Victorian Market food hall opens to the public after a £1.6 million revamp
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The Victorian Market Food Hall has finally opened its doors to the public for its first full day of trading offering locals and visitors brand new options to eat from morning until night.
With Highland Council recognising the official period of mourning for Her Majesty The Queen, bosses decided on a low-key soft opening out of respect despite the importance of the Victorian Market redevelopment.
Related Story: Opening date on menu for Victorian Market hall in Inverness
The £1.6 million project is seen as so important that it forms a centrepiece of the local authority’s Inverness Strategy and it already so crowds of people flocking to try the food and drinks on offer.
We spoke to them this morning and here is what they had to say.
Matt Macpherson, Moonshine and the Malt Room: 'We think it is going to be a great place for eating and drinking and celebrating what we have got in the Highlands'
"We are from the Malt Room, which is a stone’s throw away. We loved what they were doing in the Victorian Market so we opened this off licence bottle shop and we are doing lots of local beers from Dog Falls, Cromarty, Cairngorm, and we are supporting the guys at MYXD for the cocktails.
"We have had one sale so far so that is good, one of our pals, but that is a couple of beers sold at quarter past 10 so hopefully many more today and just looking forward to seeing lots of locals and tourists coming to enjoy the new space.
"It has been a long time coming, with a building like this there have been a lot of challenges and we have overcome them and we think it is going to be a great place for eating and drinking and celebrating what we have got in the Highlands.
"The restaurant scene is so busy, the bar scene is so busy and we are under a covered space where people can just come in, no reservations, enjoy a local beer, enjoy some local food, we think there will be some great dishes."
Douglas Hardie, the Highland Food and Drink Trail: 'We are trying to build up a development pathway'
"Today we have Ollie’s Pops who many of you will be familiar with from down by Inverness Cathedral on the riverside. Ollie’s Pops specialise in pulled meats. Bruce is a fantastic chef, he is really up for everything so today he will be in here with albeit a limited menu but basically showing off some of his cheffing skills to people here.
"The idea of the unit is a joint venture between ourselves and the Inverness Common Good Fund and McGregor’s industrial supplies. And what we want is a way for new businesses or people with a business idea to get experience of being in the centre of town in a fantastic location with seating, with drinks, with alcohol, with all these sorts of things. It is really kind of the perfect location for selling food and drink.
"So the idea is that we are trying to build up a development pathway for new businesses from the initial idea of getting them into a place where one day they will be able to take on fixed premises in here or somewhere else in Inverness.
"So this is really an important part of that process so people can get space where they can actually just show off what they can do, get the brand out there and actually make some money."
Jenny Iannetta, Bad Girl Bakery and Good Girl Grocer: 'I really love being a green grocer'
"We have only literally just opened, it is going really well. It is really nerve racking because it has been a bit of a frantic morning but we are delighted to be open. We have got two outlets: Bad Girl Bakery in the main unit and Good Girl Green Grocer, which is our sister unit.
"The idea of this was to be the complete opposite of Bad Girl Bakery so salads and soups don’t sell particularly well in Bad Girl because it is not what people go for, they for a treat, an indulgence and we just wanted something that was different to that.
"And I really love being a green grocer. I love the salads – we are really proud of the salad lunch pots and the idea is that they are not just leafs and stuff but have noodles or couscous and some really nice Californian wedge salad."
