TIMBERYARD
LANDMARK DINING
A new restaurant and café from the owner of Atrium and Café Blue is set to become an exciting new feature on Edinburgh’s dining scene, as John Cooke discovers
T here’s no sign of chefs’ whites yet at Andrew Radford’s new Timberyard restaurant taking shape in Edinburgh’s Lady Lawson Street. In fact, it’s paint-spattered boiler suits all round, as restaurant veteran Andrew, his son Ben, and a gang of tradespeople transform a historic 1895 building into something very distinctive.
Walls have been bared to the brick, beams exposed, cool courtyards created, and a kitchen with a ceiling higher than most ballrooms awaits Ben and his brigade. It’s easy to see why Andrew fell in love with the building hidden behind the big red folding doors, as he walked the streets of Edinburgh looking for premises with the character to be more than just another restaurant.
Once found, it’s been an exercise in artful recycling and careful revelation of a building that will house an 80-cover restaurant, courtyard for 40 and a café, as well as private dining in one of the interesting spaces that dot the premises. It will be an all-day operation, with an eight-till-late opening, casual and comfortable. In addition to ‘bite, small or large’ options, the restaurant’s menu will have daily market specials.
Those familiar with Andrew’s previous restaurants Atrium and Café Blue can look forward to a similar approach to food: ‘good ingredients, handled lightly’. Some ingredients will come from very close to hand too, with an on-site butchery, smokery and a selection of herbs and vegetables. It’s an approach that’s fully in tune with the ‘local, seasonal, foraged’ mantra driving so much good Scottish dining these days. For Andrew, this is hardly a fresh idea. ‘I remember as the chef on the Flying Scotsman luxury train, the wonderful local produce the locals delivered when we pulled into some small Highland station. There was a certain policeman
22 THE LIST 19 Jul–2 Aug 2012
who seemed to be a dab hand at i nding prime salmon . . .’
It’s an ambitious project breathing new life into three l oors of a building built as a props and costume store and workshop for the Lyceum and King’s Theatres. (The restaurant’s name dates from a more recent use as a timber yard.)
‘I’m quite proud that we as a family have done much of this ourselves, without architects or designers, but simply together with a band of tradespeople who I’ve come to rely on down the years.’ As a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, it’s appropriate that so many of the i xtures and i ttings are recycled, sourced from near and far. Industrial wall lamps from London, chairs from Glastonbury, even a staircase from Gumtree, it’s produced a style that makes frugality something effortlessly chic, with real soul.
At the heart of it all, Andrew’s wife Lisa is a calming, professional inl uence. When Timberyard opens in early August in time for the Edinburgh Festival, she will be joined by son Jo, who is due home soon following his Antipodean experiences in managing and opening restaurants and bars, as well as daughter Abi, with her skill in social media. When that big red door opens, the boiler suits will be replaced by chefs’ whites, and the Radford family will be writing the next chapter in the story of Edinburgh’s eating scene. It promises to be quite a landmark event.
A i nal note: fans of Café Blue will be happy to know that Timberyard has
retained the same telephone number: 0131 221 1222.
Timberyard Restaurant,10 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9D5, eat@timberyard.co, timberyard.co
I
I
E K O O C N L T A C © S O T O H P