“I’m not hopeful for the future” - Sisters behind acclaimed restaurant struggle to find premises in Glasgow
Fariya and Sahar Sharif, the siblings behind a much-loved South Asian restaurant, have opened up about their struggles to find a venue in Glasgow’s southside.
A popular South Asian restaurant, which has rave reviews and appeared on TV, would surely be a shoo-in for a permanent premises in a thriving city neighbourhood. But for sisters Fariya and Sahar Sharif, the struggle to open the doors in their “dream” location has turned into a nightmare.
Parveen’s Canteen, which started as supper clubs and pop-ups before launching into a space in Civic House in Glasgow’s Speirs Wharf, also appeared on Rick Stein’s Food Stories with the top chef praising the sisters for their modern, vegan, Pakistani-inspired food, which "wowed" him.
After closing their Speirs Wharf eatery, which Ms Sharif said was due to lack of footfall and struggling to make it work due to the location, the sisters wanted to realise their dream of opening in the southside, where they both live. But, despite looking for over a year, they’ve been unable to find a place due to being let down at the last minute by landlords.
“We just thought it’d be easier than it is”, said Ms Sharif. “We’ve been looking for premises for the past year and we’ve had a few instances of this happening before. We were due to take over the premises where Faro on Skirving Street was and the landlord rejected us at the last minute for another offer.”
More recently, the duo were further on with negotiations with a landlord, and had spent months and money on solicitors fees, as well as getting drawings done of how the venue would look. But these negotiations with landlord broke down “at the last minute.”
“We spent three months, if not more, meeting the landlord - I’d say about 15 times we had separate meetings with him - we spent money on solicitors fees and a survey and having builders come and look at the property, and working on plans - including interior designer plans. Basically the landlord said, right at the last minute, there’s another party which we were really shocked at.”
The struggle around landlords being able to offer units to other parties when they’re so far into negotiations is also exacerbated, Ms Sharif said, by there being a shortage of premises with class three licences in Glasgow - something that’s not as evident in Edinburgh.
Posting on social media about the experience, the sisters wrote: “We were hoping that this would be a post telling you all about our new southside spot that we've been working hard to secure over the past few months. Sadly, after multiple meetings negotiating terms, spending thousands of pounds on solicitors fees to get the lease ready and lots of planning on the building and design, the landlord has decided to go with another party, right at the last minute, who he says has more experience despite our offer exceeding theirs.
“He told us they have more experience (they own three other restaurants already) and in his own words 'they're men'. So, being two South Asian women has really unsealed the deal for us.”
As for the future, the sisters will keep looking for a home for their restaurant and Ms Sharif said she’d like to see more controls in place for commercial property that we see in the private sector. She said: “In commercial leasing, there’s no control at all and the landlords just hold all the power. It also doesn’t seem fair that the council is reluctantly giving out class three licenses.”
The post received over 3000 likes and many comments of support from other hospitality businesses.
Glasgow Council have been contacted for comment.
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