The Seafood Restaurant
The story so far
Tim Butler, director of the Seafood Restaurant at St Monans, Fife, has embarked on a new venture with fellow director and head chef Craig Millar. The Seafood Restaurant St Andrews is now due to open this month as a fine-dining restaurant aimed at the top-spending visitors who fill the golfing mecca each year.
The building, which is being put up by the landlords, is well under way, while Butler and Millar are responsible for the interior design.
Meanwhile, Butler and Millar must maintain business at the St Monans restaurant, as they rely on its profits to support the St Andrews project. Trade has been especially good since the restaurant was voted Best Seafood Restaurant in Scotland by the AA.
The Seafood Restaurant
Tim Butler is in high spirits. This has nothing to do with the fact that the Seafood Restaurant St Andrews is still without glass walls, or that the chair manufacturer has just phoned to say that the fabric he and partner Craig Millar ordered is still out of stock. It's about the very large amounts of expensive wine which diners at the pair's other restaurant, in St Monans, are ordering at the moment.
The St Monans outlet is being relied on to help fund the new venture and is doing that job admirably. Business is up by 50% on last year, a result in part of winning the AA's award for Best Seafood Restaurant in Scotland, and in part due to the increasing number of wealthy foreign golf tourists flooding into the area.
But it's wine sales that are getting silly. Butler hasn't worked it out yet, but he reckons they are up by 100%, if not double that, on this time last year.
"Last week, four Americans came in and bought a La Tache for £470, and another two for around £100 each," he explains. "We are regularly selling wines at £200. It's a nice distraction at the moment from everything else that's going on."
He adds: "There's a real feel-good factor in Fife at the moment. The Americans and Asians are coming to play golf, with fat wallets and big smiles. We've had no impact from the war [in Iraq]. Even if there's a meteorite, people will still come and play golf."
This bodes well for the St Andrew's restaurant, which is still being worked on by an army of electricians, builders and carpenters. And while Butler works on his cash-flow projections and the financial logistics of running two restaurants instead of one, Millar is busy training nine of the 11 chefs who will eventually fill the kitchens.
Recently appointed is Neil Clarke, who will be head chef at St Andrews. "He's brilliant," Butler says, "an absolute trooper with good presentation and cooking skills - married and stable. The delay also means that Craig can experiment with new ideas - pre-desserts, garnishes and the like."
The continuing delay with the St Andrews restaurant walls also means, if nothing else, that Butler can think about getting a few more top-end wines on to his list in time for opening day at the end of June.
Factfile
Seafood Restaurant St Andrews
The Pavilion, Bruce Embankment, St Andrews, Fife
Projected opening: June 2003
Directors: Tim Butler and Craig Millar
Head chef: Neil Clarke
Seats: 60
Staff: seven chefs and five front-of-house staff, plus part-timers
Projected average spend: £35-£40 for dinner
Projected annual turnover: £800,000
Projected wage costs: £200,000
Projected net profit: £100,000
Investment from landlord Simon Littlejohn: £400,000
Cost of 25-year lease: £150,000
Annual rent with five-year reviews: £40,000
Designer: Pask and Pask
Seafood Restaurant St Monans
16 West End, St Monans, Fife KY10 2BX
Tel: 01333 730327
Head chef: George Scott
