Food & Drink Awards 2018

www.lux-review.com Page 101 LUX 2018 Food & Drink Awards family’s vast experience in the market, they work tirelessly to provide only the finest fish and dishes to their valued guests. Alongside the management, Tailend also boasts a dedicated team who are all committed to excellence, as Jessica is proud to highlight. “As a family run business we are extremely dedicated in ensuring that everyone that walks through our doors has the best ‘food memory’ possible. We all achieve enjoyment and satisfaction from seeing diners return time after time after time to enjoy a simple ‘fish tea’, celebrate a loved one’s birthday with one of our event evenings or simply bring the kids in on a Sunday where kids eat free and have a family day out. We love working closely with our staff and really inspiring them to be the best they can be and see their jobs within our company as more than just a stepping stone into another industry and more of a career path. We love creating events with other local businesses and restaurants like our Food Safari. “To host these events and continually delight our guests, at Tailend, we are privileged and lucky to employ hard working and passionate staff at both our shops. They are all dedicated to us and to their profession and take their roles within our company very seriously; they are very hardworking, and we are therefore able to run the shops in a very supportive manner, with them. I think the fact that Darren, Hayley and myself work in the shops so closely with the other staff makes a huge difference to morale and behaviours. I think our employees see how hard we work, and how much it means to us, and they mimic those same behaviours as well. We ensure all our staff are trained up on our business ethos when they are initially hired and that their product knowledge on Started in St Andrews, Tailend has grown in popularity over the years, and today the restaurant also has a branch in Dundee. Popular with golfers, tourist, students and locals, the shop and eatery prides itself on offering fresh seafood and local produce. The Tailend Restaurant is particularly innovative thanks to its flexible nature, as Jessica highlights. “Our St Andrews store is quite a unique set up; a seafood restaurant with casual dining, but also offering event nights like our most recent champagne and lobster evening hosted by Luvians Bottle Shop and Taittinger Champagne. We help students celebrate graduation with bespoke celebratory menus and golfers experience the ‘traditional fish, chips, mushy peas and tartar sauce’; we help locals have their ‘fish tea’ or five course Eden mill gin tasting/seafood degustation and tourists experience all the fantastic seafood that Scotland has to offer like local lobsters, langoustines, halibut and hake.” Both locations are family run businesses. Married couple Darren and Jessica Spink, alongside his sister Hayley, manage both the front and back our house, working side by side and striving for perfection. Both are owned by Darren and Hayley’s parents, Gordon and Aileen Spink, Fish Merchants of Arbroath who also supply all the fish to us, fresh daily, including their famous Arbroath smokies and hot smoked salmon. Being a family run business, means that these dedicated fish specialists are always striving for perfection. Drawing on the Tailend, St Andrews, is a Seafood Restaurant, Take- Away and Fresh Fishmonger/ Deli based in the heart of a well-known Scottish town. As part of our overview of a selection of the deserving winners of this year’s Scottish Enterprise Awards we spoke to Jessica Spink about the company and the secrets behind its success. Tailend Restaurant Best Scottish Seafood Restaurant 2018 customer service, seafood, food hygiene etc is constantly reviewed & maintained. We are also very lucky to be involved with MGT Management Training Courses, a scheme provided by the Scottish government to entice young workers to look at hospitality as not just a stepping stone but a potential career for them with courses to fine tune their current knowledge and to increase their skills and awareness.” Overall, the future looks bright for Tailend, with the Dundee store flourishing and new developments on the horizon, as Jessica proudly concludes. “With our newest store in Dundee now almost two years old, we are seeing it go from strength to strength, especially with the opening of the V&A just recently and the boom of Dundee as a City on the rise, we are hopeful that it will continue to be just as popular and successful. To further enhance our success, we are looking into getting a mobile unit set up so that we can cater at functions and events with ‘Tailend on the Road’ fish and chip truck. These developments look set to ensure ongoing success for Tailend, and we are excited for what the future holds for us.” Company: Tailend Restaurant Contact: Darren & Jessica Spink Address: 130 Market Street, St Andrews, KY16 9PD, UK Phone: 01334 474070 Web Address: www.thetailend.co.uk