At Random
Great to get feedback
IT IS almost always gratifying to get feedback – good or bad – to my musings.
Two well-known individuals in the Oban business community have separately taken the trouble to beard me about my views within the space of two days.
First was David Lapsley, sommelier patron of Etive Restaurant in the town, who emailed to say: ‘I enjoyed reading your piece in The Oban Times of March 22 about the BAAB restaurant opening. I also share your dispiriting vibe in the closures and lying empty of the properties you mentioned.
‘I would, however, like to say, and think it could be worth noting, the vibrancy and trend-bucking businesses on Stevenson Street.
‘We have ourselves newly opened Etive Restaurant serving a freshly produced and passionately sourced menu featuring Scottish seafood and land produce as our ‘Where sea meets land’ tagline suggests.
‘We also have the Ranald Hotel that seems to be near full every night offering a friendly service and knowledgeable drinks list.
‘The Lorne bar is offering great value food again, cooked to order and freshly produced.
‘Oban Soup Company serves tasty homemade soups and good coffees at unbelievably great value for money.
‘With Saint Saviour, Button Nose, BID4Oban and all the above, the south side of Stevenson Street is looking great and offering a superb selection for Oban’s tourists.’
David makes a very good point about the vibrancy of the street. Let’s hope empty businesses in George Street, Argyll Square and Tweeddale Street can also be restored to equally prosperous times.
The other businessman who buttonholed me last week was Iain Darling, who is known for running Wynne Butchers in Combie Street, within a few yards of David’s Etive Restaurant and Stevenson Street.
Iain was upset by comments I made a few weeks ago regarding the opening in the town of the new M&S foodhall on the site of the former Lidl store.
Back on February 1, I wrote welcoming the addition of the M&S shop to the town but also said: ‘If I have any concerns, it would be for the small, independent shops – our butchers, bakers and so on. They often operate to tight margins and I’d be very sorry to see any of them suffer.’
Iain was concerned that I had misrepresented his position. He felt aggrieved that people might think he was worried about the arrival of M&S. He put it to me very strenuously that his business was thriving and would continue to do so.
Fair point, although, as I told Iain, this is purely my opinion and I stand by it. I’d hate to see any of our brilliant independents suffer a downturn in business.
Let’s all continue to support the independents, who play a huge part in keeping Oban the great shopping destination it is.
Well done to the road crews
THERE was, it has to be said, a fair degree of traffic disruption over the past week or so as work crews toiled feverishly to address crumbling road surfaces throughout Oban.
I heard a lot of people complain about the inconvenience caused by the essential – I’d say emergency – repairs being carried out.
These are, in many cases, the same people who have bumped their gums long and loud – and with justification – about the state of the roads. Indeed, I’ve been banging that drum myself more than once.
The difference is I take my hat off to the work crews for their splendid efforts to deal with the problem. They have worked flat out in some awful conditions, during unsocial hours and have done a great job. The temporary inconvenience has been well worth the end result.
What do you think?