Ever since Locanda de Gusti disappeared into the West without warning, readers have been asking what would replace the landmark premises at 7–11 East London Street.
Refurbishment works there have seemed so extensive and taken so long that rumours have circulated locally of an underground bunker linking to the Mansfield-Traquair Centre.
The truth is now out. The Riparian Rooms – a new restaurant with over 100 covers – is to open here on 30 January.
Full details will be published before the end of the month, at which point we’ll add them to the foot of this page.
The entrepreneurs behind the new venture are local residents Neil Robb and Lynn Ritchie (seated and standing second from left in photo). The couple work together at Dundas Street's Robb Reinstatements Ltd, the insurance claim and maintenance contracting firm which handled the refurbishment.
They believe they’ve spotted a gap in the market, but have spent nine years seeking exactly the right place for it. ‘We knew that in order to achieve our vision, it had to be truly different,’ says Robb, ‘somewhere a “home from home” could be created, enjoyed and depended on’.
Outside seating in the corner suntrap will be available for those unpersuaded by the delights of plastic hothouses on George Street.
Riparian means ‘beside a river’, in this case the Broughton Burn whose purling and gurgling meander we detailed at some length last year here.
