Единственный кафе в Норт-Куинсфери закроется после лета из-за выхода владельцев на пенсию

North Queensferry’s only café is set to close after the summer due to the long-term owners stepping into retirement. But there’s already significant interest from those who would like to take on the Main Street premises currently home to Rankin’s. For the last 14 years it has been in the hands of married couple Sue and Derek Rankin, both 66, who couldn’t be prouder of the success they’ve had. Sue said: “It’s a hard decision when you give up something you’ve done for so long. “It’s the community that I love about North Queensferry, and we’ve had so much loyal support from everybody. “It really is hard work running your own business, especially something like this, where you’re on your feet 10 hours a day, five days a week. We just feel it’s time for us to step back and let someone else take it on.” The eatery has a decent amount of regulars but also benefits a lot from tourism due to its picturesque location by the River Forth. Sue went on: “We’ve seen families grow up and met so many people, then we’ve had our fair share of famous people like John Bishop coming in, or the Antiques Roadshow crew. “The kids show Molly and Mack was filmed here, so they were in and we had a lot of very young visitors coming up because of that.” The plan is for the closed sign to go up on Monday, September 28, but there’s hope that somebody will snap up the spot soon after. “We’ve had a lot of interest so hopefully it will be fairly smooth, but I would imagine anyone who comes in will make it their own so there might well be a small gap whilst they do work,” said Sue. Over the past few years Derek has taken a less hands-on role in operations, still running the business but without getting too physically involved. An injury sustained when he was crushed between a van and a wall back in 2021 left him injured and, along with Covid, led to the closure of the pair’s Culross location. Sue said that after the ordeal, they decided to put all their energy into their original café. Through the years they’ve been able to rely on not just the support of customers, but local workers too. Sue explained: “We’ve employed lots of local people, mostly girls from the village. A lot of them take a gap year or do it before they go to university, it’s lovely because I’ve childminded most of them. “It’s good to employ local kids because they have no excuse for being late! "And invariably I know their family. People are very kind and reliable. Our children grew up here too and it’s great to be in the community.” Asked what the couple’s plan is for retirement, Sue said: “I don’t feel like I have one, we’d like to take a step back to relax and enjoy ourselves for a while.”