Fleming buys the Buttery restaurant

Ian Fleming, former general manager of Auchterarder House hotel in Perthshire, has bought Glasgow's Buttery restaurant, which closed earlier this year.

Fleming has moved the four chefs who worked at Auchterarder House to the Buttery with him. Auchterarder House has just been sold, and its former head chef Willie Deans will head the Buttery's kitchen.

He is no stranger to the Buttery, having joined Auchterarder House in 1998 from the restaurant, where he was executive chef for two years.

The Buttery, in Argyle Street, was owned by Devco, part of Punch pubs group. Before it closed in February, Punch had warned that people had to ‘use it or lose it'.

Fleming, who would not disclose how much he paid for the freehold, said: "The Buttery is a Glasgow icon but it had been repeating a formula that was invented 20 years ago. It did not evolve and that is why it failed. My challenge is to make it relevant to today's diners."

The Buttery had a 40-seat restaurant on the ground floor called the Buttery and a 30-seat restaurant in the basement named the Belfry.

When it reopens on 10 May it will be named the Buttery and will have a 50-seat restaurant on the ground floor.