The Clarence has taken over the popular seafood bar Shucks. Retaining the most popular items of its former menu, the new venture comes with a new look focused on delivering high quality comfort dishes and bar snacks.
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00:00We're at the Clarence with Josh McCormick and we're going to have a quick chat about
00:12the menu here. We're sat in the pub area, there's also a dining room. What is the kind
00:19of mix of what you do here in terms of food and drink? Tell me a bit about the room.
00:24So downstairs, this area here that we're currently in, we're trying to make it as accessible
00:29as possible with the locals in mind. So a focus on cocktails, draft beers, whether that's
00:36a pint of Guinness, lager, or wines by the glass, champagne. And then there's also a
00:41lovely pub snacks menu there as well. And we wanted that to continue with a similar
00:47vibe upstairs to the restaurant with the menu they have up there. Still trying to make it
00:52as accessible as possible. So there's some things like British pub classics, some French
00:57brasserie classics like Beef Tartare, you've got a Chicken Kiev, Sticky Toffee Pudding,
01:02things like that that even though it's simple food, it still tastes absolutely delicious
01:08and is very well executed. So that's the type of vibe that we're going for downstairs and
01:13upstairs. The main focus really is we wanted a relaxed
01:18atmosphere, something that you could go and eat in every night of the week, not a special
01:22occasion type place. Obviously we won't be able to come for special occasions also, but
01:26it's a more accessible type of menu for people to come and enjoy every day of the week. So
01:32big emphasis on the grill side of things, the simplification of the main courses and
01:36all that. And you could just come in here, you could
01:38get a seat, you could have a few glasses of wine and a snack as well, right?
01:42Yeah, so the bar itself is pretty much walk-ins only, it's not bookable. And we just want
01:49to keep it that way. We just don't want to like, yeah, it's just easier and more accessible
01:55that way. Yeah, so it kind of feels like a neighbourhood
01:57place, but probably a neighbourhood place that you'd like to travel to as well, right?
02:01Yeah, 100%. We do have that element. There's people we've noticed that are, we kind of
02:07have like a range of like an hour's distance away that we notice that people come from.
02:10So whether that's down from where I'm from in Ayrshire or Helensburgh or the outskirts
02:15of Edinburgh, there's still people that are wanting to travel even just for the bar aspect
02:19of things. And then also the local community is a big part of this, what we're trying to
02:24do here as well. This is probably one of the areas that was
02:26revamped the most when we changed to the Clarence. And an emphasis on the bar snacks. You can
02:32sit in here for a few drinks throughout the day, Saturday, Sunday, Friday, you know,
02:36whenever you finish work, come and just sit and just continually have bar snacks all day.
02:40You don't need to, not everyone, especially when they're drinking, not everyone wants
02:43a big heavy meal. You just can maybe nibble at things throughout the day. We've got a
02:47scotch egg on there, which is great. And a couple of bar snacks, like chips and Bernays
02:51and olives and stuff just like people nibble at. Maybe they're going to come here earlier
02:55and then they're going to go for dinner somewhere else. And, you know, it just keeps the trade
02:59coming through the bar basically.