Day: 1 July 2026

This June from the 22nd of June, Sol y Sombra in Broughty Ferry will officially relaunch as Velvet Tide, a modern Scottish house of hospitality inspired by folklore, mythology and the traditions of Scotland’s coastal communities. Led by hospitality entrepreneurs Kelly Fairweather and Paul Fairweather, owners of The Selkie in Dundee and The Ferry Selkie, the rebrand marks a new chapter for the 45 cover restaurant and 30 cover in the bar downstairs, transforming it from a Mediterranean-inspired venue into a destination rooted in Scottish storytelling, local produce and warm, welcoming hospitality. 

Velvet Tide is inspired by the legend of a Cailleach who fell in love with a travelling merchant and made her home by the sea in Broughty Ferry. The concept brings together storytelling and Scottish hospitality across a relaxed, all-day dining venue. Upstairs, The Cailleach Dining Room offers a more refined dining experience, with warm tartans, dark green panelling and low lighting designed for slower, intimate evenings. Downstairs, The Merchant Bar provides a more informal space with fireside seating, champagne by the glass, a curated whisky list and live music into the night. Together, the two spaces create an all-day destination for dining, drinks and live music, moving from relaxed lunches to late evenings. 

The food offering will reflect this shift, with a menu celebrating Scottish ingredients and comforting, seasonal cooking. Signature dishes will include venison stovie croquettes, fresh local lobster with pomme Anna, and a selection of seasonal Scottish dishes inspired by the coast and countryside. The drinks menu will feature cocktails inspired by characters from the venue’s folklore, including Gentle Annie, a champagne-based cocktail, and Lachlan, a contemporary take on an Old Fashioned made with Rum Bothy Run and fresh lime juice. 

Kelly Fairweather, owner of Velvet Tide, said:

“Velvet Tide is areflection of everything I love -Scottish stories, warm welcomes, beautiful food and creating spaces where people feel at home. I’ve spent the last two years trying to make Sol y Sombra something it simply wasn’t, and I’ve realised that real success is about honesty. This rebrand is about stepping into something that finally feels right,  for me, for my team, and for our guests.”

While the concept is new, Velvet Tide continues the same focus on welcoming, characterful hospitality that has underpinned Kelly Fairweather’s previous businesses. The rebrand reflects both the building’s nearly 200-year history and a refreshed approach for the future. 

Images here

  Address: 27 Gray St, Broughty Ferry, Dundee DD5 2BH

A new cookbook is set to inspire readers to embrace their hunger pangs and elevate their grazing game with 52 seasonal snack recipes. Seasonal Snacks by Gabriella English will be published by Kitchen Press in July 2026.

This debut title from cookery writer, recipe developer and food stylist Gabriella English marks the fourth instalment in the popular Seasonal series, which includes Soups, Salads and Suppers.

Seasonal Snacks positions snacks as stars in their own right rather than a supporting act. The collection features an array of flavour-packed, versatile recipes, from Comté gougères and Thai sweetcorn fritters to kimchi pinwheels and Caprese Parma ham roll-ups, designed for everything from relaxed summer picnics to hosting dinner parties.

Drawing on seasonal produce, the book also focuses on creating dishes that reflect what people naturally crave throughout the year, with recipes tailored to each month and moment in the calendar.

Gabriella English said:

“This cookbook is my devotion to snacking, which for me, is perhaps the most joyous way of eating. Snacks are so often an afterthought: a hurried handful of crisps eaten absent-mindedly to tide you over, a container of olives hastily tipped into a bowl when friends visit or a trance-like raid of the leftovers at the back of the fridge. I hope that my cookbook will encourage readers to expand their snacking horizons and find inspiration within these pages.”

Each chapter is organised by month to make the most of seasonal produce and occasions: 

1. January

Pea guacamole / Smoked salmon sushi hand rolls / Satay chicken wings with peanut and lime dipping sauce / Comté gougères / Lemony smoked mackerel paté

2. February

Bagna cauda / Mini Welsh rarebits with marmite / Spring onion pancakes / Turkish borek

3. March

Mini poppadoms with green chutney and salad / Beetroot and mint houmous with feta / Parma ham egg cups with goat’s cheese and wild garlic / Thai sweetcorn fritters

4. April

Crispy roasted new potatoes with wild garlic whipped feta / Filo samosas / Kimchi pinwheels / Sticky sesame-crusted halloumi with tzatziki

5. May

Roasted asparagus with romesco sauce / Smoked salmon taramasalata / Aubergine parmigiana bites / Whipped ricotta crostini with balsamic strawberries and Parma ham

6. June

Chorizo, black bean and sweetcorn nachos / Lemony herby crab toasts / Baked feta with lemon and honey / Pistachio and feta dip 

7. July

Caprese Parma ham roll ups / Feta and spring onion cornbread muffins / Smoky Mexican-style corn ribs with chipotle mayo / Grilled peaches with burrata, nduja and basil / Za’atar-crusted halloumi fries with tahini dipping sauce

8. August

Seared tuna tostadas with avocado and lime / Halloumi and watermelon skewers with za’atar and mint / Chorizo and padron peppers / Mar hor

9. September

Balsamic roasted fig and goat’s cheese crostini / Crispy aubergine with pomegranate molasses / Sweet potato pakora / Mushroom taleggio arancini

10. October

Balsamic onion and goat’s cheese tartlets with honey and thyme / Sesame prawn toast / Muhammara / Crispy mozzarella-stuffed olives / Miso mushroom gyoza

11. November

Smoky kale crisps / Cheesy seeded crackers / Bacon-wrapped figs with Gorgonzola and sage / Korean prawns

12. December

Roasted mixed nuts with rosemary and cayenne pepper / Dates stuffed with labneh, tahini and hazelnuts / Parmesan and thyme shortbreads / Smoked salmon palmiers / Sticky honey, soy and sesame cocktail sausages

Delicious Additions

Aioli / Za’atar pitta crisps / Tortilla chips / Flatbreads / Cheat’s risotto 

Gabriella English trained at Leiths Cookery School in London and has worked across the food industry in recipe development and editorial roles for major supermarkets, food brands and magazines. Her recipe writing focuses on accessibility and clarity, with a belief that good cooking should be achievable in any kitchen through simple, flexible and confidence-building methods. 

Seasonal Snacks by Gabriella English is published in hardback by Kitchen Press on 7 July 2026 and will be available nationwide, priced at £15. 

Kitchen Press titles are distributed by BookSource. 

www.kitchenpress.co.uk 

It’s hard to step back and look at your own brand story when you’re busy working in your own business. I realised recently that we spend so much time telling the stories of our clients that we don’t always focus on our own. So here we go!

We founded Sound Bite PR back in 2018. And by we, I mean Jessica Sneddon and me, Martha Bryce. 

We wanted to create a sound business with an honest approach and none of the smoke and mirrors that PR is sometimes associated with. 

And we wanted to focus on clear sectors, developing deeper knowledge and skills for our team and us.

We’d both spent our whole careers working in PR, particularly in hospitality and food & drink. While Jessica had started her career at Rocco Forte, I’d cut my teeth in my family’s food business before going onto work at VisitScotland. Sound Bite PR is an accumulation of all our shared passion and expertise. These are the sectors that make our hearts sing.

And what brilliant sectors to work in! It’s given us access to truly incredible food, world class drinks and allowed us to visit some really wonderful places. But my favourite part of our work is undoubtedly drawing out the stories from the people and businesses we work with. Being able to share those stories more widely is a huge privilege. 

Our roots are in media relations, but we have relished adapting to a changing business landscape. This has resulted in a more integrated approach, building up a specialist digital team. We now have in-house content creation, social media and digital strategy and management and our work with influencers has increased exponentially.

While we’re now lucky to be part of the creative Custom Lane team at Lamb’s House in Edinburgh, our first office was in Dalgety Bay. My abiding memory of that is us all enthusiastically starting out on the Fife Coastal Path. After me falling face first into a muddy puddle, our ‘Wellness Wednesdays’ came abruptly to an end.

We’ve since grown to a team of ten with each member bringing different skills, knowledge and passion.

We’ve managed amazing restaurant, hotel and product launches across the UK: from seaweed foraging stunts to events at the Chelsea Flower Shower. I can’t begin to imagine how many media we’ve hosted on press trips or how many drinks samples we’ve sent out to reviewers. (Sometimes our office is a bit like Santa’s grotto with a wealth of parcels waiting to be posted!) We’ve managed unexpected crisis communications situations and we’ve celebrated award wins. But we’ve also done an awful lot of good old-fashioned marketing designed to get bums on seats and drive sales.

At the end of the day, no matter the changing techniques, what we do is share stories. And that’s the best bit of all.