Spreading the Buttery

Ian Fleming bought the Buttery, Glasgow's oldest restaurant, for a couple of reasons. First, he wanted to settle back in Scotland; and second, he needed something to do while he was up there.

The Buttery is his first private venture, but not something you'd immediately expect a man like Fleming to dive into. A hotelier through and through, he has spent more than 25 years in hotels, mainly in the South of England, working as general manager at the Spread Eagle and Angel hotels in Midhurst, West Sussex, the Castle hotel in Taunton, Somerset, and more recently at Auchterader House in Fife. His strength, he says, is turning tricky country hotels around.

It's not a country house hotel, but the Buttery is certainly tricky. First, it has an iconic history - so much so that when it went up for sale in 2000 it made Scottish TV and prompted much media cynicism about the sorry state of the Glasgow restaurant scene. Only four interested buyers stepped forward, and two soon pulled out. As Fleming says: "When you touch something iconic, people start telling you it's dangerous."

The other problem is it's slap bang in the middle of a concrete housing estate and on the wrong side of a motorway flyover that was built in 1972. The strategy to house Glasgow's population meant that Argyle Street and the surrounding area - where the Buttery stands - was bulldozed. The restaurant itself was saved only because the town planners ate their meals there while deciding to demolish what was around it.

Fleming is an optimist, however. As far as location goes, he's just glad the Buttery is not in the city centre, fighting a price war with nearby restaurants. And although he admits the history of the place can be a mixed blessing, it's the Buttery brand that attracted him most in the first place.

"I'd heard about the Buttery from people who talked about it in the UK and the USA, but I had never been there," he says. "It was described as somewhere that was exclusive, expensive and luxurious, but then I realised those people had never been there either. Even in the later years, it had this fantastic reputation that outlived the reality. I immediately saw the Buttery in terms of brand value. I thought if I could unlock the value in the name and the perception of value in people's minds, I could do other things with it."

The Buttery began life in 1856 when it opened as a merchant's pub. A hundred years later it was sold to the Lamont family, who established its reputation as a restaurant.

After the shops and tenements were knocked down around it, the Buttery was bought by Allied Pubs and handed over to Malmaison founder Ken McCulloch to relaunch in 1982. Despite its difficult location, it thrived for many years as a themed destination restaurant where white-gloved waiters in Victorian costume served heavy French cuisine under silver cloches. The bistro, the Belfry, was opened downstairs.

But it never evolved, Fleming says, and when, some 20 years later, it was still offering the Victorian clutter and formality, it lost its way. In 1999 the restaurant was sold to Punch Taverns as part of Allied's estate, but received little investment. By April 2002, when Fleming bought it for £275,000, it was stuck in a time warp, with turnover down to £250,000 and incurring sizeable losses.

"When I took it on, I had no idea how bad the business was," Fleming says. "There were no records and not enough business for one restaurant, let alone two. I could only judge the business by the fact there were no reservations and the phone never rang."

Fleming closed the Buttery and the Belfry down, reduced staffing by 50%, worked out budgets and cash-flow projections on limited information and spent £70,000 on refurbishment. He then set about persuading ex-Auchterader House chef Willy Deans and his brigade to join him.

Bad memories Deans had worked at the Buttery while it was owned by Punch and wasn't keen to return, however. "It took a lot of persuading," he says. "The Buttery brought back bad memories for me as I felt the company then didn't appreciate what I could do or support me in taking the food forward. Ian has given me free rein to do what I want with the menu, though. The site is horrible but the restaurant has a place in history in Glasgow and I knew we could get that reputation back."

The Buttery's style is now very different from the long, heavy lunches that the restaurant offered in the past. Fleming and Deans have gone for simplicity and speed, and have dropped the heavy French style, to catch a new type of Buttery client.

"The old Buttery client was here on key special events," says Fleming. "Now we are after more frequent customers, with average spend at about £55 per person and it's not going up. The food was very traditionally French before, with lots of cream and butter, rich meats and game. We use lighter meats now."

Deans adds: "I've simplified the food. I've got four cooks, three courses and five choices for each course, so I can control the quality. Menus are planned around the season, availability and price, and dishes are quite homely. My food is very creative, but I also try to promote Scotland and create a marriage between Scottish and French combinations."

The Buttery reopened following refurbishment in May 2003 to "embarrassingly good reviews" from the Scottish press. In 2003 it was named AA Scottish Restaurant of the Year. The Belfry has not been reopened, but its kitchen will become a production unit for Dean's project, the Buttery Direct, which will outsource to hotels and customers in the Glasgow area. This outlet is targeted to bring in an additional £75,000 in food sales in the first year.

Business is looking good. Year one closed at £350,000 turnover, but this year is up to £480,000 net of VAT. In September 2003, turnover was up by 97% on the year before.

But Fleming isn't stopping there. Going back to what he knows, he's working on franchising the Buttery as a brand through hotels. The idea is to sell the brand to a country house hotel, providing project management, PR and merchandising. The hotel takes the sales and profit; Fleming controls the brand.

"The Buttery product suits the hotel environment well because it looks like a country house hotel restaurant," he says. "The strategy is to target hotels with a branded restaurant option. Hotels must demand food and beverage operations to be dynamic, customer driven and profitable. Taking on a franchise such as the Buttery structured along the McDonald's proposition has to be the way ahead."

In the meantime, Fleming will concentrate on building up the Buttery, making it a modern, viable business, with plans to dominate the market. His challenge is to see what the limits of the business are. "If I couldn't grow this business, I'd sell it and go to manage hotels again. I could never just take on something like this and sit on it for 10 years. I'd get bloody bored. If I can't grow, eventually I'll sell it and do something else."

FACT FILE

The Buttery
652 Argyle Street, Glasgow G3 8UF
Tel: 0141-221 8188
Owner: Ian Fleming
Head chef: Willy Deans
Staff: 14
Covers: 12 to14 lunch; 28-38 dinner midweek; 40-54 dinner at weekends
Average spend: £55
Turnover 2002: £350,000 net of VAT
Projected turnover 2003: £480,000 net of VAT

THE MENU

Starters Warm terrine of Toulouse sausage, pork and black pudding wrapped in goose with roots salad and a cider vinegar and vanilla dressing
Sautéd loin of tuna on spicy dahl lentils with Thai green curry sauce and turmeric fritters
Crisp fried pasta pavé of apple and beetroot on confit venison, bacon, red wine, button onions and rosemary

Main courses
Loin of wild Ochil boar, hachis cottage pie with celeriac, walnut and blue-cheese glaze and a sloe berry sauce
Best end of Perthshire hill lamb with a minted sausage hotpot, cauliflower and parsley gratin, shallots and thyme scented sauce
Breast of free-range corn-fed chicken with wild mushrooms on bacon and truffled white beans, poached leeks and tomato consommé

Two courses £34