SCOTTISH chef, food writer and broadcaster Nick Nairn has opened a new restaurant alongside his wife Julia.

This comes after a fire devastated their previous restaurant two years earlier.

Nick and Julia have opened Nairn’s in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.

The National: The new restaurant focuses on independent and local produce

The menu – which is set to change regularly – will focus on independent producers, Scottish seafood, grass-fed meats and herbs and vegetables grown in polytunnels by the couple.


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Visitors to the restaurant can expect a wide range of dishes including monkfish cheek scampi and tartare sauce, spiced fried chicken with courgette and mint slaw with lime, pickled wild garlic, as well as a selection of pizzas and locally sourced fish.

The dessert menu – which includes a hot raspberry souffle with white chocolate ice cream, as well as a brown butter financier with heather honey with perthshire strawberries and hibiscus – has been created to take advantage of the Scottish summer forage.

Celebrity chef Nairn became the youngest Scottish chef to win a Michelin star in 1991 at Braeval, the first restaurant he opened, near Aberfoyle.

Alongside the restaurant, Nick and Julia are also planning to open two new shops on Bridge of Allan’s high street in September, further integrating the restaurant with the local community.

Cook by Nick will sell restaurant quality ingredients, as well as having a personally curated butcher and fishmonger counter.

The food shop will also hold masterclasses and demonstrations, and will provide a knife-sharpening station to visitors.


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Home by Julia is also set to open, and will sell larger homeware items alongside the work of local artists.

Nick and Julia said: “It’s been a long road back for Bridge of Allan, but we are delighted to welcome everyone back to Nairn’s."

Speaking about the additional shops – Cook by Nick, and Home by Julia – they continued: “These openings in our hometown are a personal reflection of what we love and we’re looking forward to sharing that.”