Yahoo News Legendary Glasgow restaurant remains closed amid cash battle with Spain's richest man
A court battle with Spain’s richest man is behind the closure of one of Scotland’s oldest, best-loved restaurants.
For 90 years, Rogano in Glasgow was a haunt of everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Mick Jagger, Kylie Minogue and Alex Ferguson.
But the famed art deco fish restaurant has not opened since the pandemic due to a legal dispute over who is to pay for flooding damage sustained during lockdown.
The Sunday Mail can reveal Zara clothing chain founder Amancio Ortega – who is estimated to be worth £90billion – owns the building through his family investment firm.
And he is at loggerheads with Rogano operator Forthwell Ltd – a firm linked to Glasgow pub tycoon James Mortimer – over who is going to pay for repairs.
Forthwell’s lawyers want a judge to order Ortega’s Pontegadea to do the work, or pay £789,000.
A source said: “James Mortimer owns a lot of pubs and restaurants and is a wealthy man but this will be one of the few battles he has been involved in where he feels like David and the opposition is Goliath.
“Ortega’s fortune is off the scale, he owns a massive property empire around the world and clearly could easily sort this out if he wanted to.
“It is a shame such a special place has been out of operation for so long. It would be great to see it resolved and the doors open again.”
A spokesman for Rogano said he could not comment for legal reasons but insisted the restaurant would make a comeback.
The Glasgow institution first opened in the 1930s and other celebrity diners include Rod Stewart, Keira Knightley, Jude Law, David Bowie and Harvey Keitel. It featured in an episode of late TV chef Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, where he ate oysters and lobster thermidor.
Lawyers for Pontegadea have argued the restaurant’s owners had their own insurance and therefore the claim should be struck out.
But in the Court of Session earlier this month Lord Braid allowed the case to proceed to a further hearing.
He wrote: “The issue does not turn on insurance law, nor circuity of action based on rights of subrogation, but, more straightforwardly, turns on what the parties intended, which is a matter of construction of the lease.”
The Sunday Mail was unsuccessful in attempts to contact Pontegadea for comment.
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