaut, with, what was then, a second branch of La Garrigue.
Although it had already been trading for a number of months, the Grand Central Hotel, next to Glasgow Central Station, held a launch bash so lavish that it recalled those heady days of the pre-recession boom.
On the pie front (a subject always close to the blog’s heart), Maurice Irvine, a fourth generation baker from Beith in Ayrshire won the Scotch Pie World Championships.
When it came to the annual Michelin star give away, there wasn’t a huge deal of change in Scotland although Dominic Jack’s Castle Terrace ion Edinburgh was marked out as a ‘Rising star’, an accolade which proved strangely prophetic a few months later.
On an unhappy note, Allan Mawn, a restaurateur who stamped his engaging personality over Glasgow’s West End, especially with his Pintxo and Velvet Elvis restau-bars passed away.
February
This month started with a couple of Edinburgh restaurants marking big birthdays. Mamma’s Pizza on the Grassmarket made its quarter century while Tony Crolla’s Leith Walk Vittoria’s celebrated 40 years in business.
Glasgow’s Ubiquitous Chip also celebrated its 40th but by the unusual medium of a dinner illustrated by a 3D light show partially devised by Alasdair Gray.
Regrettably, there were also casualties. The Atrium and blue in Edinburgh both closed this month.
February saw the start of the Kate and Wills Wedding hype begin to build. We liked the royal fork-trait of the soon to be wed couple. Made from the ingredients of a typical roast dinner, it was crafted by the artist Prudence Staite by the Crown Carveries pub group.
The end of Feb also saw the Scottish Restaurant Awards take place at Glasgow Science Centre. It was a cracking bash with Tam Cowan lending his usual colourful (mainly blue) patter to proceedings. The full list of winners is here.
Particular congrats are due to Neil Forbes of Cafe St Honore who scooped the Chef of the Year award and has used the gong as a springboard to publicise Scottish producers.