Judith Glue and David Spence

Owners

Judith and David married in 2003 and have had a working partnership since 2005 when David joined the company previously established by Judith when she was just 18 years old.

In 2018 they formed The Old Storehouse Ltd which runs "Judith Glue and The Real Food Cafe" the "Judith Glue Shop in Inverness" along with their latest venture "The Storehouse Restaurant with Rooms". They both live a stones throw away from The Storehouse and have both been actively hands on with the project since it started on a daily basis.

As a local Orkney designer Judith has chosen and designed the interior and David who is a trained quantity surveyor has lead much of the renovations.

They have long talked about owning a hotel and restaurant and were lucky enough to be able to purchase this historic B Listed former store from George Leonard in 2011 and have now brought their dreams into reality and hope that they have created a business that is truly an asset to Kirkwall's town centre.

Executive Chef/Manager

Gayle Grieve is our Executive Chef/ Manager and joined us in early 2021 having previously run very successful pop up restaurant evenings with us in The Storehouse. She is a local Orcadian and lives in Kirkwall with her family, Gayle has always loved cooking from an early age and her very first experiences of hospitality slowly migrated into a commercial kitchen environment, while running her own part time restaurant and also building a career in wedding and events catering.
Gayle loves the buzz of a busy kitchen and creates fantastic local produce menus along with her Head Chef Danny. Her ethos is to keep things simple, using the best local fresh ingriedients, while pushing the boundaries with flavour and techniques to make our food have those extra local touches, such as our own chutneys, oatcakes, bread or beremeal bannocks. Emlyn - Gayles husband is a scallop diver and freshly caught Orkney scallops are always on our menus.
She also is in charge of making sure our hotel runs smoothly and along with our dedicated front of house team, looks after all our room guests and diners, making sure they enjoy their experience with us, whether in the restaurant or staying in one of our eight luxury boutique rooms.
While not working her main hobby is spending time with family and friends, enjoying long walks and enjoying good food and wine with the people she loves !

Head Chef

Danny Cormack joined is as Sous Chef in 2021 and was promoted to Head Chef in early 2022. He works very closely with Gayle our executive Chef/Manager to create local Orkney Produce menus which change with the seasons. He was born in Orkney and has worked in catering since 2008 starting as a young Commis Chef , he lives locally with his wife and they have both recently just had a baby girl. Danny has a huge amount of experience and pays great attention to detail always incorporating new ideas into dishes which always keeps our menus fresh and interesting.

Head of House Keeping

Jacqui Bruce our head housekeeper keeps our eight luxury rooms in tip top condition , along with her team she never misses any details and is always on hand each morning if as a guest you need anything. She has worked at The Storehouse since we opened and is essential to the success of our rooms. With plenty of valuable experience over the years she is another essential cog in the workings of running a small boutique hotel.