A place in the country
The owners of the Browns restaurant chain in Londonderry and Letterkenny have moved into a new phase of business development with the purchase of a renowned Georgian country retreat at Upperlands…
Marcus Roulston and Ian Orr – the duo behind the successful Browns Restaurants in Londonderry and Letterkenny – are the new owners of Ardtara, a well-established country guest house at Upperlands, not far from Kilrea.
The restored 19th century manor house – which was on the market for some time at an asking price of around £500,000 – has nine individual bedrooms and a period dining room, all beautifully set in eight acres of parkland. It had been the property of the Ulster-born US businessman, Dr. Alistair Hanna – the man behind the controversial Bushmills Dunes golf project – who died last year at the age of 69.
This latest project is something of a departure for the Derry duo, who, until now, have been involved purely in restaurants.
Speaking to LCN recently, Marcus revealed that he considered the Ardtara purchase to be part of a “natural progression” for the group:
“The opportunity came up and we thought that it was a good deal,” he added. “Perhaps it is a little early in the progression of the group, but there were a number of factors that influenced our decision. We have been inundated with requests for weddings at Browns, people really want to have their receptions with us and we do have an outside catering element to the business, but we don’t do weddings yet so when this venue came up, we thought that it would be ideal. There are almost 10 acres here with some lovely locations in the grounds.”
Marcus and Ian have been partners since late 2009 when they teamed-up to take on Browns Restaurant on Bonds Hill in Derry. The venue’s owners at the time – Alma and Ivan Taylor – were leaving the trade.
In the years since, the pair have established a fine dining experience in the city which was largely non-existent before their arrival. Browns was followed in 2012 by Browns in Town on Derry’s west bank and then by Brown on the Green in nearby Letterkenny in 2013.
Ian Orr, a former recipient of the Georgina Campbell, Irish Chef of the Year Award, is perhaps, the best known face among Derry’s burgeoning cadre of high end chefs. He will be overseeing the development of a truly fine dining experience at Ardtara alongside Antrim-born head chef, Eddie Atwell.
Both Ian and Marcus are excited about their plans for Ardtara which, Marcus admits, does need “a little TLC”:
“A lot of work was done to the property perhaps 20 years ago”, he says, “but it’s time for it to be looked at again. This is really a beautiful Georgian mansion and we would see it, in the medium term, going to 18 or 19 rooms and becoming very much a destination for high-end dining.”
A “significant investment” is planned, although Marcus won’t say exactly how much the pair intend to spend on revitalising the venue.
“The whole restaurant experience is going to change,” says Marcus. “Food and service will be the big things. The place is busy enough but I think that at present, that has more to do with the location than the offering itself. We are going to put the food, drinks and service in there to justify the surroundings. We aim to put one of the best restaurants in the country in place. We feel that this should be as good a restaurant experience as there is anywhere in Ulster.”
There have been eight new appointments at the hotel since Ian and Marcus took charge and this is set to rise to around 20 by the middle of the year.
“We’ve already upgraded some of the things that are there, we’ve recovered the chairs and we’ve done some decorating, but we’re dealing with the listed building people as to what we can and can’t do,” explains Marcus. “Both Ian and I love the old country house thing and we want to put something of ourselves into the place, we’ll be cleaning it up, giving it a little love, but it will be gradual, there won’t be wholesale changes.”
Marcus says that the experience for anyone who comes to the new Ardtara for a meal will be similar to the service which customers of Browns in Derry have come to expect – the old difference will be the old country house setting:
“People are now able to stay over and really enjoy the Browns experience, especially in the summer months. If somebody wants a function or the Browns wedding, then we are in a position to accommodate that.”
And he appears relaxed about the future:
“This is a new direction for us, yes, but we’re not under any pressure with it. We have nine en suite bedrooms at present, that’s not a huge undertaking. We’re a restaurant group and this is an extension of that. This will just be a great restaurant with nine rooms and nine acres, that’s where it’s going.”
For both men, the priorities now are building trade at the restaurant and the gradual maintenance and improvement of the property:
“The reason that any restaurant is there is demand,” says Marcus. “As we were, we just didn’t have enough room at the busy times. We opened another place and another, but we didn’t want to turn our brand into a chain, we didn’t want to be a McDonalds. So when we get sorted out here, we’re going to sit down and really talk about the direction that we see the company going in.”
Giving some hint of where those aspirations might lead, Marcus adds:
“The existing buildings that we have in Derry all have room for expansion and I think that the next step for us would be try and develop within the walls of the buildings we already have, we could move upstairs, we might put a few rooms into Browns in Bonds Hill, we might put a wee jazz club into Browns in Town. This is the kind of thing that we are looking at, different things that tie in with what is already in place.”
