Can you tell us briefly about how you entered the industry?
Well, I had always in my life worked in hotels, restaurants and bars as part time jobs but never really considered it as a career until after university. I finished my degree in engineering but I wasn’t in love with it enough to pursue that as a career and so I just went back to restaurants.
I went to a place called The witchery in Edinburgh and it was there that I sort of began to get interested in wine. I took a job on the wine team because it seemed intriguing to me. After a few months, I did some WSET level 2 and that was the spark really that made me realise the incredible experience I was receiving.
Moving on to the opening of your restaurant, eòrna. Does the name have a particular significance?
The name means “barley” in both Irish Gaelic, so that sort of represents me being from Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic, which is Brian, the chef. It’s not always the case that the words are the same in both languages but in this case it is and it added an extra little resonance for us because barley is used in the whiskey and beer industries and also for food.
So we quite liked the fact that it slightly represents both of our heritage and backgrounds, and also our specialties, the food and drinks.
What is your restaurant’s concept?
Well, both of us have been in the business for 15 or even 20 years at this point and we worked together for about three and a half years in the number one restaurant in the Balmoral hotel. But both of us were just very keen to have our own operation and to use all these years of experience in order to deliver something that really focuses on the things that we love.
When we worked together, it felt like our opinions and tastes aligned very nicely. I think we are both very classically minded: I like the traditional wines of the world and he likes traditional French cuisine. And so we started to have this conversation about two years ago about what we might want to do together. I think creative control from ourselves is what we’re aiming for here.
You haven’t hired any other chefs or waiters, so is it hard to manage eòrna as a duo?
It’s been a little bit of a surprise the sheer number of tasks that need to be completed. But at the same time, we’re still very new and it’s totally thrilling to me, getting to know every inch of this business. And I think Brian believes the same. So I am not complaining about the number of jobs that I have to do, because it just helps me to know everything better.
We already feel like the dynamic of just the two of us serving the meal is kind of special and interesting. So currently we are not thinking of adding more chefs or front of house staff to the service.
So the restaurant is only open for dinner as of now?
We may have lunch in due time but nothing official. As of now, there are five dinner services a week for about three and a half hours every time.
How is eòrna doing so far since its launch at the end of May?
We’re really happy with what we’re doing. The weekends have been more or less filled, Wednesdays and Thursdays are a little bit quieter but we’re just waiting on the word to build. We’ve been very pleasantly surprised by having lots of local people come in from the very near surrounding area. It’s really satisfying to us that the locals are ready to take a chance on us before our name spreads any further.
Can you walk us through the choices you made regarding the menu?
Currently It’s a bit more of dishes that Brian has in his repertoire already. There is a smoked salmon fish, for example, that he has been working on for about 10 years. And it’s something he has just added little tweaks or made small adjustments to over many years. The salmon is pretty much a signature dish and I imagine it’s going to be pretty consistent throughout our menu. Outside of that, it is all about the best of Scottish produce, our shellfish are totally world class. We had a scallop dish, which was recently swapped to a halibut dish.
We’re also getting our beef directly from a farm in Orkney, so the quality is really superb. And when the beef wasn’t available, we were serving Scottish lamb, which was excellent as well. So, the menu has some dynamism. We started with an asparagus dish, but as the season finished, we changed it to a tomato dish. There are certainly seasonal changes and we hope to be doing more of that as we get more established with our suppliers.
Are you planning to expand the restaurant?
Not in the foreseeable future. It’s built to be a manageable quantity for two, we can do a good job and deliver attentive service to only 12 people per evening.
What would you like your guests to take away from their dining experience at eòrna?
Guest satisfaction. Some of the comments that we’ve received make us very happy, they say they feel very relaxed here, the environment has some soothing colours. Our interior designer, Bric, contributed so much to the feel of the room.
So, a sense of relaxation and comfort, and then being served incredibly tasty food in between these moments, is exactly what we want people to be experiencing.
