Restaurants are feeling the pinch but passion always wins for Gamba’s owner

In our second blog, Gamba’s chef-patron Derek Marshall reveals how restaurateurs are feeling the pinch, and why his passion for running Scotland’s best seafood restaurant always wins.

What goes into running Scotland’s best seafood restaurant?

Times are tough, and despite being around nearly a quarter of a century, Gamba isn’t immune to this.

“We’ve been squeezed with food prices, energy prices, everything really. I don’t think that people realise how difficult it is to run a restaurant.

“It’s not just about buying food. It’s about refuse collection, laundry, water bills, gas, electricity, wages, pensions, PAYE, all sorts. Customers might think it’s expensive to eat here  – but they don’t see the outlay that’s behind running a restaurant like Gamba.”

But Derek’s passion for cooking burns as brightly as ever

“What keeps me going is my passion. If you’re not passionate about cooking the best fish and seafood dishes in Scotland, you’re not going to give it 100 per cent.

“I’d say that a great many of my independent restaurateur counterparts are very passionate about what they do too, whereas large group or chain restaurants are a business before they’re anything else.”

We survived Covid but we’re not out of the woods yet

First, there was Covid and the difficult trading conditions it spawned that we look to be coming out of now, but Derek feels that there are still challenges ahead.

“For me, it’s not solely about making money. Many restaurants don’t make money and I can’t help but think that a lot of restaurants will struggle, especially through the winter with the energy price hikes.

“Many independent restaurants in Scotland, as far as I’m aware, survived Covid, but I don’t know how well they’re doing right now or how well they’ll continue to do. We got a lot of support as an industry during Covid and I think the government rescue packages were brilliant.

“But now that we’re back to something like normal trading and business rates have kicked back in, at the same rate, businesses will struggle. Rates were supposed to be reviewed but it never happened, and we’re paying the same that we were paying pre-Covid. The business rates don’t include your refuse collection or your water bill either.”

Are people eating out less these days?

“Not in my experience. We’re doing as well on a four-day week as we did six or seven days trading.

“But I’ve heard that there are downturns in other restaurants that are struggling from a shortage of chefs and front-of-house staff, and this can’t help but affect the amount of business they do.  It leads to a lack of consistency, and it’s consistency and continuity that have kept Gamba going since 1998.

“If you go to a great restaurant and return two weeks later and it’s rubbish, it can sound the death knell for business. It’s got to be right from the beginning, and keep on being right.

“Gamba offers a fantastic product. It’s not a cheap product. You get proper food. Proper portions. Put it this way, you’re not going to stop off at the chippy after dinner here.

“You just can’t cut corners if you want consistent quality. You need to set your stall out as a restaurant and stick with it. It’s no use panicking and changing things too much and flitting from one thing to the next, or relying too heavily on deals.

“You’ve got to hold your nerve. Customers won’t come back after a deal, they’ll just chase the next one somewhere else.”

Is there still a staffing crisis in hospitality? 

Covid, along with several other factors, wreaked havoc on hospitality and made the recruitment of staff a thorn in the side of restaurant owners like Derek.

“After Covid, a lot of chefs didn’t want to go back to 14 – 16 hour days because they got jobs in call centres or as delivery drivers or security guards. To become a chef, you need to have a bit of discipline as well as a passion for cooking and enjoying what you do. Working in a kitchen is no picnic.

“You get young chefs coming out of college that want to be chef de partie right away, some demanding huge money.  But this is not realistic for all.

“No budding chefs ever call me to ask for a steer, say, on how you go about making a success of this career, or for some real-life cheffing work experience, and this all goes back to having a passion for cooking.

“What colleges are doing is great, bringing new chefs up through the ranks - you learn the basics but you need a kitchen environment for the rest.”

What’s all this got to do with the price of fish?

The price of fish has a lot do to with us, and things have not been easy in this area either.

“The price of fish is ridiculous. We’re talking about 30% more than this time last year. I don’t want to pass this back to customers but I can’t absorb it all.

“I still don’t think that Gamba is the most expensive place to eat by any means. There are seafood  - and other restaurants in Glasgow – that are a lot more expensive than me.”

And lots of other challenges seem to be coming at hospitality business owners from all angles, despite this sector being a huge contributor to Scotland’s economy, particularly where tourism goes.

“We pay 20% VAT whereas other countries in Europe like Spain only pay 10% to help tourism. It would really help Scottish hospitality if this were rolled out here.”

Gamba: attracting customers from all over the globe

Our customers are regulars, whether that’s weekly, monthly, or annually – including returning tourists, especially from America.

“In the summer months, about 70% tourists make up our clientele, again, with lots of Americans, plus many from all over the UK and Europe too of course. They come from all over the globe actually, and they come back because they remember us fondly – and we remember them.

“We know what the customer likes, which table they like, and so on. It’s about keeping your restaurant up there. It’s a challenge to keep things consistent every day in Scotland’s best fish restaurant.

“This is down to me. I’m a bit set in my ways I suppose.  But it’s also down to my staff. My maître d' Gregor Munn has been here from day one. He’s in with the bricks. We strive to provide our customers with an occasion and that’s what we do so very well.”

By Jason Caddy