The future of 8 St Andrew Square becomes a little clearer (and more appetising) with news that London-based Iberica Food and Culture Ltd has applied for planning permission to open here (Ref. 16/02587/FUL).
Plans for Ibérica Edinburgh – on the St Andrew Square/South St David Street corner site – propose a restaurant, cocktail bar, delicatessen and wine bar. The main ground-floor dining area comprises 29 covers, with a further 10 around the bar and 5 on the ‘terrace’.
Managing director Marco Fernandez Pardo opened Ibérica’s first restaurant in Marylebone in 2007, followed by another at Canary Wharf in 2011 and an open-air space in Cabot Square in 2013.
Rapid expansion has followed since, with new premises in London Farringdon and Manchester in 2014, London Victoria in 2015, and most recently Leeds.
When Fernandez Pardo was interviewed by the Caterer in 2014, he spoke of doubling the company to 10 sites by 2016. At that time, the average spend in Ibérica restaurants was £30 per head, with the best-selling tapas item being Serrano ham croquetas (£6/£10). Other sample dishes included gazpacho of red berries, beetroot and anchovy (£4), sea trout with almond purée, pickled cauliflower and smoked olive oil (£8), and chicken with chilindron sauce and rosemary potatoes (£6).
The Ibérica website says its restaurants ‘promise to showcase the true flavours of Spain in contemporary Iberian surroundings’.
*****
In other food-related corner news, a certificate of lawfulness is sought to join together Pomegranate (1 Antigua Street) and the former Sicilian Restaurant adjacent (5a Union Street) to form a single restaurant (Ref. 16/02604/CLP).
We understand that this would represent an expansion of Pomegranate’s Middle Eastern offerings rather than a cross-Mediterranean fusion of cuisines.
The applicant is apparently confident of success in this application as exterior work, at least, has already been undertaken.
------------------------------
@ShonaC1963 @CaterbyBarryB exciting
David Adam That building is growing on me as I pass it a few times a day.
Hopefully Pomegranate don't have any issues with the same people that gave them all the grief about their signage.
Broughton Spurtle Agree with you. Process by which former listed building at No. 8 was dispatched was worrying, but what's emerged in its place is bold, attractive and potentially invigorating for St Andrew Sq.
Neale Gilhooley Terrace? At least those sitting in the terrace don't have to look at the building
The building this replaced was not pretty - but this is truly ugly (in my humble opinion)
@suzannejohns @theSpurtle It replaced a number of buildings of varying quality.
@suzannejohns @theSpurtle The quality of the replacement is uniform.
@GASPurves @suzannejohns Uniformly good, bad or mediocre?
@theSpurtle @suzannejohns Not good!
Suzanne Johnston @suzannejohns
@GASPurves @theSpurtle It may be uniform - still not a pretty building. And of course some will disagree
@suzannejohns @theSpurtle I agree entirely!
@GASPurves Horrid and more horrid. What were the planners thinking? (were they thinking)
