Flying colour
When Andrew and Lisa Radford opened their first café/bar concept, the Blue Bar Cafe, on 14 July 1997, Andrew was quoted in a consumer magazine as saying that "Edinburgh was pretty much ready to pluck". Two years on, Andrew believes the city's plumage is nigh-on bare.
Two All Bar Ones, an Est Est Est, a Brown's and several chef-led operations have opened a stone's throw away from Blue, which is situated on the first floor of Saltire Court, above the Radfords' fine-dining restaurant, the Atrium.
The evidence of their effect can be seen in the financial figures at Blue. In the café's first year (1997-8), turnover far exceeded the Radfords' expectations - at £895,659, it was £315,659 above plan. Last August, September and October turnovers were all up on the previous year, and Andrew says trading for the month of August 1998 blew the previous record right out of the water with £134,996, compared with £99,683 in 1997.
Then the competition started to bite. "November saw a bit of a dip. It was the first sign of the new kind of brewery-led explosion and it's affecting everybody in Edinburgh," he says.
Nevertheless, Andrew is characteristically upbeat about the first half of 1999. Trading figures for January were similar to the previous year, February was 12.9% up on 1998, March showed a slight downturn, April and May suffered, but then June bounced back.
"There's no pattern," says Andrew. "It's slightly scary because I think we're entering a kind of unknown period, but at the same time it makes it quite exciting." So, what had amounted to an erratic financial year finished in a blaze of glory with a turnover figure of £988,204.
When Caterer last visited, in May 1998, 10 months into its first year of trading, Blue's head chef, John Rutter, had departed to set up his own venture with Atrium head chef Glyn Stevens and restaurant manager Lara Kearney. Rutter's sous chef, David Haetzman, was duly promoted to head chef.
A year on from that and the Radfords and general manager James Sankey are about to open a second Blue Bar Cafe (in two weeks' time) in Glasgow's Lighthouse building, Scotland's official centre for architecture and design. In addition, Andrew has won the contract to produce the food at the Edinburgh Festival Society's new centre, the Hub.
The Glasgow Blue, set on two floors with a 60-seat basement and a 50-seat ground floor, will cost the Radfords £400,000 to set up. Of this, £250,000 has been borrowed from the Bank of Scotland. At the Hub, an 80-seat café serving snacks and first-floor banqueting facilities for 250 people do not require capital expenditure from the Radfords.
The new projects have presented Andrew and Sankey, who has been made group general manager, with the opportunity of promoting from within. Edinburgh head chef David Haetzman will oversee the opening of the Glasgow Blue, where new recruit Michael Smith will head the kitchen. Blue's front of house manager, Steven Hall, has transferred to the Hub and has been replaced by Keith McQuaid (ex-Bibendum manager), while Chris Langan, Edinburgh bar manager, will head the bar in Glasgow.
Edinburgh International Conference Centre's ex-head chef, Nick Bryan, becomes head chef at the Hub, and Neil Forbes, previously of Nairns in Glasgow, will lead the kitchen at the Atrium. Tragically, Stephen Case, assistant manager at the original Blue, was killed in a hit-and-run accident in November.
Last month's official openings of the Hub and the Lighthouse building, held on consecutive days, put Andrew in the company of royalty. Having been introduced to the Duke of Edinburgh at the Hub, Andrew also met him on the following day in Glasgow. "Haven't I met you before?" asked the duke. "Yes," replied Andrew, "yesterday, at the Hub." "Oh, so you're doing the food here as well," concluded the duke.
"Things have moved on at Blue," says Andrew. "I've been elevated to being recognised by the Duke of Edinburgh!"
Blue Bar Cafe
Cambridge Street, Edinburgh EH1 2ED
Tel: 0131-221 1222
Operating company: Blue Scotland
Opening times: noon to midnight, seven days a week
Total seats: 120
Dimensions: 3,500sq ft
Turnover for the year from August 1998 to July 1999: £988,204
Average spend per head: £12.50 inclusive of drinks
Average daily covers: 130
Next week: Meet the first of our new Adopted Businesses, the Globe Hotel in Overton, Lancashire
