Andrew and Lisa Radford close Atrium and Blue

Double Catey-winning restaurateurs Andrew and Lisa Radford have been forced to close their Edinburgh restaurants, the Atrium and Blue.

Radford told Caterer that ongoing building work at neighbouring concert venue Usher Hall had contributed to the restaurants' closure.

But Radford was keen to stress that a "catalogue" of events - including the recession, the ash cloud, the country's recent bad weather and the reduction of people working in the building in which the two restaurants were housed - had played a major part in their decline.

"We knew this has been coming for the past year," said Radford, who launched the Atrium with his former partner, the late James Sankey, 18 years ago and former Caterer Adopted Business Blue, a 100-seat café-bar, in 1997. "It has taken us a few weeks to put things in place and we had a very emotional meeting with the staff last Friday. Twenty jobs have been lost.

"Looking to the future, we will be back," said Radford, who won the Newcomer Award at the 1994 Cateys and the Independent Restaurateur of the Year Catey in 2000. "Lisa and I will return to Edinburgh to offer good food and good hospitality once we have created a new concept."

According to a report in The Scotsman, the Atrium is the latest in a series of upmarket Edinburgh restaurants to close in recent months. Others include Abstract in Castle Terrace, Bella Mbriana in East London Street, Jackson's on the Royal Mile, and Roti in Morrison Street.

By Amanda Afiya

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