A KINCARDINE restaurant has reopened its doors after a period of closure, with local power hoping to drive it forward.

The Unicorn, on Excise Street, has been relaunched by Kincardine native Siobhan Leslie, who hopes to buck the trend of those who owned the business before it.

Siobhan, 35, took over the business after wanting to work a little closer to home, finding the Unicorn to be a perfect site for what she had in mind.

She said: “I worked for Tony Macaroni for 15 years and I decided I wanted to work closer to home as I’d just bought a house here.

“I enquired about local properties and the Old Unicorn came up and I thought it was perfect – had the right size, right space.

“The way it is, it’s a shame it was closed – it’s not a premises that should be lying empty for a building that was very well known to the locals.”

The Unicorn has had a colourful history – being passed from owner to owner and seeing many unfortunate failed business ventures.

Retaining its old name, Siobhan has now opened the Unicorn following the site lying empty for nearly two years.

Over the last six years, the property has been known under a few names, including Faodail and the Tartan Rooster.

These ventures will short lived, however, and now Siobhan is focusing on getting the place open and staying open.

She went on: “My plan was to just get the doors open and get it accessible for locals – it was in high demand.

“There’s no other restaurant in the village so we wanted to get it open – we’ve also had a lot of traffic from people passing through as well.

“We’ve got plans to refurbish the room upstairs with the aim to use it for events, party nights, private dining.

“We’re in the process of taking over more staff which will allow us to open on more days and drive the business forward.

“We’ve got a larger dining room so we’ll be able to accommodate groups of 30 – we’ve also got the space to be able to host psychic nights and maybe a live singer.”

The business was officially re-opened on August 4, with a solid outpouring of support from the local community.

The Unicorn has opted for a simplistic menu – traditional pub grub – but the owners are keen to work with customers to tailor a menu that suits them better.

“We’ve had very good support from the local community,” Siobhan added. “It’s already been opened three or four times so it hasn’t worked in the past.

“I do have that sense of worry which any new business owner would have, especially being in such a small village.

“My experience will be completely different to those who came before me but so far so good, our chef is local and he’s been a big help.

“Our menu is massively different to the businesses before it, we’ve kept ours simple and we’ve listened to the customers and reviewed the menu based off of that.”

In addition to running a standard restaurant, the Unicorn is closed off on a Monday and Tuesday to allow families to come in and spend the day.

Siobhan added: “On Mondays and Tuesdays, we close off part of the restaurant for just mothers and toddlers.

“This is to give the community something to go to that is on their doorstep.

“It’s very family orientated and child friendly – it’s a family restaurant, it’s about serving good food and I want a buzz about the restaurant.

“I come from family restaurants and turning it into a boozer is not what I want.”