Plans have been lodged to reopen a once popular bistro in Blairgowrie after it closed last year.
Cargill’s Bistro on Lower Mill Street announced its closure last July, citing the Covid pandemic as a reason for shutting.
But now an application has been submitted by Roy Sim Properties to Perth and Kinross Council, requesting the renovation of the former restaurant with an additional outside dining spot.
The planning statement underlines the eatery’s former popularity.
It says: “Before Cargill’s restaurant closed in June 2022, some 35,000 customers per year stopped to eat there and visit Blairgowrie.
“Along with the closure and recent boarding up of the Royal Hotel at the top of the main thoroughfare through the town (Allan Street), Blairgowrie town centre suffers from empty and dilapidated properties and lacks modern, independent and upmarket destinations.”
Seventeen members of staff at the Royal Hotel were laid off in February 2020 as a result of coronavirus hitting the Chinese economy.
Employees were told that they would be welcomed back to the hotel that summer – but it remained shut due to lockdown.
Plans to reopen Cargill’s Bistro in Blairgowrie
If approved, the Cargill’s development would include the renovation of the restaurant and the change of use to the rear garden to provide an external dining spot perfect for warmer evenings.
It is hoped that this would increase the capacity and attract visitors to the site and to the town.
It would also create jobs.
Opening in 2019, the bistro was immediately hit with the effect of Covid.
When the bistro closed, around 15 employees lost their jobs.
Former owner, Thomas Young, said in a Facebook post at the time that the “legacy of the Covid pandemic is very real.”
Roy Sim Properties has been contacted for comment.
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