Sustainability

Our family business prioritises sourcing local, seasonal, and where appropriate organic ingredients for generations.  Our relationship with local farmers, suppliers, and producers is key to helping us reduce food miles and promote responsible and best farming practices.  

• Animal welfare is key to our procurement choices. 
• We only buy Scottish fresh fish and shellfish landed in Scottish harbours, our pork and beef is free range and outdoor reared and our eggs are organic and come from Griegsons or Phantassie Farm.  
• Our menus reflect the seasonal availability of these key protein ingredients.   
• We buy seasonal Scottish vegetables from a variety of farms around the country.  
• To celebrate our Italian heritage, buying key ingredients is key to delivering an authentic Italian experience at Contini George Street.  For almost 20 years we have been importing Italian vegetables, fruit, and heritage ingredients such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Mozzarella di Bufala direct from suppliers in Italy to reflect our commitment to provenance.  Seasonally is key - if any ingredient is available in Scotland we would always source locally first.  
• The growing practices of the farms we buy our Italian lines from we believe offsets any food miles. Non industrial, small scale farms that are largely family owned and use limited to no chemicals.  Organic certification in Italy is expensive and isn’t valued at the same level as in the UK.  Much is organic but labelled as such. 
• We have a one acre Kitchen Garden where we grow all year round.  Harvests take place daily and sometimes twice a day at the peak of the summer.  The garden does not use pesticides. We grow a huge variety of produce much of which we can not source from our usual suppliers.  Many of our varieties are heritage varieties such as our James Grieves or White Melrose Apples, Musselburgh leeks or Victoria rhubarb. Lovage, tangerine sage, horseradish leaf and root, broad bean flowers, shoots and leaves add three additional ingredients to the beans themselves. We also have four bee hives that help propagation and the honey adds a special sweetness to our menus, these are unique additions to our restaurant that helps us appreciate nature.
• Our coffee is a 100% Arabica bean from the Terra Santa Plantation in Brazil. It’s a roast developed by Victor's father over 20 years ago. Our milk and unsalted butter and comes from Graham's the Family Dairy in Bridge of Allan. 
• We support a variety of soft drink suppliers based in Scotland including Bon Accord and Summerhouse drinks. 
• We choose premium spirits for our cocktails and our fresh juices are always freshly squeezed to order. 
• Our wine list is carefully selected - using producers who share our values and use sustainable, organic and biodynamic methods. It is encouraging to see that this tends to correspond with an increase in the quality of the wine.