Legal battle over closed Rogano restaurant is settled

A legal row over the iconic Glasgow restaurant Rogano has been settled by the owners and the landlord, more than six years since it last opened to diners.

The restaurant closed during the Covid-19 pandemic but was unable to reopen due to floods and an electrical fire in the Art Deco property.

The UK Supreme Court, which is sitting in Scotland for the first time this week, was due to hear the case but justices were told the claim had been settled just hours before.

Forthwell Limited, which has traded as Rogano since 1935, claimed landlord Pontegadea UK should compensate it for lost profits, with repairs still incomplete.

The UK's highest court was due to hear the long-running dispute when news of the settlement between Forthwell Limited and Pontagadea UK, which is owned by Spanish billionaire and Zara clothing founder Amancio Ortega, was announced.

Rogano was said to be the oldest surviving restaurant in Glasgow until it announced it was "pausing trading" in line with government guidance in March 2020.

In 1935, the city centre restaurant had been refitted in the same Art Deco style as the Cunard Queen Mary liner, which was being built on the Clyde at the time.

It had a loyal local clientele and was popular with celebrity visitors to the city, including Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, Jude Law and Harvey Keitel.

It was also a long-time favourite of singer Rod Stewart, and was used in a scene with Benedict Cumberbatch in the drama Patrick Melrose.

Kylie Minogue, who is said to have ordered mussels when she visited and left her waiter so starstruck he could only carry one starter at a time out of fear of dropping the plates.

Keira Knightley visited every night for two weeks to eat scrambled eggs and smoked salmon while filming The Jacket in Glasgow.

Rogano was also featured in an episode of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown programme, where he shared oysters and lobster thermidor with the late comedian Janey Godley.

The restaurant has been boarded up since the fire in 2021.

The last of a series of murals commissioned by the restaurant owners in 2021 and 2022 remains on site, now with graffiti and posters layered across the artwork by local artist Katie Smith.

The legal row was due to be heard at Glasgow City Chambers on Wednesday.

But at the start of the hearing David M Thomson KC, for Forthwell, said the two parties reached an agreement the evening before.

No details of the settlement were disclosed in court.

Court documents for the hearing said that in 2013, Forthwell assigned its interest in the lease of the Rogano to a subsidiary, Lynnet Leisure Rogano Limited, which continued trading at the site under a "licence to occupy".

The Rogano was damaged by flooding in December 2020 and January 2021, which caused an electrical fire, leaving the building unsafe, but the two sides had been unable to agree on the scope of the repairs.

Forthwell had claimed that as Pontegadea had failed to repair the site, as required by the tenancy agreement, it had caused hospitality company Lynnet Leisure to suffer a loss of profits, and took legal action seeking to reclaim both "past and anticipated future losses".

But Pontegadea said Forthwell could not recover profits lost by Lynnet Leisure as the latter was a third party.

While the Outer House of the Court of Session ruled in Forthwell's favour in June 2024, that decision was partly overturned by the Inner House in October that year, with the company then taking the case to the Supreme Court.

The hearing before Lord Reed, Lord Stephens, Lord Doherty, Lord Hodge and Lady Simler is due to conclude on Wednesday, with a judgement expected in writing at a later date.