The Dundee waterfront feelgood factor is bringing another new business to a prominent city centre site.
Restaurateur and former Dundee FC footballer Phil Donaldson has taken over the former Tasting Rooms on Whitehall Crescent.
He plans to open the new eaterie Pizza Metro in July in a joint venture with partner Martin Cannon. The two men also run Gracie’s in Broughty Ferry.
Phil, 31, said: “Whitehall Crescent is a good site and one of the main reasons we are doing this is because of things like the waterfront and the V&A.
“There’s a feelgood factor about Dundee and there’s also been progress in the restaurant trade in the city centre.
“Sometimes you need to be on the front foot and this is what we are doing with our move into the city centre.
“Gracie’s has been a good move for us and we hope this will turn out to be the same.”
Jon Walton, of city centre trade group DD One, said the restaurant’s proximity to the waterfront development is key to it being snapped up quickly.
“It’s reassuring that investment is being put into the building,” he said.
“I think that whoever has taken it on has seen the future for the area. It’s an ideal place to take advantage of the work that’s going on at the waterfront.
“It’s a cracking building. It’s got a lovely shape on the corner.
The two-floor Whitehall Crescent premises are being converted for the new venture which Phil was at pains to say will not be just another pizzeria.
“It will be a metropolitan, modern restaurant offering pizzas and other Italian-themed dishes,” he said.
“It will be different from a mainstream pizza restaurant.”
It will have a staff of 20 and another eight people will be employed in the cocktail bar he plans to open next door.
Londoner Phil came to Dundee as a promising 17-year-old footballer who signed for Dundee under then manager Ivano Bonetti.
His time in the “Italian Revolution” at Dens Park was disrupted by injury and after a year he returned homesick to London where he signed for Crystal Palace.
He returned to Dundee where he settled and when the former Brambles cafe/restaurant on Brook Street, Broughty Ferry, went up for sale he saw his chance.
With partner Martin Cannon he took it over as Gracie’s.
The Tasting Rooms closed without warning in January through circumstances which the owners said were outwith their control and because of the financial climate.
It was owned by TR 2011 Ltd, whose two directors and shareholders David Murdie Smith and Derek Dolan also operate Camperdown Leisure Ltd, franchisee of the Camperdown Wildlife Centre cafe. It was unaffected by the Tasting Rooms’ closure.