The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Facelift under new owners for city eatery
One of the Granite City’s most loved restaurants has undergone a makeover and a change of ownership as it reopens this weekend as The Atrium.
Independent restaurant chain Howies, which also has venues in Edinburgh, boasted a popular eatery on Chapel Street that closed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
However, new owners Ryan Clark and his family have reinvented the space and will welcome their first guests to The Atrium from today at noon. The sevenday-a-week venture is a family affair, with Ryan’s brother, Darren, and his father Brian, also equal directors of the company.
His partner, mum, uncle and his brother’s partner are also involved, and even his gran and grandad have been lending a hand to get the venue ready for its opening. Ryan’s sister works full-time elsewhere and has been picking up shifts and his brother Christopher is involved as well.
The family had no previous experience in hospitality until they opened their first venue, the Scottish Embassy Pub in Aberdeen’s Merchant Quarter, in June 2020. They successfully reopened Aberdeen’s Old King’s Highway last year and the Queen’s Hotel in Stonehaven in June 2022.
The Atrium is their fourth venue to have been renovated and opened in around two-and-a-half years.
Passionate about keeping the venue as a restaurant to nod to the building’s history, Ryan and his family have been working since December 2022 to update the space and hire a new team. More than 250 people applied for a job at the Embassy recently and so Ryan had a pool of people to pick from when recruiting for The Atrium which will serve “good, quality Scottish cuisine”.
They have hired around 20 members of staff and already have more than 40 across their venues.
The 40-year-old said: “There was a lot of interest in the restaurant and David Scott, who owns the Howies chain, loved my pitch for it so we were really chuffed to come to an agreement with him.
“We’re looking to keep it traditional and we’re aiming to offer good Scottish dining, keeping in mind the cost-of-living crisis. There’s so much history in this venue with it being Gerard’s before, and we want to make it a hub of activity. When the food stops we want it to be a place where they can listen to live music and dance, too.”