It appears that the cafe in St Andrew Square is to change hands again. For any of you who have been watching carefully this will be the third operator in under a year.
The longest running venture in the Glass building in the square was Razzo Cafe but the lease was terminated by Essential Edinburgh in June 2014. Paul Anderson had kept the cafe open all the way through Occupy Edinburgh who used the square for their protest. A Twitter storm with the hashtag #saverazzo followed the eviction of the popular cafe owner.
A new but temporary cafe operator will open the doors on Thursday morning and then the process to put the premises out to tender will begin.
A spokesman for Essential Edinburgh who run the Business Improvement District and are responsible for the management of the square said: “The coffee shop closed on Saturday but will re-open on Thursday morning with a temporary operator in place for two months while a tender process takes place. We hope to have the permanent operator in place for 1st June.”
We have been told that one of the drawbacks of the site is the lack of public toilets. In recent plans an application was made to install them behind the cafe, but we have been told that application was unsuccessful.
When the cafe was closed last summer Paul Anderson posted a notice saying: ““Monday 23 June 2014 is the last day Razzo Coffee can trade from this property. Our landlord Essential Edinburgh, has found a paperwork technicality to allow them to terminate our lease with immediate effect. We have not been given a reason for the decision and they refuse to communicate with us. We can confirm it was not based on any financial issues; their actions will force us out of business and our staff will lose their jobs.
“We are appealing to the City of Edinburgh Council who fund Essential Edinburgh and would appreciate any notes of support to paul@razzocoffee.co.uk
“Finally thank you for your custom over the past six years.”
Essential Edinburgh said at the time that there had been ongoing breaches of the lease which gave them no option but to serve the eviction notice.
A temporary operator was put in place and the most noticeable thing was that there were suddenly many more parasols and tables outside the cafe.
In recent weeks many have commented on the state of the gardens after the festive season. The grass areas have still not recovered and there are areas beside the footpath which still have plastic matting on them.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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And now it seems Essential Edinburgh are once again putting money before amenity for visitors to St Andrews Square
It seems another iconic Edinburgh location is to be consummed by the corporate dross that makes every location a high street clone, as rumour has it Cafe unit in the centre of St. Andrews Square is shortly to be taken over by Costa Coffee! With so many unique local operators that can add flair and creativity to the City Centre offering fresh local produce that make it stand apart from identikit high street with their mass retailers, is this best we can do to overlook the unique operators which add so much vitality to Edinburgh’s economic life and soul.
Despite the original tender briefing stating
“The Core Values Essential Edinburgh requires the new operator to bring to life in their proposal are as follows:
Uniqueness
Premium Quality
Contemporary
Great Customer Experience
Understated Style (no overt branding is allowed)
Enthusiastic team player (with all Edinburgh Stakeholders) ”
It now seems they have decided to go with the soulless corporate uniformity that is Costa which can only bring an element of blandness to this other wise unique location. With an identikit operation to that available in adjacent Princes Mall and St James centre, turning this iconic location into an another “homogenous” high streets location. Is this bland conformity what we really want and the best we can do?
Beckie Tyzack
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