Continis to bring local flavour to Galleries restaurant

Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009 22:35

A RADICAL change is on the menu at the National Gallery of Scotland restaurant in Edinburgh next month.

Out: a giant UK restaurant chain servicing upmarket English art institutions from the Royal Opera House in London to the Pump Rooms in Bath.

In: Edinburgh's own Contini family, with a Scottish Caf serving Scottish cuisine using local produce, from Aberdeen butteries at breakfast to cullen skink soup to Scottish high teas.

Victor and Carina Contini, who launched the New Town's successful Centotre restaurant five years ago, have won the five-year contract for the National Gallery's flagship restaurant in the Weston Link.

They were one of three final contenders from a shortlist of 13. Searcy's, which has run the restaurant for the last five years, did not apply to renew. Mr Contini's older brother, Philip, runs the delicatessen Valvona & Crolla, co-founded by their Italian-Scottish uncle in 1936.

The Continis won the contract with a plan to reconfigure the caf, serving everything from 5 sandwiches to a full Scottish menu at lunchtime and on Saturday nights. The bar will include a wide range of single malts.

"We are a local family business with a strong sense of community," said Ms Contini. "We have three children, we go to the galleries regularly. Searcy's (have] a head office in London."

Beef and fish will be entirely Scottish, with a stress on organic produce and local smokeries and farms. "We celebrate our Scottish producers – the Scottish offering is important," Ms Contini said.

About 900,000 people a year visit the National Gallery Complex and a third of them pass the restaurant. "It is a main thoroughfare," Ms Contini added.

Searcy's said it did not draw as many diners as it had hoped for.