The Highland hedonist who’s wowing the restaurant scene with fine food, jazz and LOTS of cigars
Diagnosed as ‘abnormally lazy’, Ranald Macdonald is proving a roaring success
opportunity; diehard smokers now keep warm under tartan rugs as they puff away on the restaurants’ purpose-built cigar terraces.
Boisdale Belgravia became the de facto headquarters of libertarian campaign group Forest as it attempted to fight the ban. A note on the door warned ‘pro-ban’ politicians Ken Livingstone and Steven norris that they were not welcome.
Macdonald, who smokes up to six cigars a day, remains riled by the policy: ‘The only real issue was whether second-hand smoke was bad for the staff – and that was unproven.’
The capacious Boisdale at Canary Wharf has a walk-in humidor – and a loophole in the law allows all cigar shops to have sampling rooms where buyers can ‘sample’ potential purchases. ‘We sell about £400,000 of cigars a year at a guess, that’s about 4 per cent of sales,’ said Macdonald.
The venue recently hosted the Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards, whose guest list included Kelsey Grammer, Charlie Sheen, Andrew neil and nancy Dell’Olio. Former Ukip leader nigel Farage is a regular and contributes to Boisdale Life, a glossy in-house magazine distributed in first-class lounges around the world. ‘I don’t share his politics,’ says Macdonald, ‘but he’s an utterly charming, fearless, courageous individual. I don’t get anything about him being unpleasant. nothing at all.’
DESCRIBING himself as ‘a reluctant Remainer’, Macdonald agrees the EU referendum left restaurants facing a two-pronged attack from rising food prices and plummeting consumer confidence.
Among London’s 750,000 fearful financial services employees, he has noticed ‘a puritanical thing happening where going out for lunch is frowned upon a bit’.
But he warned: ‘The biggest employer in the country is the food and beverage industry and money spent in restaurants is literally fertiliser to the economy.’ Macdonald himself is currently eating frugally and barely drinking, but this is no Damascene conversion; rather, a result of his cold and an annual purging detox involving a trip to Goa and a spell of yoga.
He also exercises on an elliptical trainer at his London pied a terre, stemming the boredom by watching classic movies. ‘Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, that sort of thing. I do find when the film reaches a really tender moment I have slowed down quite a bit. But it’s really important to keep exercising.’
But he admits: ‘Keeping fit is a struggle, given that I drink far too much, eat far too much and have far too much fun. I am always trying to balance it. It’s a constant battle.’
Meanwhile, he is looking for new business opportunities: a possible deal with a Scottish hotel still hangs in the air, but is that not a bit coals to newcastle? ‘Yes, it could easily massively backfire. I can’t really say too much right now as it’s commercially sensitive.’
He is also looking abroad: ‘I would love to open a restaurant in the States but many British businesses fail there. M&S and Tesco have not done well. It would need to be the right opportunity. It takes a lot to open up abroad.’
Yet he is looking at deals in India and Dubai: ‘I’ve just come back from Mumbai, looking at sites. It’s a Scottish/Indian fusion in terms of the menu. We are creating a Boisdale ambience with an Indian twist.’
His greatest wish, though, is to open a hotel in his beloved South Uist, ideally in Boisdale itself, the area after which his restaurants are named. ‘It is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, with so much to offer – the most amazing seafood, of course, and Askernish Golf Course, which was designed by Old Tom Morris. I love just walking on the machair and there is 20 miles of glorious white sand and a clear, crisp sea for swimming in. It is Heaven, really.’
The rest of that infamous Tatler quote from the intro, taken from its 2013 restaurant guide, makes it as crystal clear as the waters off South Uist its deep admiration for Macdonald’s political incorrectness which, it goes on to point out, ‘of course makes him a superb host’.
If anyone could satisfy the appetites of restless Scots, you wouldn’t bet against The Young Clanranald.