Premier Hospitality

Hutchesons City Grill

Hutchesons
Written by Roma Publications

Hutchesons City Grill

After a major refurbishment, Glasgow-based restaurant group RUSK & RUSK have unveiled a stylish new look for their flagship venue Hutchesons with the introduction of The City Grill and 158 Club Lounge.

Now known as Hutchesons City Grill, the popular venue has a new name, new menu and a new look. Originally opened in 2014, Hutchesons quickly gained fame for its menu that utilised the best of Scottish steak and seafood, all set within a unique interior. With the help of award-wining local architectural and interiors practice Mosaic Architecture + Design, RUSK & RUSK have worked hard to create a bespoke interior that complements the beautiful original features of the building.

The main restaurant has been transformed to create a bustling city centre grill while the ground floor bar is now a stylish, boutique speakeasy renamed as the ‘158 Club Lounge’. To get a greater understanding of the new look, Premier Hospitality spoke to Stephen Mallon and Stuart Black from Mosaic Architecture + Design. Stephen began:

“We worked with Rusk and Rusk on their latest new venture, The Spanish Butcher, which opened just before Christmas. Following on from the success of that project they wanted to rebrand and refresh Hutchesons, which has been open since 2014.

“I would describe it as a light refurbishment because there was little done to the fabric of the building. It’s a listed building with a beautiful ornate interior. Our brief was to tie in with the relaunch and rebranding, improving the ambience of the space including enhanced lighting, fixed and loose seating and tables, decoration, specialist finishes, new cabinets and waiter stations and importantly space planning the new layout to improve workflows and the customer experience of the venue.”

Stuart added:

“There was a fair bit of leeway with the brief. James and Louise have quite strong ideas and we started off by looking at images of different restaurants, moods and feels. It’s a very traditional interior and with the little bit of creative freedom that we had, we tried to modernise it without disrespecting the integrity of the building.

“It was more about using a selection of materials to upholster chairs and create bespoke lighting. A lot of the lighting was incorporated into the fixed seating so we didn’t impact on the period plasterwork. Our approach was to use decoration techniques to bring some of the old period features back to life. Elements like the fireplace with ornate carving were given prominence again.”

The popularity of Hutchesons meant a quick turnaround on the work was needed to limit the impact on trade. To help with this, the majority of the bespoke new features were built offsite so they just needed to be installed. In total the fit out took two weeks to complete with a weekend of trade in between.

Along with the new design, a new menu has been created that once again champions a diverse range of great Scottish produce. In particular, RUSK & RUSK has taken the opportunity to revamp its steak offering, with every cut on offer dry aged on the bone for at least 35 days.

Reflecting on the work, Stuart commented that initial feedback on the work has been positive:

“The feedback so far has been fantastic. People have commented on how the interior has been transformed along with the atmosphere. The direction we’ve taken it in is less fine dining and more of a city feel.”

Stephen added:

“It’s an iconic venue and building and is a very well-known property in Glasgow. It’s known as a piece of architecture in its own right so we were delighted to be asked to work on it. It was also good to be able to continue our relationship with the client and build on the success of The Spanish Butcher. Hopefully the rebrand will help Hutchesons City Grill to continued success.”

For more information, please visit hutchesonsglasgow.com.

Hutchesons

GMACK Construction & Developments Ltd

From the initial design, through to completion GMACK provide quality project management, construction, manufacturing, fit out and refurbishment services. The joint owners, having over 60 years of experience in the construction industry between them now supply all trades and contractors to deliver a turnkey solution to every client.

Working across all sectors of the industry, nothing is out with our scope. GMACK recently completed the construction of a fully operational replica of the pre-1939 Scoreboard sited at the Brooklands Museum Racing Circuit, Weybridge, London to coincide with a landmark anniversary event which demonstrates our ability to manage unusual and extremely challenging projects.

GMACK were delighted to be employed to refurbish the 158 Lounge, Main Restaurant and other key areas of Hutcheson’s Restaurant, with the principle requirement to keep the work time brief to minimise downtime to the restaurant itself. GMACK are proud to announce that the works were completed within a 12 day period with no valuable weekend trade lost.

The director at GMACK said:

“We have a fantastic working relationship with Rusk and Rusk who like us, have exacting standards.

“Of course, we always look to maximise value for our clients but our greatest pride is our personal approach and our relationship with our clients is very one-to-one and hands on.”

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Roma Publications