“It was never the plan to open a third venue,” laughed husband and wife team, Roberta Hall McCarron and Shaun McCarron. With their daughter almost two, Roberta and Shaun had struck on a good work life balance. But the couple found it hard to turn down the opportunity when owners of Mistral, Julie Di Toro and Sam Barker, told them they were selling up. The venue, which opened in 2021 as a wine bar and kitchen, is right next door to Little Chartroom, Roberta and Shaun’s first restaurant, which opened in 2018 but moved to its current premises in 2021.

Taking its name from a village in Argyll and Bute, Ardfern will be Roberta and Shaun’s third venture, joining The Little Chartroom and Eleanore. From morning till night, Ardfern will offer a relaxed all-day experience, with brunch, bar snacks and heartier dinners alongside cocktails, draught beer and wine from its bottle shop. For those that remember the Little Chartroom brunches, which were shelved during Covid, the return of all day dining from Roberta will be a welcome one. Shaun explained the desire to get back to serving breakfast, saying: “the brunch menu at Little Chartroom was good fun - we had lots of fun with it. The chefs were able to put out some really exciting breakfast dishes, which we didn't feel were being served anywhere else. For example, devil sweetbreads on toast with poached eggs, alongside a more traditional sort of full breakfast, but always with Roberta’s spin on it.”

Ardfern, a new all-day dining space from Roberta Hall McCarron to open in Edinburgh this spring