Opening of Nairn's by Nick Nairn in Bridge of Allan

The Scotsman

Opening of Nairn's by Nick Nairn in Bridge of Allan  Nick and Julia Nairn open Nairn's in Bridge of Allan after a fire had closed the premises for over a year.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, my name is Nick Nairn and I am the proprietor, along with my wife, of Nairn's on Henderson

00:21 Street where we're standing right now.

00:23 Yeah, we've been through a pretty stormy period post-Covid, which is very difficult for hospitality

00:29 in general, us in particular.

00:31 And we had just rebranded this restaurant, it used to be called Jam Jar, we've rebranded

00:35 it as Nick's.

00:36 We've been open for a couple of months and we had a fire which started right there and

00:40 the whole thing was burnt down.

00:41 I mean proper fire, front page of the newspaper and stuff.

00:44 And it's taken us two years for just various reasons to get the whole thing redone but

00:49 we have the most amazing restaurant.

00:51 An incredible kitchen, as you can see, front house designed by my wife and a friend of

00:58 ours, Pat Renson, who's done an amazing job of the interior, it looks really special.

01:03 But probably the most special part of the whole thing is our team, the guys that are

01:07 working here.

01:08 So we've got a brilliant exec chef, head chef, great general manager and a whole new team

01:15 front of house.

01:16 And last night was our first time actually seeing them in action and I was just incredibly

01:20 proud.

01:21 And I'm so excited for what's to come here because I think we are going to do something

01:26 really special.

01:27 I think everybody's always slightly nervous at a new opening.

01:31 If something's going to go wrong it probably will.

01:33 Last night we didn't have the air conditioning working properly, some people were too cold,

01:36 some too hot.

01:37 The gents toilets got blocked and there was a bit of a flood.

01:41 That's the stuff that happens in openings.

01:44 But the thing we realised during lockdown, we were only ever going to be as good as the

01:49 people around us.

01:50 And so Jules and I, we work really hard to make sure that everybody feels part of this.

01:56 We'll only do something really special if everybody's pulled in the same direction.

02:00 Everybody knows the journey that we're on and we're on this journey together.

02:03 So I am, as I think the young people say, I'm buzzing about what's going to happen.

02:08 Stoked!

02:09 So whilst we were closed we got tremendous support up at Lake of Menteith, our sister

02:13 restaurant which remains open.

02:15 I need to kind of emphasise that.

02:18 There's flowers, there's cards.

02:20 But the nicest thing is the people dropping by and just saying, "So nice to see you back

02:25 again."

02:26 And I think this end of the village has suffered a bit.

02:29 The place looked terrible for a long time.

02:31 It was all boarded up.

02:32 And I think some of the local businesses round about maybe missed that pool, that gravitational

02:38 pool that we had.

02:40 And we've seen it at Lake of Menteith.

02:42 We're pulling people from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

02:45 And so whilst this is a local restaurant, I'm also hoping that it will be one where

02:51 people will travel to come.

02:52 We've got a station, we're on the motorway.

02:56 There's every reason the food's going to be fantastic, the ambience is amazing, the welcome

03:01 is going to be good, the hospitality should be top notch.

03:05 And I hope people will travel here.

03:07 Me, and me in particular, I'm obsessive about produce and where it comes from.

03:12 We have a big polytunnel, we have raised beds, we grow all our own salads and herbs.

03:17 We are about, this is very new, but we're about to open a butchery, which is right across

03:21 over there.

03:22 So we're going to butcher and hang and age our own meat.

03:25 We're also going to become a wholesale fishmonger, so we're going to get stuff straight from

03:29 the boats.

03:30 And it's that kind of provenance I've been trying to do all of my life.

03:35 I mean, loads of programmes, I'm passionate about where produce comes from, how it gets

03:40 onto your plate.

03:41 And so here is going to be, I hope, living proof of how short that journey can be, that

03:48 everything is local.

03:50 We don't muck about with the food too much, we let it speak for itself.

03:54 So tonight is the opening party, this is Friday night.

03:57 Tomorrow is Saturday, we're open for lunch, we've got a few spaces for walk-ins.

04:01 You can't book online yet.

04:03 You will be able to book online for Monday at 12 o'clock, nicknairn.com.

04:08 And we will be open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, lunch and dinner from 12 till 9,

04:15 and Sunday for lunch from 12 till 4.30.

04:19 [Music]

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