Wanted - restauranteurs - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Thursday 11 October, 2007

by Rosemary at 7:47pm in Anything goes 4 comments Comments closed

Come on you down-shifters! Fancy a wee restaurant in an up and coming location? Alloa needs you - and we'll try and supply all your runner bean needs!

Alloa, the county town of Clackmannanshire, is a town on the up. To be fair, it was starting from a fairly low base, but it's going in the right direction. So if you want to get your foot in the door, there is a restaurant premises for lease in the town.

Alloa is basically a fine Victorian town that had fallen on hard times due to the demise of its traditional industries - coal, textiles, brewing, distilling, shipbuilding - you name it. But it, and all Clackmannanshire, is experiencing something of a resurgence. The railway is due to open early 2008, so Glasgow will be 50 minutes away by train. The new Upper Forth Crossing (called the Clackmannanshire Bridge, we hope) opens next year too, improving connections to the motorway netweok - yet here we are, with the Ochil Hills to the north and the River Forth to the south, a patchwork of small towns in the countryside, relatively unknown.

There's been a lot of housebuilding, with more to come, so the socio-ecomomic profile of the area will be improving. But we need places for these wealthy folk to eat! In the last couple of years, an old brewery in Alloa has been converted into a pub called "The Old Brewery". It's nice inside, does reasonable food and has a policy of keeping out the riff-raff (and Alloa has its share). A few months ago, an Italian restaurant opened in the town. It's very good. Both are BUNGED.

So when I was in town today, I noticed that a pub called The Linen Vaults is up for lease as a pub or restaurant, and I thought some of you foodie entrepreneurial types might be interested. It's a very nice red sandstone (I think) building - it used to be the Linen Bank (before my time) - hence the name of the pub! In the late 70s, it was "Rosemary's Restaurant" and I worked there as a Saturday girl (there was another Rosemary involved, too). It operated as a cafe until 6pm, then it closed, was hoovered, table cloths, candles and posh place settings put on te tables and it reopened at 7pm as a "proper" restaurant. It's been a couple of pubs since then, but it's back on the market.

If any of you decide to take it on, I don't mind doing a shift or two waiting tables. I know how to silver serve and I scrub up OK!