If you’ve seen Still Game, you’ll have seen the café. It’s where Jack and Victor go for a natter and it’s where Isa goes for a roll with everything on it even though she’s “no hungry”. The café is famous, a bit of an institution, and a big part of the community in Maryhill. But now, with heavy hearts, the owners have decided to close it.
Robert Somerville, the local businessman who opened the Robyn’s Nest café with his wife Anne in 2002, says it hasn’t been an easy decision. “This hasn’t been something we’ve decided in a couple of weeks,” he says. “This has been about a year-plus. We’ve tried everything to make it work.”
Robert, 60, and his 24-year-old daughter Robyn, who the café is named after, have fond memories of the place in its heyday. Robyn started doing a Saturday job behind the counter when she was 12 and remembers vividly what it was like back then.
“There was everybody from the offices and big orders from workmen and locals coming in,” she says. “It was mobbed. But now I can see the burden on my mum and dad.”
Still Game being filmed in the café was also a happy time. Known as The Rendezvous Café on the show, it was used as a location for 16 years and to this day, there’s a Still Game breakfast menu featuring a “Jack and Victor” (full Scottish with tea and toast) and the “Isa Roll”, the same one she eats on the programme. Star of the show Ford Kiernan also has happy memories; filming in the café, he said, were “great times”.
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But sitting in the café now with a cup of tea, Robert – who had a long career as a chef before opening the café and was head chef at One Devonshire Gardens and The Waverley – says it’s become increasingly hard to make it work. “We’re losing between about £1,500 and £2,000 a month,” he says. “We’ve done it for about a year but we can’t do it anymore.”
One of the big problems is rising costs. “Before the Ukraine war and the energy crisis, our average bill for electricity was about £425 a month; it shot up to nearly £1,100. The oil went from £18 a drum to £40 a drum, eggs went from £10 a tray to £30 a tray. The running operation of the café was probably £22,000 a year for rent, rates, gas and electricity, it’s now working out at £41,000 a year.”
Then there’s the drastic changes to the local area. “Passing trade is the most important factor for any business like ours,” says Robert, “And this was a busy area.
“But I can tell you about everything that was here that isn’t anymore. The housing association offices, and other offices. The burgh halls were also being built and there were workers. Round the corner was a steel work place, the signing-on centre, the job centre. Then further on up a plastics works, we lost them. And the post office round the corner, the rumour is it’s closing. We’ve lost about 500 workers in the area over the last 6-7 years.”
Some of the reasons for the changes are not unique to Maryhill – the pandemic, working from home, the move to doing business online – but Robert and Robyn say Glasgow City Council could have helped Robyn’s Nest but instead have made things worse. Robyn cites the business rates but there’s also the problem of Maryhill Road outside.
“The most important thing was they turned outside from a yellow line to a double line,” says Robert. “It means people can’t stop outside the café like they used to and it makes other aspects of the business harder too. We tried deliveries but they couldn’t stop outside. Glasgow City Council are putting so many obstacles in front of businesses.”
The other sad reality is that, even with a menu that’s amazing value for money, the cost of living has had an impact on customers. Robyn, who’s a civil servant, grew up in Maryhill and has worked with people on borderline budgets. There are 30 food banks in the area, she says, and even a price rise of 5 or 10p makes a massive difference.
It's something that bothers Robert too. He’s always supported local charities alongside running Robyn’s Nest and his other businesses, and he and wife Anne have just opened a discount store down the road. He does it because he sees how a lot of local people struggle.
“Some people in the area who don’t want to see the café close down can’t afford to eat in it,” says Robert. “See that fiver that they used to have for their brekkie? It’s not there anymore. That fiver’s for nappies, or gas or electricity.”
Robert’s love for the local area, and the people who continue to come to the café, is one of the reasons it’s taken a while to make the decision to close down, but he’s ready for it now. I ask what he thinks the fate of the café building will be?
“Hospitality is getting the raw end of things of things just now,” he says, “But it might work as a Chinese takeaway or a kebab shop because that works 24/7 whereas a café is 10-3. But the heart’s been taken out of this area."
Robert and Robyn will have their warm memories of the café though, when it was bustling and busy and when the Still Game crew were in filming. Robyn shows me a picture of her with Jane McCarry as Isa. Happy times.
Ford Kiernan also told The Herald about his happy memories of Robyn’s Nest. “It’s really sad to hear of the demise of the café,” he said. “We had great times filming in there, particularly the Kill Wullie episode. And it was especially terrific because we were working and filming in a real-life café that served up lovely grub.”
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