Guests who booked overnight stays at a restaurant owned by Fife Masterchef winner Jamie Scott have hit out at the handling of their refunds after its shock closure.
The Newport closed on April 7 after chef Jamie and wife Kelly said they could “no longer afford” to operate in the building.
This week The Courier revealed staff left out of work by the decision are still waiting on wages three months later amid the wait for the formal appointment of liquidators.
Dawn and David McAllan, from Stirling, received a voucher for The Newport as a wedding present in August last year.
Totalling £352, it included dinner, bed, breakfast and a bottle of wine.
But news of The Newport’s impending closure, just two weeks before the doors shut, saw the couple’s plans for a summer stay scuppered.
‘Tainted experience’
They declined an offer to move their overnight forward at short notice and have tried, to no avail, to get a full refund.
Instead, the McAllans were offered a meal at the Sandbanks Brasserie in Broughty Ferry, also owned by Jamie and Kelly.
Dawn told us: “We were meant to be staying at the hotel in July for my birthday and wanted to make the most of the views across the Tay.
“However, following its closure, we were only ever offered dinner at Sandbanks as compensation.
“We have tried to get in touch with Jamie and Kelly again.
“We’d get through to members of staff at Sandbanks, who were all lovely, but we don’t hear anything back from Jamie and Kelly anymore.
“It’s always a shame when local businesses are forced to close but it’s the way they’ve dealt with it that’s tainted our experience.
“It’s like they’re hiding from the situation.”
An Italian tourist also approached The Courier with similar complaints after she booked a £140 stay at The Newport as part of her first ever visit to Scotland in August.
She said: “In April I received an email saying The Newport had closed and the table reservation was cancelled.
“I was invited to book a table at their other restaurant Sandbanks but there was no mention of the room I had paid for.
“So I called and sent emails several times but never got an answer.”
The Courier put the claims to Jamie Scott, crowned winner of BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals in 2014, who says he understands the upset caused by the closure.
He said: “There is certainly no hiding from this situation.
“All vouchers are welcome within Sandbanks to their monetary value.
“Whilst we recognise that is not a like for like, unfortunately, as we do not have any accommodation within Sandbanks Brasserie it is all we are able to offer.
“We do however have same ethos of food, sustainability and warm welcoming familiar faces.”
‘We are sorry’
He added: “We never wanted to give up the restaurant.
“Our customers have been the support and lifeline to our eight plus years in business, why would we want to go up against that?
“There is no business without customers and we have exceptionally loyal customers too.
“We are sorry to find ourselves in this situation and to have put our customers in this situation also.
“We did everything we possibly could think off to try make it a success but ultimately it wasn’t enough against the current climate and we failed.
“We contacted as many customers as we could personally to make them aware following our announcement, we offered all rooms to vouchers holders to try and give opportunity for use within our pending closure as a priority.
“We even extended our opening days to do so.
“If we could have kept The Newport Restaurant we wholeheartedly would have.”
The Newport has since been taken over by self-taught chef Gillian Veal, who runs The Parlour café in Dundee’s West Port.
Conversation