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Edinburgh Larder is located just off the Royal Mile
Give us a brief history of
the business and your
involvement with it
“It opened with the aim
of bringing a taste of the country to the heart of the city and
highlighting the fantastic produce available in Scotland. There
weren’t many places offering really good local food in the
centre of town when the café opened and I wanted to create
an affordable lunch destination for locals and tourists alike. I
set up the business with the help of my brother and I’ve been
running it ever since. I opened the bistro on Alva Street last
June to use more of the great Scottish produce we use at
the café. My dad, my aunt and my brother have invested in
the business to enable it to
grow so it’s definitely a family
business although I’m the
only one involved in the day-
to-day running of it.”
Who works with you? What roles do they perform?
“We have a great team of people at the café and bistro. The
manager at the café is Will Bain and his assistant manager is
Chris Dunstan. It’s quite unusual for the café to be made up
largely of boys – it didn’t start that way but they’re a fantastic
team and really love what they do. The teams at the bistro
are headed up by Jade Linden in front of house and Kenny
Whittle in the kitchen. They’ve only been with us for a couple
of months, but they’re both doing a really great job.”
Tell us about some of your best sellers (food
and drink)
“The best sellers in the café are
generally the sandwiches
and our homemade
soups.
The sandwiches are made using artisan bread from a bakery
called Au Gourmand and filled with really delicious Scottish
produce like Barwhey’s cheddar and our homemade pickle.
The soups are made on site every day using local and
seasonal produce. Our homemade sausage rolls are made
with organic mince from Peelham Farm and go down an
absolute storm. Our most popular cake is our dark chocolate
brownies, which are made using ground almonds instead
of flour and dark chocolate so they’re gluten free and extra
delicious.”
Separate from your food and drink offering, how do you
differentiate your business and keep customers coming
back for more?
“We regularly ask for feedback and try to ensure we act
on our customers wishes. We also offer a really personal
touch and remember everyone who comes back – it’s like
an extended family. We change the layout and the food
offering regularly to keep things interesting
too. We also offer a range of events such
as mushroom foraging and supplier talks,
which allow people to get more involved in
what we do.”
Do locally sourced ingredients or
products play a big part in the business?
“They play a huge part – they’re at the
core of the business as they’re really the
reason why we opened. We keep
things as local as possible and change all our
homemade products to use the best
ingredients each season has
to offer.”
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EssentialCounter Culture
A FAMILY AFFAIREleanor Cunningham introduces Essential Café
readers to the Edinburgh Larder, which opened
in October 2009, on Blackfriars Street, just off
the Royal Mile.
Eleanor says that local ingredients are at the core of the business
Sign up to the Essential Café twitter feed www.twitter.com/Essential_Cafe Essential Café
Edinburgh Larder’s most popular cake is its dark chocolate brownies which are made using ground almonds instead of flour and dark chocolate
Do you think the future is bright for
independent cafés and coffee shops
in the UK?
“It’s a really tough time for businesses. The
economy has been struggling for some time
and there are more regulations than ever
before. The increasing tax and wage costs really
do make it difficult to survive. However, there’s
a wave of really interesting and exciting places
opening up and it feels like people care more
than ever where their food comes from, which
is great.”
Do you have a favourite regular customer?
“We have loads of great customers - and I’m
sure every member of staff has a favourite but
we’ll keep them quiet.”
How do you go about choosing your
speciality drinks such as your coffee?
“I usually go for the most local and
independent producers. Our beers come from
within a 10 mile radius at the café – it would be
too hard to decide on them otherwise as there’s
so many amazing Scottish beers to choose from
– Tryst and Stewarts are both fantastic. Our coffee is
roasted in Edinburgh by Artisan Roast and our tea is hand
selected by Eteaket who are also Edinburgh-based and
have a really beautiful range of teas.”
High-quality hot chocolate is becoming more popular,
something you offer?
“We make our own hot chocolate mix using dark chocolate
and cocoa – it was based on a recipe given to us by one of
our customers. We mix it with seasonal ingredients in the
winter and sometimes chilli too for a bit of a kick.”
We understand you are in the middle of creating a
new website, how important is the online side of the
business in creating awareness?
“It’s hugely important – especially with the café as it’s so
central and we have a large number of people visiting from
abroad. Many of our customers keep in touch with us when
they’ve gone back home via twitter and Facebook too. The
new website should be up and running next week and ties
in with our new branding.”
You recently refurbished, how did that go and where
there any specific aims?
“We refurbished the bistro as we hadn’t done much work
on the front of house when we moved in last year. We really
wanted to create a modern feel which was more in keeping
with our brand and ethos. We used reclaimed materials to
build the furniture and things like lobster creels as lighting
to give a more unusual and rustic feel. We wanted to
make it a really special place for our customers to visit and
somewhere they’d feel at home.”
Does the Edinburgh Fringe Festival offer much in the
way of increased business?
“It increases the business at the café massively and it does
have an impact on the bistro too. With the café being just
off the Royal Mile, we double our staff in the festival and
we’re open from 7am till 11pm too so it’s a very busy month
but we love it.”
If money was no object and you could change one thing
about the business, what would you invest in?
“I’d set up a dedicated outside catering unit so we could
expand our outside catering business and increase our
preserves (jam, cordial and chutney).”
More information: Edinburgh Larder +44 (0)131 5566922,
www.edinburghlarder.co.uk
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EssentialCounter Culture