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