TV chef Nick Nairn has closed his Aberdeen pizza restaurant with immediate effect, insisting it was “simply not viable” after the slump in the oil and gas industry.
Nick’s Pizza Bar, which opened in December 2016, has now been placed into voluntary liquidation.
The announcement comes after the celebrity chef closed his Cook School in the city at the end of June, again as a result of the downturn in the north east economy.
The closure of the pizza bar means Nairn – who found fame on the popular BBC programme Ready Steady Cook – no longer has a presence in Aberdeen.
When Nairn shut that business a month ago, he had hoped to expand the pizza bar as both enterprises were based in the same city centre building at Back Wynd, formerly St Nicholas Kirk’s old church hall.
However he said despite recent investment in marketing the pizza restaurant, and extending its opening hours, it was not viable as a stand-alone business.
Five full time members of staff were affected – with Nairn breaking the news in person to them on Monday morning.
Nairn, who became Scotland’s youngest chef to win a Michelin star in 1991, said he had taken the decision to close the restaurant “with regret”.
He stated: “I had always wanted to expand into Aberdeen and the business had years of success with a loyal customer base. However, the downturn in the oil and gas industry hit the economy in the north east leaving people with less money to spend on eating out.
“It’s with regret that I’ve had to make the decision to close my business in Aberdeen where I have enjoyed having a presence.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has worked with us in Aberdeen, and all our customers and suppliers with whom we have had an excellent relationship.”
The closure of the cook school and pizza bar come after the chef was assaulted outside the premises in December 2017.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel