Four friends have taken over The Stag Hotel on Banchory’s High Street in what they call a “dream move.”
Local brothers Scott and Bruce McCombie along with friends Mark Anderson and John Wink are the new owners of the iconic Deeside establishment, which was run by the previous landlords for more than 20 years.
The foursome have spent “every weekend” of their adult years in the pub – and they are so excited to take the venture on.
Speaking exclusively to The Press and Journal, they also revealed that they are teaming up with popular Aberdeen pizza chain, Big Manny’s, to bring food to The Stag for the first time in more than 15 years.
It will offer both sit-in and takeaway pizzas and smash burgers from mid-September.
Big Manny’s will also be helping to renovate the kitchen in the coming weeks.
A new seating area will also be created, accommodating up to 100 diners at once.
The new venture follows in the footsteps of Big Manny’s successful Holburn Street enterprise, The Adam Lounge.
Regular’s ‘dream’ to take over Stag Hotel
Scott, Bruce, Mark and John told us how they visit the pub “every weekend” and are hardened veterans of the Royal Deeside inn.
They snapped up the opportunity to run the hotel a few weeks ago after the business went on the market last year.
Previous owner James Rooney – who ran The Stag with his wife Kathleen – sadly died in 2021. When his funeral cortege drove past the Stag hundreds of people lined the streets to applaud.
Scott, who is 41, said: “We’re local lads and we spent our weekends here when we were growing up.
“We had seen it sitting for sale, and we jumped at it. It’s been a dream move for us.
“We are all very excited about the opportunity.
“The place is always busy so we didn’t want to change too much about it and lose the clientele. But we’ve been trying to make it better.
“Bringing in the food was the first thing on the list we had to do.
“We saw the potential in the kitchen and we phoned Calum from Big Manny’s straight away.”
The group have no prior hospitality experience, but they say their experience in joinery will prepare them for the months ahead as they tweak The Stag.
Demand for Banchory Big Manny’s ‘huge’
Calum Wright, co-owners of Big Manny’s, said the space on Banchory’s High Street was perfect for a new partnership.
He said a lot of people from the area travel into Aberdeen to visit Adam’s Lounge.
He added that the response to the announcement “has been huge.”
“We’ve been keen to expand further into Aberdeenshire, and Scott got in touch a few months ago about that,” he said.
“From the Adam’s Lounge, we know this type of co-habitation works quite well.
“This will be our sixth or seventh location in total, but this is the first time we are expanding the burger operation. There is a lot of demand for it.
“The burger, fries, and a pint setup works quite well for this type of establishment – sometimes it’s more manageable than a large pizza.
“It’s probably the busiest pub in Banchory – we are anticipating to serve a lot of food in- house, but we will also have our own delivery drivers as well.
“Some already thought we were open last weekend, they’ve been calling up for pizzas already!”
Co-owner Scott added: “Big Manny’s was our first port of call when we were thinking of adding food to the hotel.
“The place has been missing food for a good few years.”
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