First look at new Glasgow restaurant Roberta's on St Vincent Street

You can enjoy Greek gyros, Japanese sushi platters, Spanish grilled octopus and Korean rice bowls across their portfolio of venues which includes Pickled Ginger, Halloumi and Rioja.

Alternatively, you will find all the dishes in the one place at Cranside Kitchen, the beer garden beside the Clyde that was launched in response to government guidelines on social distancing.

This week marks their latest opening – Roberta’s on St Vincent Street in the space previously occupied by Iberica. It’s one of those landmark locations traditionally sought after by chains and international brands. For a Glasgow group to claim it shows a confidence in the city centre hospitality market, that has been widely predicted to be the last to recover from lockdown.

Toni is bullish about the opportunities ahead: “I think there will always be an appetite in Glasgow for dining out in the city centre, it will always go strong. Obviously, that’s been cut short by the pandemic but it will come back. It’s started already. Glasgow people want to dine out in town and that’s not going to change.”

The refit was a substantial investment, he says, but they had a head start with the site they inherited. “We had a beautiful platform to begin with. I think they had previously spent £1.2 million on it, so that gives you the base but we wanted to put our own stamp on it, moving it from a high end Spanish restaurant to a high end Italian.”

Thoughts turn to logistics. One of the first things you notice in the restaurant is a substantial pizza oven that was ordered from Naples. This is not a straightforward acquisition, it turns out. “It took six months between designing the oven, ordering it and actually getting it fitted” Toni explains. “It was held up at customs for two and a half months through Brexit complications. Then there is the size of the thing. It weighs three tonnes! Getting it into the building was a challenge in itself.”

Then there was the task of staffing the kitchen. “Chefs are very difficult to find, particularly when we are looking for a high calibre and recruiting from Naples. It was really important for us to have that authenticity so we just got on with it. You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth in this business” Toni says.

The first menu features an array of pizzas, grilled steaks, fish and seafood. There are five pasta dishes: “You won’t find a carbonara or a lasagne at Roberta’s”.

An attempt to stand out from the crowd? Glasgow city centre is not exactly under-populated by Italian restaurants. Toni says it is a matter of emphasis. “We are launching more of an entertainment venue so there will be DJs at the weekend. We want to be lively and energetic.

“I think that will make us different from a lot of the other Italian restaurants you get in Glasgow. The food is probably leaning more toward New York.”

“There are 140 covers in the restaurant, 48 of them are dedicated bar space.

“What we are finding is that when people are going out for drinks during the week, they are going to restaurants so that side of things is up with cocktails and wine. People seem to be venturing out more often.

“One of the main aims at the start was to create a space that matches that type of dining. We are hoping people will join us for drinks at the bar, move to the dining room for their meal and then they can come back to the bar side if they want. We are open to midnight at the weekends and we’re looking to extend that till 1am.

I ask about how the team decide what international cuisine they will bring to the table when creating their venues. “Often we are driven to do certain things, bring new types of food to Glasgow. I always wanted to bring a true Spanish restaurant to the city so that led to Rioja in Finnieston.

“Kevin and I went to Korea and decided to work on that concept so opened Bibimbap and at the time there was nothing like it. We sit round a table and talk things through, sometimes it is driven by desire, other times by necessity.”

On Tuesday night, Rioja hosted a tasting menu with Estrella Galicia, Spain’s largest independent brewery. The innovative tapas were a dazzling combination of the traditional and the modern. Exciting, confident cooking from a kitchen given a new sense of purpose by head chef Miguel Angel Major, who previously worked at El Bulli. Bringing Miguel over from Spain has been described to me by other hospitality figures as a bit of a coup.

“We did work very hard on that one” Toni says. “Miguel had a Michelin star in Seville, we had wanted to bring him over for a month takeover. I think, just with the way the pandemic had hit tourism, that created a situation where Miguel was looking for other opportunities. We talked extensively and then it all fell into place.

“We were conscious of the position we have in Finnieston and the type of places that are around us. We took the chance to move things up a gear. That included refitting Rioja to a higher standard. You look around at what happened with Cail Bruich and the response other restaurants have had. People are looking for fine dining here. As long as you don’t overcharge in Glasgow, they will find you.”