Heartbreak and hope: Roy Brett talks Ondine, Seaton House, and what’s next
After a turbulent time for Roy Brett, things are “starting to settle down”, albeit the hurt from the “heartbreaking” closure of Ondine still lingers.
Having opened the renowned seafood restaurant just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in 2009, the site closed its doors for good in January of this year.
It came following ongoing structural works around the building on George IV Bridge, which would have forced Ondine to have been closed for a lengthy period, for works to be carried out on the building.
Roy remains hopeful of opening up a new Ondine in Edinburgh, but for now his focus is on his latest project Ondine Oyster Bar & Grill at Seaton House in St Andrews, with various food offerings including an oyster bar and charcuterie boards.
A Fresh Start at Seaton House in St Andrews
“The CEO, Euan McGlashan is a good friend of mine,” Roy told The Staff Canteen.
“The last three years we've been talking about the opportunity to do something. So when it finally came up, I’m a certain age now where I’m thinking why not? Let's see this.
“It’s expanded the name of Ondine as a brand. This was like a new beginning for Ondine, to find itself in an historic part of Scotland, working with another group of local suppliers.
“It’s a challenge, but it's a good challenge. It's a beautiful part of the world to be in.”
Navigating the Challenges of Moving from City to Hotel Dining
Discussing his adjustment from the day-to-day running of Ondine in Edinburgh for well over a decade, Roy said: “It’s starting to settle down now. Obviously taking a city centre restaurant and then placing it in the home of golf in St Andrews into a hotel, it is a change.
“It’s a change for myself and the original team and it's learning to adapt to working life in a hotel.
“It's the same disciplines, but it's different, being singly on your own to working with a much broader skill base with different departments.”
Closure still hurts for Roy
Almost seven months have passed since Ondine’s final service, on Hogmanay.
But the way it ended still leaves a bitter taste in Roy’s mouth.
Reflecting on the closure and the hopes to relocate Ondine, Roy said: “It’s an ongoing process. It was 16 years of our life. Having such a fantastic team that we'd built up, going through all the COVID times, rebuilding teams and then getting the carpet pulled from under your feet, it's just one of the hardest experiences of my life.
“When you’ve got 26 in the group and to have displacement, break up a really, really good team through no fault of ours or theirs, was quite a bitter time, quite hard to take. I’m still feeling that one. It's not gone away.
“I still want to do something back in Edinburgh, my hometown. What it's going to be and when it's going to be is just determined by a lot of outcomes.”
The decision to close Ondine came after a long period of building works.
Asked how much dialogue he had with the council during that time, Roy explained: “We were just going to come out of COVID. The government had closed us down at Christmas in 2020 and then going into the January, they said they had investigative work to do and there was going to be scaffolding going up for three weeks to have a look and that it won’t really affect the business.
“There was dialogue on a monthly basis, but then suddenly three weeks went to three months and then three months went to six months, six months went to nine months, nine months went to a year.
“We were in this system of updates, just to tell us that it was going to be further works and further works. It continues so much and the whole building is just a building site
at the end of the day.
“When I look back now, I was so proud of the team that they managed to get that venue working, considering all the defects that it had. There was no view, it was covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin in such a thick way that you would never know there was a restaurant inside.
“We fought against the odds. All the regulars basically turned up on New Year's Eve and we had a full restaurant to say goodbye to us. That was quite an emotional time.”
Roy continued: “I think sometimes people forget what restaurants are. They're social spaces where people connect and have not just a meal, it means something.
“We've had so many people in Ondine having their last supper with us as such because of illness. We've had birthdays of 15 years, from a 10-year-old birthday to an 18, to a 21, always spending their birthdays with us.
“That's what Ondine was all about really. It was just this great social space where people used to feel good about it and enjoyed themselves.
“I still really appreciate the support that we had.”
Recalling the day he knew he had to tell the team he would have to close the restaurant down, Roy said: “I had my back against the wall. I got a call saying that the restaurant’s going to be closed for at least 32 weeks, possibly longer.
“So effectively we were given a three-month period to leave the premises. We had no choice but to do it, because everybody knows eight months closed without revenue coming in is just an impossibility.
“Then I had to face my family, plus my restaurant family, having to tell them that that's it.
“It was a terrible time. It was a big investment for us 15 years ago, to borrow £1million then was a lot of money. And to do the restaurant that we always dreamed of, to then be told that you've got to go was difficult.
“One of the hardest things was when we actually had to break the whole place down, because we had to put it back to a certain state of repair. So we had to pull out the kitchen suite that we got designed in France. All the bespoke stainless steel and fabrication, the oyster bar, the grills. We actually had to pay thousands of pounds for people to come in and break our restaurant down.
“It was a tearful time. It was heartbreaking. It really hurts now. It still does.”
He added: “We're quite determined, though, that the actual group and the people who invested time with us, they're still wanting to go again. We're waiting our time, so when the time is right, why not? I work with some brilliant people. They keep me young.
“They’re fantastic. They've got energy, creativity, and I want them to have a stage where they can go again on. We're not finished yet, that's for sure.”
Hope for the future
Asked how optimistic he is both for his own future and that of the hospitality industry, Roy said: “I still really believe in myself and my team. I still really believe in the produce that we're getting to cook with. The variety and the seasonality of what we've got on our doorstep to offer, is it a better time than ever before?
“It’s not just about ability, you need to have the finance as well. A little bit more support from government especially on the VAT etcetera would be very, very helpful, because hospitality is a wonderful existence.
“You would just really like a little bit more empathy towards what we're doing and what we're going through, because the margins are tight.
“But I still believe there's a living in hospitality for sure.”
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Heartbreak and hope: Roy Brett talks Ondine, Seaton House, and what’s next
