Bringing a taste of Scotland to the Capital

Last week, something brilliant happened. We say brilliant not because we did it but because the reaction it got was pretty special.

We introduced London to Edinburgh-based seafood restaurant Ondine, by way of its first proper residency in the Capital.

If you’re not familiar, you’ll not get a better plate of seafood than what Roy Brett creates and serves through his eponymous Scottish restaurant Ondine. Unfussy, unpretentious and magically executed. And utterly enjoyable.

We hooked Roy up with the folk at Carousel, London’s first permanent pop-up with a rotating rosta of guest chefs. From there Roy developed a showcase menu, featuring the best Scottish fish and shellfish and made the trip to the Smoke, for his week-long stint.

Then we set about keeping him busy with the media while he was in town, with some rather tremendous results.

His first stop was with BBC Good Food magazine, for a masterclass piece. The multi-page feature itself is due to run in the December issue but a rather lovely piece has already appeared online.

Then ahead of the opening night we secured hits with the likes of Metro, The Metropolist, Le Cool, Hot Dinners, The London Economic, Delicious, Street Eats London and The Caterer.

The entire week sold out fast but we managed to squeeze a few key media in, who hadn’t yet tasted Roy’s food. Sunday Brunch, Urban Junkies, Clerkenwell Boy, BBC Good Food and Delicious all had the pleasure of dinning, alongside a smattering of industry figures like Gary Lee (The Ivy), Tim Hughes (Caprice Holdings), Jason Atherton (Pollen St Social) and Jeff Galvin (Galvin at Windows).

The response on social media was equally as busy, with BBC Good Food and Delicious both posting video clips via Instagram which have so far generated more than 30,000 views collectively.

Over on Twitter, conversation was driven with shout-outs from the likes of Richard Vines of Bloomberg fame and Clerkernwell Boy, to name a few. Overall, 819,400 impressions were delivered via 100 tweets, from opening night until close.

Not bad, we thought.