Steak house plan for former bistro
Ryan TaylorFans of red meat may be left salivating at the prospect, but a new steak house is poised to open in what was once Monty’s Bistro.
Work is underway to breathe new life into the Mounthooly Street eatery which closed its doors earlier this year. Plans are underway to open the attraction under the simple name The Steak House once renovations are complete.
The venture, which is being undertaken by Ian Anderson of Anderson Butchers, should herald a new dining experience for the isles, which have never before hosted a steak house.
It follows the takeover by Anderson’s of the Globe butcher’s in Lerwick’s Commercial Road.
The deal means Anderson’s will supply The Steak House with local produce sourced through a family arrangement with producers GB & AM Anderson.
Mr Anderson jumped at the chance to take over Monty’s after its chef and owner, Raymond Smith, decided to leave the business in April.
“For a long time I had been thinking about having a steak house. I’d just got the Globe, got the job done there and finished, and I saw Raymond had closed this place,” he said.
“I was just wondering what I was going to do once I’d got the Globe done. One followed on from the other, really.”
He said nothing “hard and fast” had been decided about when the new attraction would open. But he hoped to see the first customers being shown to their tables by the beginning of November.
In the meantime, Mr Anderson said a lot of people were looking forward to the prospect of eating in Shetland’s very first dedicated steak joint.
“There’s always been speak of somebody going to open one over the years and nobody ever did,” he said.
“There seems to be a lot of feedback and talk already. There seems to be a lot of folk looking forward to it. And we’ve already had folk phoning and wondering when we’re going to be taking bookings.
“We work with my uncles at GB and AM Anderson. All the local beef is finished and supplied for the butchery through them, so we’ll just take it through another stage and put it on the plate.”
Running the kitchen will be chef manager Ryan Wright, who is looking forward to the prospect of living out his passion for good food.
• More in Friday’s Shetland Times.
Allen Fraser
I wish this new venture every success. However, from the point of view of the thousands of visitors that come to Shetland every summer I think Lerwick is missing an opportunity.
As a tourism provider the one question I get asked about Lerwick more than any other is: “Where are your fish restaurants “?
Unfortunately I have to tell them that there aren’t any, but that they will find fish on the menus of the Hotel restaurants. From visitors who mostly spend a few days or more in Shetland the feedback I get on these is: “The fish is nice but very little choice or variety; just one or two fish dishes on the unchanging menus”.
Robert Duncan
Just send them off to Scalloway, both the hotel and Da Haaf will see them right.
iantinkler
I hope the meat is procured from non methane producing ruminants!! Further to the SNP/SG lunatic approach to Green lunacy energy policy we now have “internal consultation paper, officers said MacColl’s restaurant would not be “sustainably located” as people would have to use a car to go out for a meal and as such contribute to climate change.”
The lunatics really are taking over the asylum, Goodness help Shetland if we allow this idiocy to continue. FOOD FOR THOUGHT, or just p??> and environment changing wind.!
John N Hunter
I was told on good authority by one local restaurateur that Shetland people want steak when they go out, not fish. The locals support local restaurants all year round, not just the three months or so of the tourist season.
Ali Inkster
I must be the exception to the rule, I always look to have seafood when eating out. 🙂
Kenneth F. Mackay
I welcome the thought of the steak hoose. However it would be good to see a menu posted in the window (and perhaps on its web site) so we can see what’s on offer and at what price!
Allen Fraser
The replies here by Mr. Hunter and Mr Duncan typify Shetland’s attitude to tourists and the tourism industry as well as expressing the urban myth that Shetlanders won’t pay to eat fish.
Hotel Restaurants in Shetland have fish on the menu certainly, but these are restricted to just one or two choices of fish and rarely change.
Other areas of the British Isles (and Europe) which have fishing ports within holiday destinations have abundance excellent fish restaurants supported by both locals and tourists.
Shetland gets in excess of 65,000 visitors a year and our tourist season is not restricted to just three months a year (another urban myth). Shetland is world famous for its fish and shellfish, and its fishing industry boasts about the variety and quantity of it, but if you are a visitor to Shetland just don’t expect to find much variety of it on the menu far less a dedicated fish eatery.
iantinkler
“Shetland is world famous for its fish and shellfish,” . What a shame if that is all Shetland offered. Our hill sheep, real local sheep, (Shetland sheep, not the fat imports), heather fed ( not fed re-seeded ryegrass) have a flavour quite unique. Time for real cattle also (Shetland and Highland breeds), time for real Shetland, Wir Shetland, let’s go for that, the unique, like Shetland folk.
Robert Duncan
“The replies here by Mr. Hunter and Mr Duncan typify Shetland’s attitude to tourists and the tourism industry as well as expressing the urban myth that Shetlanders won’t pay to eat fish”
I’m unclear on what you are trying to say? I suggested two local restaurants with an extensive range of seafood dishes. Have you seen the Scalloway Hotel’s menus recently?
Haydn Gear
It could be so obvious that it barely needs saying but is it likely that when Shetlanders eat out, their preferred choice is for something different from what they frequently eat at home. So, if fish is regularly on the menu at home the eating of steak might well be a pleasant change when eating out. I have eaten fish meals in Lerwick (very nice too) and, for me, they made a pleasant alternative to local Welsh lamb and beef. Horses for courses. (but not horse meat thank you!! )