Inverness's Filling Station restaurant waves goodbye to the city centre after 17-years of business
This weekend is the last chance for locals to book a table at the city's much loved restaurant, The Filling Station, as it is set to close on Sunday.
The Inverness city centre has been hit with yet another blow as the Filling Station in Academy Street will close its doors this weekend.
After being part of the Inverness business community for many years, the American restaurant and bar is set to wave goodbye customers on October 21.
It is understood that staff who had worked at the restaurant for over a decade are devastated following the news of its closure.
Opulent estate agent, Savills, is marketing the building at 8-10 Academy Street for a tenant who would be expected to pay over £6,000 a month upon the restaurants departure.
It was reported that a spokesman from the Restaurant Group said that the decision had been taken to leave the site after a widescale review.
He said: “We announced a review of our leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our sites.
“We are working closely with our impacted teams and will look to redeploy colleagues to neighbouring sites across our wider estate wherever possible.”
The spokesman declined to elaborate on how many staff are affected or where they will be redeployed to.
For many years the buzzing, atmospheric restaurant was a huge success with the locals and tourists as the company accumulated thousands of Tripadvisor reviews. This has resulted in the company being ranked 32 out of almost 200 restaurants in Inverness and will be sorely missed.
Its fair to say that The Filling Station will be missed terribly as hundreds of people nostalgically reminisce on good times spent at the bar and restaurant.
One person said: "I have so many fond memories of this place. It was more like a community than a restaurant."
Morag Turner added: "Everything in flaming Ness is closing down! I'll have to find a new lunch spot now!"
In recent months, the city centre has suffered the loss of various shops including UK-wide clothing store Joules in Eastgate, Clarks in Academy Street and Ness Refill in Queensgate plus clothing store M&Co in Academy Street although those premises have been taken over by The Original Factory Shop.
The Filling Station has been embellished into the heart of Inverness in many ways; both by acting as an active social hub, in addition to being a part the Eastgate Shopping Centre.
Now the rush to book a table at the American diner has begun as many prepare to say goodbye to a much loved piece of Inverness.
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