Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Restaurant plan at landmark building
THE t ra n sfor mat ion of part of a former landmark department store is set to be completed with a threefloor Asian restaurant and whisky bar.
Local hospitality firm Macmerry 300 Ltd has been given the go-ahead to open North East on the second, third and fourth floors of the former Draffens department store above Bubu on the Nethergate.
The restaurant will serve Asianinspired dishes and will also sell Scottish and Asian whisky to be consumed off the premises.
NHS Tayside had opposed the selling of whisky due to a contravention of Dundee City Council’s off-sales overprovision policy, but the city’s licensing board allowed the proposal to proceed, pending permission from planning officers for physical alterations to the building.
Macmerry already operates a number of venues in the Draffens building, such as the speakeasy-style bar also called Draffens, cocktail bar The Blue Room and cafe Bubu.
The firm also runs the Bird and Bear restaurant and the Abandon Ship bar on the Waterfront.
Macmerry director Phil Donaldson told councillors on Thursday that the venue would be “high-end” and would not tolerate problem drinkers.
He said: “Across all our venues we operate in an extremely responsible manner and we are all about quality of drinks rather than quantity.
“We’re offering this because it doesn’t exist in the town already – it’s quality as opposed to bargain cheap booze.
“My plan is to develop the whole building and bring something interesting to each floor of what was once Draffens department store.
“Problem drinkers and abusive customers will not be accepted within the venue.”
Despite protests from public health consultant Emma Fletcher, who warned of a rise in “off-sales by creep”, board convener Stewart Hunter moved approval of the application.
However, the councillor had some words of warning for Mr Donaldson.
He said: “This is a bit of tricky one – it falls into a grey area between what our policy covers and what our policy doesn’t cover.
“We expect this to be bespoke, high-end and expensive whisky. This is going to be something different from just any off-sales so I’m happy to move approval on those grounds.”
Draffens was one of Dundee’s best loved department stores in its heyday. The store became Debenhams in 1981 and the part of the building set to be refurbished was repurposed as residential accommodation at the turn of the millennium when the department store chain relocated to the new Overgate centre.