This is another blog written for Grantown Business Association, about a new business being run by ex-Mountain Café owner Kirsten Gilmour. It was adapted from a press release I wrote for the organisation – repurposing is the way forward!
A New Zealand chef who was forced to close her popular café at the start of the pandemic has spoken about her new venture in the Cairngorms – and paid tribute to the community where the business is now based.
Kirsten Gilmour, known as KJ, ran the successful Mountain Café in Aviemore for 16 years, winning fans from across the world and spawning a best-selling cookery book.
But when lockdown was imposed, Kirsten and her team closed the café and switched to baking from her Grantown home in an effort to pay off suppliers’ bills.
Cakes were sold from the doorstep and posted to customers across the UK for the next few weeks.
But with the heartbreaking realisation that the café was not going to reopen, Kirsten found a new base at Grantown’s Achnagonalin Industrial Estate and started to rebuild.
Doorstep bakery
Now KJ’s Bothy Bakery is thriving and is one of the establishments featured in a new food adventure launched by Grantown Business Association.
Kirsten said: “We closed the cafe a couple of days before the lockdown started as we didn’t feel comfortable for both our customers and staff. We never imagined what was to come, or that it would never re-open.
“With a heap of debt to local and national suppliers, I started baking from the house hoping to cover at least some of the local supplier’s bills. Furlough was going to cover staff wages and we committed to top up the 20% gap to ensure full pay for our team.
“I sold my baking from the door at our house here in Grantown. The local support was incredible and the support from our customers nationally was humbling.
“We posted hundreds of Millionaires slices out each week. We employed some local teenagers to help manage the post as it became so busy. In the end we posted thousands of slices all over Britain.”
But with high demand for her products and bills and loans needing to be repaid, Kirsten realised that there was potential to set up in Grantown rather than return to Aviemore.
A new start
She said: “This was really exciting as I have always wanted to work with my community. Aviemore didn’t have that. Grantown does. Using the local shops for ingredients, hardware, and meat was so rewarding.
“Getting to know Grantown better was so amazing. The cafe was so busy that I never had the chance to really get involved at all here at home, or shop as locally as I wanted to. The cafe was a monster that consumed me.
The Bothy Bakery has gone from strength to strength, with lunches added to the menu, along with a home delivery service that sees staff taking to the roads around Grantown on special bikes, lovingly nicknamed Hank the Hunk and Frank the Tank. There’s even a range of doggy treats if you stop by during a dogwalk.
Kirsten said: “We are still embracing the madness but loving it: loving Grantown and loving the buzz that producing our baking and food gives to people.
“Being able to bike to work, bike home through the woods and switch off at the end of the day is magic.
“Getting to know so many local people has been fantastic. It’s a real privilege and feeling part of the wee community is just amazing too.
“I certainly can’t see any reason to move. Grantown is home, for me and for the business. Long may that continue.”
Best of Grantown
Karen Martin, chair of Grantown Business Association, said: “The loss of the Mountain Café was a shock to everyone in this area.
“But Aviemore’s loss is definitely Grantown’s gain. We are delighted to have Kirsten and her team based here. The Bothy Bakery has a brilliant range of products that are perfect for a picnic in our wonderful town.”
The itinerary features the best food and produce in the Strathspey town, including a wholefood shop offering refills to customers. Grantown’s food and drink is also in the spotlight this year as one of Scotland’s newest distilleries is due to open nearby in the summer. Gordon and MacPhail is in the final stages of constructing The Cairn at Craggan on the A95.
Grantown’s food destinations can be found at:
www.grantownonline.com/bikes-bothy-bakery/
Further food ideas are available at www.grantownonline.com/croft-cafe-and-produce-itinerary/ and www.grantownonline.com/full-on-feast/
Jane Candlish 
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