Gordon Ramsay has been linked to a deal that could see him take over premises currently occupied by the Refinery restaurant in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square.
It follows an announcement by Drake & Morgan, the London restaurant group, confirming that the Refinery would close next month after the chain was unexpectedly served notice by its Luxembourg-based landlord, St Andrew Square SARL.
According to The Sunday Times, sources said that staff were told their jobs were redundant ‘because Gordon Ramsay had bought the building’ but a spokeswoman for Ramsay said she could not comment ‘at this point.’
It’s been 17 years since he closed the doors of his Amaryllis restaurant at One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow. It was awarded a Michelin star in 2002 – a year after the restaurant opened – but tragedy struck in 2003 when the head chef, David Dempsey, fell to his death from a block of flats.
Ramsay later revealed the venture was haemorrhaging money and cost him £480,000 over its three-year run.
In April, Drake & Morgan announced plans to close three sites, which did not include the Refinery in Edinburgh. The chain, which runs 22 venues in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, said it was taking action to survive the ‘unprecedented and challenging’ trading conditions brought on by the pandemic and was seeking the support of its landlords to secure the future of the business by moving to a turnover-based rent model.