New restaurant serves up excitement – as it comes back from the brink with a sprinkling of food and drink PR

By Kitti Laczko

AN AMBITIOUS new restaurant that launched just weeks before lockdown – and therefore didn’t qualify for coronavirus grants on furlough – has fought back from the edge to the acclaim of the media.

Holyrood PR was there to help Pier Brasserie spread the news of its much-anticipated launch back in February and we were there when things took a turn for the worse.

Within weeks of opening it became clear that the spread of Covid-19 was set to devastate the sector along with the dreams of owner Mark Patonyi, one of the city’s most esteemed restaurant managers.

His business was so new that it didn’t receive its PAYE reference number until after the 19 March cut-off date.

However, Mark and his team’s grit and determination has seen it launch a new takeaway option ahead of a partial reopening – and we did our bit to help make it a success.
Their carefully selected menu utilising the best local and Scottish produce can be found here.

The highlights included:

• Extensive local coverage in the Edinburgh Evening News (both print and online), the North, Edinburgh News and the Edinburgh Reporter
• Specialist coverage in the Business Insider and Bite Magazine – reaching out directly to the city’s foodies and more affluent business people
• Being featured in The Scotsman’s “Scotland’s leading restaurants share their experience of lockdown” article and The Scotsman’s dedicated Food and Drink website
• Huge social media attention and engagement as the Edinburgh Evening News’ post reached a potential 237,329 people with great engagement stats of 156 reactions / 20 comments /19 shares in less than 24 hours.
• The total reach of the coverage is 1.25m as of the 7^th of July (Kantar) and social media counted for 875,000 of that

Our case study about the opening of the restaurant can be read here.
The original press release can be found here.

Mark has since highlighted a number of customers visiting after they learned about his story in the news. This boost of interest allowed the owner and his team to breathe freely once again and look into the future with optimism – and we wish them all the best.

If you think you could also benefit from professional Food and Drink PR support, our team would love to hear from you!

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