July proved a doubly memorable month for the new Riverside Restaurant & Bar at Kirkfieldbank near Lanark.
Just prior to the Riverside being awarded Eat Scotland quality accreditation for its popular destination restaurant, famous Scottish painter and author Alasdair Gray had applied the very final brush strokes to the restoration of his long lost Falls of Clyde mural which adorns the full 25 ft. length of wall in the lounge bar.
The restaurant, only opened mid February, achieved Eat Scotland quality standard at the first attempt and is now targeting even higher accolades. Head chef Paul O’Malley, who has considerable fine-dining expertise from his time in the kitchens of 5 star 3 AA Rosette hotels, says "This quality award by Visit Scotland is a terrific benchmark for our performance to date and means customers can be assured consistent food and service excellence. But we believe we can offer our customers an even more enjoyable fine-dining experience and to that end all staff are now working as a team to achieve higher hospitality standards and awards in the months ahead."
While the restaurant is in its relative infancy, the mural on the other hand has been in the building since 1969, albeit latterly hidden behind wallpaper and paint for some dozen years. The wall art was only partly uncovered when new owner Andy Boyle bought the empty and dilapidated building a year ago. Andy comments "The mural faithfully and vibrantly depicts the most scenic and popular 3 to 4 miles of the Clyde Valley tourist route and the fact that Alasdair Gray has restored his own work has already generated a lot of interest from the media and, in turn, members of the public. Coupled with the early success of our restaurant we feel we offer customers from far and near a unique experience which will only get better."
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