Let’s celebrate Glasgow city centre restaurants says Gamba boss
Glasgow City Centre remains an excellent dining destination despite the challenges facing business owners, says Gamba boss Derek Marshall, the man behind Glasgow’s best seafood restaurant for more than 25 years.
Said Derek: “I want to do some positive PR for restauranteurs in Glasgow City Centre. There are many successful restaurants and wider hospitality businesses that we should celebrate. While business might not be booming all of the time, we’re getting on with it in the face of tougher operating conditions and contributing to Glasgow’s reputation as a world-class hub for dining and hospitality.”
Derek has been moved to speak out by what he calls a ‘tide of negativity about the city centre and restaurants closing’, despite many that continually adapt to remain viable. While he recognises the challenges for hospitality are very real, he feels that this is anything but a losing battle.
“Despite what I seem to read daily now, in my experience there’s no such thing as a bad or doomed restaurant. Things can be turned around depending on what you’re doing, knowing your market and your product. Restauranteurs should work together more too perhaps. This shouldn’t descend into a scenario where everybody is blaming everybody else.”
Only last week, chefs and restaurateurs across Manchester joined together to rally the UK government to slash VAT to 10%, to help struggling hospitality businesses. During COVID, the UK government temporarily reduced VAT to 12.5% to help support businesses, but rates now sit at 20%.
Said Derek: “I know the everyday reality of keeping a business afloat. There isn’t a restaurant owner out there who isn’t struggling with exorbitant business rates for which we get nothing back to speak of. It can often feel like we’re just being left to our own devices, or that if it’s not the Low Emissions Zone, it’s parking restrictions, but we will prevail for the sake of our livelihoods and this great city.”
The launch of the Glasgow 2030 Tourism Strategy in October last year outlined plans to grow the value of tourism in the city by delivering for visitors, businesses, communities, and the environment.
Bailie Annette Christie, Chair of Glasgow Life, said at the time: “The strategy also focuses on enhancing the incredible experiences our city has to offer to give visitors and locals reasons to keep returning to Glasgow. This means continuing to invest in and improve our wonderful attractions and globally recognised programme of year-round events and festivals.”
Figures from VisitScotland released at the same time revealed that Glasgow attracted 2.65 million visitors in 2022 who stayed in the city as part of a holiday or short break.
They brought an associated spend to the city of £953 million and overnight visitors stayed for an average of three nights.
Said Derek: “Tourists expect a high level of service and plenty of choice when they visit Scotland. There are lots of hotels opening all the time in Glasgow whose guests will need somewhere to dine, and not just in Glasgow’s Merchant City, but city-wide.
“We’re all feeling the strain, of course we are, but we must have something to aim for and work toward and I don’t think it’s a forlorn hope that things will start to improve and that we will continue to adapt, as I have done over the last 25 years, as have many of my fellow restaurant owners.
“One universal issue that we’re all up against is staffing, which continues to be challenging, but there are good people out there who want a career in hospitality and who are prepared to put in the hours. It’s just harder to find them.”
Hospitality businesses did receive some help from the UK government during COVID, thanks to Eat Out to Help Out in 2020. The scheme cost £840m and covered 160 million meals during the month of August when lockdown restrictions were easing. According to data from booking site OpenTable, restaurant reservations during the days of the scheme, Monday to Wednesday, were up by more than half in August 2020 compared to the previous August.
By Jason Caddy