NEWS
ALL THE NEWS ON PUBS, BARS,
Cromlix House closes
D
£1.1m Coylumbridge investment The £1.1m refurbishment of the Hilton Coylumbridge’s Grant Restaurant has been completed. The re-designed and renamed Inverdruie Restaurant features a redesigned glass frontage which makes the most of the view. The 320-cover restaurant has been fully re-modelled by interior designers Cunningham McLean. This includes the installation of new fixtures and fittings, fresh décor and a brand new look and feel to the space, which is used for breakfast, lunches and dinner. Head chef, Frank Morrissey has also taken the opportunity to refresh the restaurant menu, focusing on family favourites to accommodate the many parents and children who choose to holiday at the popular resort, located at the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. The investment follows the recent installation of a brand new £210k gym. Mitchells & Butlers’ Drum and Monkey on Glasgow’s St. Vincent Street underwent a mini refurbishment this month. A Mitchells & Butlers spokesperson said, “We were only closed for a week, so it has been nothing too radical. The bar is now softer, warmer, and there are more seating areas and the lighting has been improved to make it lighter. All of the paintwork has been refreshed in neutral tones, including the toilets, and the kitchen equipment has also been upgraded, as has our menu.”
Have you heard... The Ellangowan Hotel in Creetown, near Newton Stewart, the fictional Green Man pub in the 1973 horror film The Wicker Man, has been put up for sale. The film which starred Britt Ekland as a barmaid, Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, put the pub on the map. It is being sold through Colliers International. 4 DRAM MARCH 12
avid O’Connor and Ian Grier have closed Cromlix House. It’s the second time that the businessmen have failed at this particular business. The two, who bought Cromlix in 2005, under the banner of Alliedfreeze Hotels Ltd, originally ceased trading last year owing in excess of £2.5m, before creating a phoenix company, Shelto Ltd, which has been running Cromlix since. Staff and customers were not given any warning that the hotel was about to cease trading last month, instead a notice was posted onto the company’s website which was dated the 29th February. It said, “Regrettably the hotel was forced to cease trading on 16th February 2012 due to unforeseen circumstances.” It continued, “We very much regret the impact the enforced closure has on all our guests. We are working hard to communicate personally with all parties involved.” However, customer comments on TripAdvisor
Aurora to re-open The Cairn Aurora Hotels boss Steven McLeod has lavished a cool £1.5m (excluding the purchase price) on refurbishing The Cairn in Auchterarder. The new 10-bedroom boutique hotel opens next month and will boast a 100-cover steak restaurant, a 40-capacity cocktail bar, plus a brand new glass-fronted elevation at the front with a 60-seater terrace. There is also a separate fivebedroom lodge that can be used in conjunction with the hotel or separately. Steven told DRAM, “The unit had gone into receivership and was in a very dilapidated state, as it had been closed for a couple of years. I started the work
back in October and have made structural as well as design alterations, including a brand new glass reception area and carport to the front of the building. Inside, I worked on the design concept with the Stirling-based Guardian Group, and our objective was high end and luxuriant.” A significant amount of the spend was earmarked for the upgrading of the kitchens, and the inclusion of Josper Grills, which cook the food at 750 degrees. Explains Steven, “Only a handful of UK restaurants use these type of grills, including Gleneagles, and I will be rolling the same steakhouse grill concept across all my units in due course.”