Will Rogano finally reopen after Supreme Court farce?

By the time the five justices of the UK Supreme Court gathered beneath the chandeliers of Glasgow City Chambers on Wednesday morning, the legal battle over Rogano was already over. Glasgow’s most renowned restaurant, and art deco gem and caterer to big names such as Henry Kissinger and David Bowie, was supposed to be the focus of a major legal hearing: deciding who’d be on the hook for close to £1 million in repairs and loss of income, setting legal precedent in the process.

Instead, the case was settled the night before.

The hearing had all the elements of a civic spectacle. The Supreme Court rarely sits outside London, and its visit to Glasgow had already drawn attention from Scotland’s legal and media worlds. Add to this Glaswegians’ love for Rogano and that its opponent is none other than Amancio Ortega, the Zara tycoon ranked among the world's 10 richest people, and the stage was set for a blockbuster showdown.

Rogano has sat behind boarded windows on Exchange Place for the last six years. The March 2020 closure was only ever meant to be temporary, but a series of floods in the winter damaged the building's interior and made its shuttering indefinite. Since then, a dispute between the restaurant owners and the landlord over who should pay for repairs and lost income has dragged through the Scottish courts all the way to Britain’s highest legal authority.

Outside the City Chambers on Wednesday morning, other members of the press were keen to get in, but it wasn’t only the media. The security guard on the door said that Wednesday’s hearing had been the busiest and the most attended since the start of the week — the public gallery was full. 

As we watched in anticipation, all of a sudden David Thomson KC, representing Rogano’s owners Forthwell Ltd, rose to inform the court that an agreement had been reached late on Tuesday evening. After years of deadlock, the matter had been resolved at very much the eleventh hour.

Thomson described the timing as “a matter of considerable professional embarrassment”. He admitted that the settlement of proceedings the night before an appeal is “to put it mildly, highly unsatisfactory,” which was confirmed by the judges’ disdainful looks. This should have all been put to bed much earlier, or at least seen to its end in the court.

Thomson did note that it was “good news for the parties themselves and indeed the patrons of the Rogano”, which might have you wondering when it might reopen. More anon.