An Aberdeen restaurateur who watched helplessly as a devastating fire spread through his beachfront premises hopes to keep the venue open for business through an innovative scheme.
Martin Mcauley, owner of The Pier Bistro, plans to enlist the help of local restaurants to help keep his customers satisfied and save the jobs of his nine-strong workforce.
The Pier was one of four businesses housed in the property, which was left a burned-out shell after fire broke out shortly after 4am on Thursday.
A Jimmy Chung’s restaurant, TC Fish Restaurant and ADS Janitorial have also been affected.
Yesterday, Mr Mcauley said the building remained structurally unsafe and its future uncertain.
He said: “It is still very early days. We know certain walls, like the gable ends, will have to come down, but we are still waiting to find out what will happen in the long term.”
To keep things ticking over, Mr Mcauley hopes to introduce what he calls the “pop-up” Pier.
This would be run from various other city restaurants on the days when they would normally be closed.
He said: “We’ve been speaking to a couple of restaurants in town about this and I’m hoping it’s something we can get up and running pretty quickly.
“We would use our own menus and stocks and suppliers, but it would mean we could keep on our staff and keep our regular customers happy.
“The support from customers and suppliers and other businesses has been really fantastic, so we hope we can utilise that until we can get something more permanent sorted out.”
More than 50 firefighters tackled the blaze which took nine hours to bring under control. At its height, the building’s roof collapsed.
Mr Mcauley said: “As soon as I found out, I jumped in the car and headed straight down there. I got there at about 7am and the smoke was just horrendous.
“At that time the fire was contained in the back of the building. There was very little I could do except watch and wait and hope that the fire wouldn’t spread.”
But as the morning went on, it became clear Mr Mcauley’s hopes were in vain.
By 11.30am, the fire, heightened by strong winds, had spread to the front of the building
“It was pretty horrific to watch but it was one of those situations where I couldn’t leave,” Mr Mcauley added.
“I just had to stand there and watch.”
Police and firefighters are jointly probing the cause of the fire.