A POPULAR restaurant which closed in Kincardine has been given a new lease of life after a Rosyth couple opened the doors to a new eatery.

Partners Hannah Trickett, 30, and award-winning chef Michael Walsh, 27, took over the former Unicorn Inn, Excise Street, at the end of last year and have brought it back to life in the form of their first business venture, Faodail.

Gaelic for “a lucky find”, the family-run restaurant, which offers a seasonal menu within a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere, opened at the start of the month.

Hannah said that the opportunity to base themselves within one of the village’s iconic buildings – it is the birthplace of famed chemist and physicist James Dewar – was “too good to turn down”.

She commented: “We’ve been looking for somewhere for a long time but couldn’t find the right place. This fell out the sky; we didn’t need to see anything else. 

“We didn’t need to do much because, since the doors were locked, it has been left untouched. It’s still the same building that it was and we all still call it the Unicorn but we do want to put our own stamp on it.

"It is a good location, the street has some gorgeous buildings and the place has so much character that we don’t want to muck about with it too much.

“We didn’t do anything serious (about setting up a restaurant) until around October/November.

"It has been a challenge; we’re quite young but I used to run businesses for other people and Michael has worked as a head chef for the last few years; last year he won two prestigious Scottish food awards (the Food Scotland Awards Gastro Pub of the Year for South East Scotland and Scotland).

“We were looking for something small and this was far too good to turn down.”

Using ingredients that are as locally-sourced as possible, traditional favourites like steak pie, Scottish flavours such as haggis stuffed in chicken and tastes from abroad in the shape of sweet potato Massaman curry all come together to provide what Hannah hopes is something for everyone.

She continued: “There’s a wee bit of anticipation because we’re young and people don’t really know us but we want folk to like us.

"We want to make sure everyone’s covered so we’ve set up a menu where anyone can come and think, ‘I’ve not had that for ages’. 

“We want to make it affordable for families and couples and people will make the extra effort to go somewhere where the food’s good.

“We wanted to keep things under wraps before our opening day but we had hundreds of locals wishing us good luck and telling us that they were glad to have something here.

“We’re already in the community; we’ve done a couple of things for local charities, so I think people know we’re friendly and here to stay.”