Michelin-starred chef departs as private club slashes prices and offers cut-price meals to drum up business
IT WAS billed as Edinburgh's most exclusive hang-out, a discreet gathering place for the capital's most fashionable and glamorous movers and shakers.
But just over a year after opening its doors, the city's only modern private members' club was
offering cut-price meals to passers-by to boost business.
The cost of membership rates for Home House, whose London club is a magnet for celebrities such as Madonna, Kate Moss and Kate Winslet, has been slashed. Non-members will be able to visit the venue's restaurant without joining the club for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the Michelin-starred chef Martin Wishart, brought in last year to oversee the "à la carte" menus, has parted company with the club at Picardy Place on the edge of the New Town.
Outside the Georgian townhouse, a sandwich board promotes lunches such as steak pie or fishcakes for as little as £6.50.
Home House opened up last spring on the site of The Hallion, the ill-fated private members' club set up in 2004 in the refurbished townhouse, and subsequently expanded into Glasgow. Both clubs, founded by the entrepreneur Glyn Partridge, were put up for sale after running into financial difficulties and failing to attract enough members.
It emerged last year that Stefan King, the Glasgow bar and nightclub tycoon, had bought the city's Hallion for £3 million. His G1 Group is carrying out a major revamp of the premises in Bath Street after closing the club down a few months after completing the takeover.
The Edinburgh Hallion, which charged about £500 a year for a membership, had around 1,300 members on its books, although it is thought hundreds of these were "honorary members" who did not pay.
The rate for a standard Home House membership was £650 when the club launched in Edinburgh last year. Carolyn Mitchell, the general manager, said the new £200 rate would not include the chance to use the club's private dining or conference rooms or overnight accommodation.
However, she admitted that the changes were aimed at "freshening up" the club's membership and attracting more people to use the club for social purposes. She told The Scotsman: "We inherited around 500 members from The Hallion's membership and we've increased that by around 400 in the last year.
"However, I'd like to see that increased by around 1,500 by the end of the year and I'm confident the changes we are making will help achieve that target.
"The membership structure has been altered to better suit the local market, and we've put a great deal of thought over several months into the changes that have been made. They aren't a knee-jerk reaction.
"The new gold membership will cost £200 a year and is basically aimed at people who want to use the club solely for eating and drinking purposes.
"We think it's a good offer for people who purely want to visit the club to socialise."
Ms Mitchell added: "At the same time, non-members will be able to visit the restaurant, on a trial basis, for the next few months. We're confident our existing members will be happy with this, as we are doing it to raise more awareness of Home House, and anyone coming in for a meal will not have access to the rest of the club."
Mr Wishart, who has his own award-winning restaurant in Leith, was appointed "consultant chef" by Home House for its Edinburgh site last year. He was brought in to design exclusive menus for the club, as well as advise its catering staff.
He said last night: "I feel the time is now right to move on to a new project and that you should quit while you are ahead."
Home House in London charges £750 to join and the same amount a year to stay a member. It currently boasts 2,500 members and a lengthy waiting list.
The Edinburgh Hallion – which was visited by the Canongate publisher Jamie Byng, the actors Alan Cumming and Christian Slater and the comedian Steve Coogan – was unveiled in a blaze of publicity in January 2004, after a £2 million overhaul of the building.
Roddy Martine, the social commentator and writer, said:
"A club like this only really works during the summer festivals, when it would have a bit of a celebrity buzz. The city just isn't big enough to sustain something like this throughout the year."
The full article contains 767 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
