Paul Tamburrini and Martin Wishart have formed a new joint venture to open fine dining restaurant Tamburrini & Wishart at the five-star Cameron House Hotel, Loch Lomond on August 1st. . The hotel is preparing to reopen after a four-year closure and a multi-million pound restoration project following the 2017 fire that destroyed the main building.
The pair have worked together for more than 20 years at Michelin-star restaurant Martin Wishart in Leith and The Honours, which closed in 2020 due to the pressures of the pandemic.
Said Martin Wishart, “It’s fantastic to be announcing some good news after the trials and tests of the pandemic and I’m excited to be returning to the iconic Cameron House Resort.
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring an elevated offering to the hotel’s collection of restaurants. The venue itself will be stylish with a great atmosphere, where guests know they will get contemporary, flavour-led cuisine. Paul and I are both incredibly passionate about our love of food and designing menus using the very best of seasonal produce. It’s an exciting period for us, the resort, and returning guests.”
Paul Tamburrini added, “Cameron House Resort is a very special place. I worked there in the early stages of my career and loved every minute of it, so to now be leading a new fine dining offering in tandem with Martin Wishart is an absolute honour. We have collaborated successfully in the past and we’re confident this venture at Cameron House will be no different. We have the same vision on food and attention to detail, so it just works, and this is an amazing opportunity for us to be working together again at Scotland’s number one resort.”
The re-opening of Cameron House Hotel on August 1 following a sensitive restoration project will also see the return of the Cameron Grill restaurant and the Great Scots Bar and Terrace, as well as a new leisure club. New additions include a 35-seater cinema, tavern and lobby bar.
The wider Cameron House Resort is also home to a spa complete with a rooftop infinity pool, an 18-hole championship golf course, and a 234-berth marina.
The resort is also currently undergoing a multi-million-pound extension, which will include a new ballroom with capacity for 400 guests and an additional 68 bedrooms, bringing the resort’s total offering to 208 bedrooms, including 30 suites that will be completed and open to guests in January 2022.
THE OAK TREE INN IN BALMAHA HAS JUST CELEBRATED ITS 21ST ANNIVERSARY. JASON CADDY CAUGHT UP WITH SANDY AND STUART FRASER, TWO OF THE CHARACTERS BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF THE BUSINESS.
Gabriel Oak is a character in Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd. As the name suggests, he’s the sturdy, reliable character at the centre of the story. Sandy Fraser cuts a similar figure at The Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha, on the east side of Loch Lomond, where’s he has been licensee and central to its success story for 21 years. Wife Lucy is also a big part of the business, which they built from nothing to a turnover of £3m, plus it now also employs several of his seven children and a further 100 employees across all the businesses. Yes there’s more to Sandy and Lucy Fraser than merely the Oak Tree Inn.
I caught up with Sandy and son Stuart, a partner in the business at The ‘Balmaha Experience’, as Sandy calls it. It’s not the first time I’ve interviewed Sandy: we first met seven years ago. But the business has grown considerably since then and now incorporates The Village Shop, Loch Lomond luxury ice-cream company, accommodation pods and several holiday cottages. They’ve also purchased a boat for tours as well as a proposed sail-by coffee shop (like McMonagles sail-by chippy in Clydebank should be). And if that wasn’t enough for anyone’s plate they also have planning permission for a new Oak Tree-sized building on the land just past the Oak Tree, on the right hand-side as you round the Loch, plus they a own quarry from which they mine the beautiful stone that clads many of the buildings they own.
Stuart, together with brother David, own and operate the St Mocha Coffee Shop, Loch Lomond Coffee Company, suppliers of the St Mocha Coffee Shop and a wee kiosk in Luss. And the brothers have been on the acquisition trail once more, as Sandy explained, “We want to make Balmaha the way that it was in the 50s and 60s when it was a destination, but we made a pledge at the start of the year that we’d be making no more acquisitions this year in order to focus on this. But we can’t turn down a good opportunity when it presents itself, which is what happened back in February when we acquired The Blane Valley in Strathblane. It’s a former Greene King tenanted unit and the plan is to return it into a country pub with an added coffee element, because like many pubs it is struggling. It’s very much a work-in-progress.”
He continued, “In late 2016 Stuart and David also purchased The Carbeth Inn in Carbeth. There are going to be a number of elements to the building/ site including a detached drive-through coffee shop. The main building will be renamed The Halfway House (its former name), for which we have full planning permission. Eventually this will also include accommodation and we’ll be running a pop-up by May next year with the completion of phase one set for 2020. It’s going to be like a kind of artisan Starbucks. In August Stuart and David purchased the old station buildings on Main Street Aberfoyle, and the plan is to turn this into a coffee shop with an added gift shop element. This is the gateway to the Trossachs and it was once a busy wee hub with a direct railway line from Glasgow.”
But it hasn’t all been a picnic in the last wee while. Said Sandy, “Staffing has been hellish for us. For the first time in 20 years there’s a lack of European staff and so we’ve been forced to recruit through agencies, and by signing up to agencies the staff can be getting paid up to double. We actually went to Lithuania to do presentations for students at the University of Vilnius and managed to get one of the lecturers to come here to work for us and she has been here for four years. She acts as a go-between. We’re not necessarily an academy per se, (this is something we’re looking at in the future). We do, however, provide accommodation in the pods, and that of course is one of the biggest challenges in rural hotels, the lack of accommodation, i.e. not just a pile of sheds and caravans.”
Sandy’s also seen a big shift in customer behaviour since we last spoke back in 2011. He said, “The 5pm trade in rural pubs is dead. The stricter drink driving laws have meant that most people won’t drink at all if they do go out. But in the main it’s more cultural I suppose– gone are the days when punters would go out for a couple and then go back for tea at about 7pm. A by-product of this is the closure of rural pubs. Just looking around our vicinity you can see evidence of this. One pub has closed in Buchlyvie and the last one is currently on the market, Croftamie’s only pub closed 18 months ago and had been on the market for over a year. The Black Bull in Killearn is also shut. “But we aren’t wasting time trying to endlessly figure out why customers aren’t behaving in the same way. We are focussing on new ways of operating, because if we don’t change we won’t be here. We do think that coffee shops are the pubs of the future.”
And Stuart and Sandy are also adding their voices to the growing chorus of licensees that are becoming more vocal about how grossly unfair the rates system is. Said Sandy, “Rates are absolutely crippling and this is one of the most worrying parts of our operation because we have an element of control over the other business challenges. But not this. They are penalising success, which is the same as killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” Stuart thinks that there should be more of a united front among people in the trade when it comes to fighting such iniquities. He said, “There’s strength in numbers and we feel that the hospitality industry should have one single body to fight for this type of thing. Margins are so very tight for everybody right now and we absolutely need a champion in our corner.”
He continued, “What is happening now is very, very worrying. Paying higher wages means a poorer quality product, which is why we’re trying to simplify things by doing it all on site by building a centralised kitchen, and recognising and doing something about the skills shortage we’re facing. Us being up at 25% on a wages bill is a ticking time-bomb – what next? £20 for burger and chips?”
They’ve also had to shelve a few projects for the time being. Said Sandy, “We bottled our own Balmaha whisky. We do have plans for a brewery but mothballed it because we became a victim of our own success. It was borne out of necessity, in the early stages of the micro-brewery and craft beer boom in 2011. But since then, the Fallen Brewery and Loch Lomond have come to prominence, both of which we use. When we applied for planning permission, which we got, we originally put in for a one-barrel plant where we should have put in a ten-barrel plant.”
He continued, “The first run for the whisky was 300 bottles. I made the contacts with the master distillers through my electrician business. We worked on design and concept and outsourced the bottling. We’re currently waiting to rebottle because we have sold out.” And they’re also looking to adapting to new and emerging trends at their core business, The Oak Tree Inn. Said Stuart, “We’re looking at turning the menu 50% vegan over the next two years and, once finished, the centralised kitchen will serve the entire business – restaurant/retail/coffee shop – so that we have consistency across the business, which can be incredibly hard to achieve, like when creative differences with chefs crop up.”
But I’m sure Sandy et al will prevail because this man and his family are so very determined and never let setbacks or a lack of support deter them, like the lack of parking provision on the east side of the Loch for instance. Explained Sandy, “The powers that be seem happy for it to continue to be marketed as the ‘quiet side of the Loch’. For example, our own car park hasn’t been added to at all in parallel with the growth of our business. That’s why we have built a new pontoon to attract new visitors via the water.” In fact, it strikes me that the greater the resistance they come up against, the greater the Frasers’ business drive, so look out for interview number three in the next few years for the next update, when the Oak Tree Inn celebrates another milestone
We are all familiar with the notion that if something works, why change it – and that is very much the spirit in which an ambitious refurbishment project at The Cameron House Hotel, at Loch Lomond, was recently completed. The team at Greyline Design, who created new looks for three of the five-star luxury venue’s restaurants and bars – The Boathouse, the Cameron Grill and The Great Scots Bar – were asked to enhance what was already in place through the use of colour, richness and opulence.
That is very much in line with the idea that this 18th century Baronial mansion is a place where ‘glamour and romanticism meets culture and history’ – to quote from the resort’s own web page. So it was about upgrading and improving what was there rather than ripping everything out and starting over and it was also about making clever changes to the existing seating arrangements in order to boost the number of covers at each offering – all with minimal disruption to guests.
Resort Director Andy Roger explains, “We are blessed with a beautiful location and some fantastic facilities but the resort has probably not had the investment that it has demanded over the last few years so the thinking is to take the resort back to and ahead of where it has been before, and to be able to capitalise on the huge demand we have in some of our restaurants. “The third aspect was to look at where we could really drive the business forward over the next three to five years, with an owner, KSL, who is looking forward rather than looking to sell the business.” One of the first phases of the work was down at The Boathouse, an informal restaurant which overlooks the Marina and is a short walk from the main hotel.
It is a great place to watch the water, catch some sport on the new larger-screen TVs and sample the seafood menu which includes Lobster Mac ‘n’ Cheese and pizzas baked to order in the wood-burning oven as well as Orkney crab and West Coast mussels. Much of the emphasis here was on increasing the number of covers, so the tan-coloured banquette seats which ran down the middle of the main seating area have been removed and replaced with lighter chairs in a mixture of blues and reds, with seats and backs upholstered in contrasting colours.
Other innovations like the Captain’s Table, which seats eight and is set slightly away from the main restaurant, have also proved popular. The main bar area still has its large sofas but they have been re-covered with lighter, brighter fabrics. Gone are the brown, taupe and cream hues and in are the blues and reds we see in the restaurant. The changes have enhanced the venue’s New England style and make the space feel both bigger and busier at the same time. Andy says, “We have taken the capacity up by 50 per cent, from 100 to 150 seats and from a revenue point of view we will grow that business by over ten per cent this year and a huge part of that is through the covers.
We’ve made it slightly more casual seating and reduced the size of some of our tables and chairs to really capitalise on the space. The next phase will be to look at our outside dining, to increase the capacity further.” The Cameron Grill has also been refurbished as part of this £3million investment programme. Here the major changes included removing much of the dark leather banquette seating which previously dominated the space. Now the seats around the sides of the restaurant are upholstered in distressed-look dark brown leather, while the seating in the middle of the room is covered in lighter taupe shades.
A Last Supper-style painting which used to run almost the length of the right-hand wall has been replaced with four large mirrors which bounce light back into the room, set against grey/blue and gold flock wallpaper. The same colours are also picked up in some of the fabric on the chairs. Again the immediate impact of the refurbishment has been to make the restaurant feel more spacious and much lighter and this is boosted when the tables – a mix of small square ones, which seat two comfortably but can be joined together for bigger parties, and large round ones which seat up to eight people – are set for dinner with crisp white table linen.
It retains a sophisticated, high-end feel and is an ideal setting for guests to enjoy the new wine list and menu which includes dishes like wood pigeon, Highland deer and Orkney scallops. However, given that this is also where hotel residents have breakfast it probably works better with the lighter, fresher colour palette and again the capacity has been increased by 50 per cent. A small room to one side of the restaurant has been transformed into a cocktail bar with 14 seats. Once again, mirrors bounce the light around while distressed metal ceiling tiles, streaked with a rust colour, add warmth. The front of the new bar is tiled in irregular aqua, gold and grey tiles, creating a glamorous feel in what also doubles as a private dining area.
The Grill is already reaping the rewards of this refurbishment with the average spend up by 20 per cent as a result of the changes. The Great Scots Bar now has a much warmer feel, almost like walking into one of the large bottles of Glenmorangie sitting on the stunning copper-topped bar. The dark colours that were in the room previously – mostly greys, browns, taupe and creams – have been banished and replaced instead with tan leather, velvet and tartans in oranges and a touch of pink. To the right, the walls are now upholstered in padded tan leather panels studded to create a Chesterfield sofa-style effect, separated by horizontal-striped wallpaper in varying tones of slate grey.
Meanwhile the walls around the large stone open fireplace have been covered in a textured light and dark tan flock paper while large tan leather tiles have been used to cover another wall area. Two sets of semi-circular banquettes have been cleverly arranged around the fire – each one seats six people comfortably – while single armchairs arranged around small circular wooden tables add extra covers. The overall feel is of luxury, inclusivity and intimacy, even for larger groups of people. To the left hand side of the room, the ever-popular Whisky Lockers remain.
Current incumbents, whose keys are kept behind the bar so they can access their personal bottle whenever they wish, include former Scotland rugby player Gavin Hastings OBE and Olympic gold medallist Katherine Grainger CBE. Again, armchairs in a mix of tan leather and the warm tartan provide additional seating and there are wing-back chairs in another corner. Moving through into the main bar area, the original wooden parquet-style floor has been restored and brought back to life, while the curtains have been removed from the huge picture windows to really make the most of the stunning views over the hotel’s elegant grounds to Ben Lomond.
The large sofas and armchairs have been re-upholstered in a mix of leather, green and purple velvet and contrasting tartans, tones which reflect the natural colours of the hills around the hotel, while mirrored table tops bounce light back into the room. The walls are still lined with the same iconic black and white photographs of the Great Scots the bar is named after, including racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, novelist Ian Rankin OBE and actress Hannah Gordon. Andy says: “We’ve kept all that’s great about The Great Scots Bar but we’ve replaced all the furniture and changed the configuration to allow us to have more groups in there, more people enjoying the experience.” The upholstery and re-upholstery work on this refurbishment project across all three venues was undertaken by Glasgow firm ESL, while Style Matters supplied new furniture.
Luxury five-star resort on the banks of Loch Lomond, Cameron House Hotel, has announced the appointment of Franz Mathis as general manager.
Mathis joins the team from a position at Abu Dhabi’s Shangri-La as Executive Assistant Manager of Food & Beverage.
With sixteen years experience in the luxury hospitality sector, Mathis has worked in such institutions as The Palm, Tate Modern, Selfridges, Atlantis, and One & Only Royal Mirage in Dubai.
On his new role, Frantz Mathis said: “I am extremely excited to have joined the team at Cameron House and I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge of the industry to contribute further to the success of the hotel. Cameron House is an iconic Scottish resort in a truly unique setting. From stunning views to excellent dining and accommodation as well as a diverse range of amenities, it offers visitors from Scotland and further afield a taste of hospitality at its very best.”
His new role at Cameron House will enable him to play a key part in promoting the five-star hotel, where he aims to enhance the customer experience, increase sales and develop the success the resort is already known for.
Resort Director at Cameron House, Andy Roger, commented on the new appointment: “Mathis brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise that will help us to deliver the highest levels of customer service at Cameron House Hotel. He has worked at some of the top hotels in the world, has a great enthusiasm for the industry and will be a real asset to our team.”
Stephen Carter OBE has resigned as Managing Director of Cameron House Hotel and Resort on Loch Lomond. His last day will be the 5th April. Stephen has worked for De Vere Hotels for eight years with the last seven years at Cameron House. The hotel was sold to investors in late 2014 and is currently managed by Q Hotels.
Stephen said, “I will very much miss the magnificent team at Cameron House who have made the last seven years extremely rewarding and fun. It has been a privilege to work with them and I wish them and Q Hotels continued success into the future.”
Stephen will continue in his role as Vice Chairman of the RSNO, a Director of Visit Scotland, Trustee of the Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland and initially retain an ambassadorial role for QHotels in Scotland to enable transition to be finalised.
Cameron House Hotel at Loch Lomond is now owned by QHotels, the group, also own the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld. The hotel was part of a package which included six other De Vere Hotels. Qhotels said, “We are excited to announce we are adding six former De Vere hotels and De Vere Luxury Lodges into our portfolio. Our six new hotels, located across the UK include the luxury 5-star Cameron House in Loch Lomond and the Elizabethan-style Dunston Hall in picturesque Norfolk.”
All together the QHotel Group has a portfolio of 27 four and five-star hotels. The company has said it will be “business as usual” at Cameron House, with no management changes. Also included in the deal are the hotels luxury lodges.
Cameron House Hotel at Loch Lomond is now owned by hotel group QHotels. The company, which holds the accolade the AA Hotel Group of the Year, also owns the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld. The company said, “We are excited to announce we are adding six former De Vere hotels and De Vere Luxury Lodges into our portfolio. Our six new hotels, located across the UK include the luxury 5-star Cameron House in Loch Lomond and the Elizabethan-style Dunston Hall in picturesque Norfolk.”
All together the QHotel Group has a portfolio of 27 four and five-star hotels. The company has said it will be “business as usual” at Cameron House, with no management changes. Also included in the deal are the hotels luxury lodges.
The Ardlui Hotel at Loch Lomond has been announced as a finalist for the DRAM Dog Friendly Pub of the Year at the 2014 DRAM Scottish Licensed Trade Awards, which take place at The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on Monday July 7th.
The DRAM Dog Friendly Award seeks to reward bar operators who go above and beyond when it comes to welcoming pet dogs, allowing them indoors and providing water bowls and treats.
The judges were impressed with the strength of The Ardlui Hotel’s application, and upon visiting the venue it was clear to the judges that a great deal of care and attention to is paid to their customer’s dogs. Dogs are welcome in the bar, restaurant and accommodation areas, and as well as water bowls and treats, doggie bags are also provided. The chefs are even happy to cook off some ham or sausages for visiting dogs with large appetites. The hotel is near several walking sites, and should they need to cool down then the furry friends can always have a quick swim in the loch.
The awards, dubbed the licensed trade ‘Oscars,’ are organised by licensed trade magazine, DRAM. Now in their 19th year, they are the longest-established awards of their kind in Scotland, recognising excellence in Scotland’s bar, restaurant and hospitality industries.
Entrepreneur Sandy Bulloch has finally sold his Loch Lomond Distillery Company, after more than a year of negotiations, to Exponent Private Equity (“Exponent”), a private equity firm specialising in UK business investments. The company has bought the assets of the company which includes Loch Lomond Distillery at Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire; the Glen Catrine packaging plant at Mauchline in Ayrshire; and the Glen Scotia malt distillery in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute. The company’s brands currently include the “Loch Lomond” and “Glen Scotia” single malt Scotch whiskies, the “High Commissioner” blended Scotch whisky and “Glen’s Vodka”.
Under the terms of the acquisition, The Loch Lomond Distillery Company’s assets have been acquired by the newly formed Loch Lomond Group, in which Exponent owns a majority stake, with the management team also investing in the venture. The management team includes Colin Matthews as CEO. He is originally from Glasgow and was previously responsible for leading Imperial Tobacco’s businesses in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Indian sub-continent and the new business will be chaired by Nick Rose, former Diageo Chief Financial Officer.
Loch Lomond Distillers in their last auditied accounts showed a rise in turnover from £31.2m to £35.6m, and pre-tax earnings of £469,003 for the year ended March 31, 2013. Although Exponent have not declared what they paid for the company but eighteen months ago Remy Cointreau paid in the region of £50m for Bruichladdich.
Sandy Bulloch bought the Loch Lomond distillery in 1985 and he also owns wholesaler Inverarity-Morton, and the Portavadie Marina near Loch Fyne. Plans for Portavadie Distillery and Visitor Centre appear to be on hold.
Stephen Carter, chairman of De Vere’s luxurious Cameron House on Loch Lomond, has been named Hotelier of the Year. A panel of former winners selected Stephen for his outstanding contribution to the hospitality industry and his dedication to encouraging and developing young people both at Cameron House and across the wider industry. He was presented with his award by Mark Lewis editor of Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Stephen has been at De Vere Cameron House since 2008 and oversaw an £80m refurbishment. Under his management annual turnover at the resort has risen from £12m in 2008 to £25m today. Says Stephen, “Hospitality is a unique industry where you have to be driven by a passion to make people smile every day of the year. I’m extremely lucky to have always been surrounded by such great teams.”
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