Douneside House restaurant to undergo £200,000 redesign
Douneside House's three-AA-rosette restaurant will close during January to undergo a three-week, £200,000 refurbishment.
The four-AA-starred country house hotel in Tarland, Aberdeenshire will reopen the restaurant on 26 January following a redesign by Goddard Littlefair to reflect the kitchen's use of the produce grown in the hotel's walled kitchen garden.
The redesigned space will feature a piano lounge, a garden conservatory, a pantry displaying the restaurant's wine collection, and a patio sheltered by a pergola.
The hotel's head of gardens, Stephen McCallum, will be introducing plants such as palms, cycads and ferns, to the conservatory, to ‘bring the gardens indoors'. The works are being overseen by local contractor Pert Bruce, with a focus on local textiles.
Restaurant manager Tom Bielawski, pictured left with head chef David Butters, said: "I am incredibly excited about this project. Guests can now dine in the conservatory restaurant, which will have a relaxed atmosphere and offer beautiful views over the terrace garden. The library restaurant, where we will serve our tasting menu on Thursday to Saturday evenings, will be the perfect, intimate setting for chef to showcase his culinary talents."
Lucy Robinson, associate at Goddard Littlefair, said: "Bringing the spirit of Douneside's gardens and passion for their home-grown produce into the restaurant space… Each space has its own character, brought to life with galleries of family photos depicting their history, screens in Arts and Craft fabric taking inspiration from the garden outside, and botanical colour ways including new sage green highlights in the conservatory that enhances the views across the landscape and beyond."
Douneside House's gardens are one of four Royal Horticultural Society partner gardens in Aberdeenshire, and the hotel, owned and managed by the MacRobert Trust, is the only country house hotel in Scotland to sit within an RHS Partner Garden.
