{"id":16701,"date":"2025-10-16T22:55:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/how-roberta-hall-mccarron-juggles-three-restaurants-and-motherhood\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:55:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:55:53","slug":"how-roberta-hall-mccarron-juggles-three-restaurants-and-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/how-roberta-hall-mccarron-juggles-three-restaurants-and-motherhood\/","title":{"rendered":"How Roberta Hall-McCarron Juggles Three Restaurants and Motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roberta Hall-McCarron. Courtesy Amelia and Christian Masters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roberta Hall-McCarron<\/a> was four months pregnant when she opened her second restaurant, Eleanore<\/a>, in September 2021. After years of working in other people\u2019s Michelin-starred kitchens, she and her husband, Shaun Hall-McCarron<\/a>, debuted The Little Chartroom<\/a> in Edinburgh in 2018, but it had grown so much that they decided to move it to a bigger space. Eleanore<\/a>, which began as a food truck concept during the pandemic, took over the former site. Last year, when their daughter Cara was only two years old, the couple launched a third restaurant, Ardfern<\/a>, next door to The Little Chartroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been a gradual progression,\u201d Hall-McCarron tells Observer in late September. \u201cAll while having a little one. But becoming a mother really did make me take a step back and look at the business as a whole, and in a completely different way. It was more about the bigger picture, rather than living each day as each day came, and we\u2019re looking towards the future more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall-McCarron credits her ability to balance three thriving restaurants and a family to her team, many of whom have been part of the business for years. When The Little Chartroom opened, there were only two people in the kitchen. The number of staff slowly grew as the restaurant took off. Today, more than 40 people work across the three spaces. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some members of the team who have been with us for four or five or six years,\u201d Hall-McCarron shares. \u201cThat in itself is very humbling\u2014to know they still enjoy working for us, and that what we\u2019re doing is what we\u2019ve created ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ardfern is the newest addition to Hall-McCarron\u2019s Scotland restaurant portfolio. AwAyeMedia<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These days, Hall-McCarron spends most of her time in The Little Chartroom, a neighborhood restaurant tucked on a side street in Leith. Its menu is deceptively simple: three starters, three mains and three desserts. The dishes shift by the season, typically every five to six weeks, and the restaurant has a downstairs development and prep kitchen where Hall-McCarron and her staff map out their ideas on an enormous whiteboard. She\u2019s available as a \u201cfresh set of eyes\u201d to look over the menu at Eleanore, but she tends to let the head chef, Hamish McNeill<\/a>, do his own thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some people are quite shocked when they hear that, but it allows me to focus on the other two,\u201d she says. \u201cIt allows him to be able to grow as a head chef. If I were sitting on his shoulder too much, then perhaps he wouldn\u2019t have progressed as far as he has. I don\u2019t feel I need to be there all the time, because I really trust them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall-McCarron recently shifted The Little Chartroom schedule. It was previously open seven days a week, and it\u2019s down to a more manageable five days. (It\u2019s now closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.) She and Shaun, who runs the front of house, try to split their shifts so they\u2019re not working simultaneously. And each week, they take Sundays off together. \u201cWe want to actually have time the three of us, because that\u2019s quite rare,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we\u2019re trying to get better at it. Cara is growing up, so she\u2019ll notice it a lot more, and it\u2019s important that she still gets us around. She definitely knows that we work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a parent and a chef is a challenge\u2014and it\u2019s not something a lot of people in the hospitality world talk about publicly, regardless of gender. When Hall-McCarron worked for celebrated Scottish chef Tom Kitchin<\/a> at The Kitchin<\/a> and Castle Terrace<\/a>, she remembers him having young kids and being strict about taking time off on the weekends. But Hall-McCarron wasn\u2019t thinking about a family yet, so it didn\u2019t occur to her to ask how he made it all work.<\/p>\n

She and Shaun met at Castle Terrace, where she was the head chef and he was the restaurant manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think we had the family chat until way down the line,\u201d she remembers. \u201cThe first chat we had was, \u2018Will we open up a restaurant together?\u2019 Later, we talked about if we could have kids together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cara, now three, is aware of her parents\u2019 jobs\u2014in a good way. \u201cI love the fact that she\u2019s going to grow up in this funny restaurant world, and it will be very different to a lot of the friends that she makes,\u201d Hall-McCarron says. At the moment, she doesn\u2019t see a lot of restaurants prioritizing the balance between family and work life, especially when both parents are in the industry. \u201cI\u2019m trying to strive to make that change and to make it possible for not just women, but for men and couples,\u201d she says. \u201cIt does require a change and a balance, but it\u2019s doable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that change is being flexible and inclusive as the boss. Hall-McCarron is accommodating about the shifts her staff need to work, whether it\u2019s someone keeping daytime hours because they have a small child and want to be home at bedtime, or an employee who doesn\u2019t want to do mornings. \u201cIt\u2019s about being a lot more flexible than when I was growing up through restaurants,\u201d she says. \u201cYou just worked whatever you were told. There was never even that conversation. I want to be a lot more broad-minded about it and see what possibilities there are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becoming a parent hasn\u2019t just expanded Hall-McCarron\u2019s outlook on managing her team. It\u2019s made her more patient, but it\u2019s also come with a feeling of guilt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can deal with a toddler, then you can deal with extreme emotions,\u201d she says. \u201cBut before I had Cara, the restaurant got my complete focus, and then, suddenly, as soon as you have a child, everything is split 50\/50. But it\u2019s not like that every day\u2014sometimes it\u2019s 60\/40, depending on my role or if Shaun has Cara. I have guilt of not being home enough and guilt of not being in the restaurant enough. I think I\u2019ll always have some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Little Chartroom. AwAyeMedia<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Hall-McCarron\u2019s life has evolved, so has The Little Chartroom. She and Shaun initially envisioned a welcoming neighborhood bistro, and that vibe remains. But the dishes have gone from rustic to more intricate over the years. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work involved in the food,\u201d she notes. \u201cI\u2019ve always been about getting in great produce, but we\u2019re really championing that right now. We\u2019re doing a lot more buying than we ever have done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because The Little Chartroom and Ardfern<\/a> are adjacent, Hall-McCarron can order ingredients for both restaurants, including whole animals, which the staff butchers themselves. It\u2019s a technique she learned working for Kitchin, and the only animal she hasn\u2019t yet brought in whole is a cow, simply because it takes up so much storage.<\/p>\n

The Little Chartroom is known for its focus on game during the fall months, including grouse, venison and hare. \u201cWe have such incredible access to these products in Scotland, which is one of the best larders in the world,\u201d Hall-McCarron says. \u201cIt\u2019s a tiny country, but an incredible larder. It\u2019s really great to be able to pass on that skill on to the next generation [of chefs].\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the chef says the restaurant doesn\u2019t necessarily have signature dishes. For several years, she would never repeat a dish. But she eventually realized that the adage \u201cIf it\u2019s not broke, don\u2019t fix it\u201d had some real truth to it. Now, she doesn\u2019t recreate exact dishes, but she might base something on an idea that was a previous success. \u201cThree or four years ago, I did a nectarine tarte tatin with a slice of blue cheese,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThey pair really well. We brought that back each year, but we\u2019ve tweaked it and refined it, and each time it\u2019s a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Little Chartroom highlights Scottish ingredients. AwAyeMedia<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She adds, \u201cOriginally, we had a small menu because our site was tiny and I could not physically store enough food to have such a broad menu. At first, people were very nervous, like, \u2018Oh, is this it?\u2019 But it almost forced them to order something that they wouldn\u2019t normally order, and we got really nice feedback. Now, it allows us to change the menu more often, and there\u2019s a real consistency to the dishes, which is great for our regular guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu highlights Scottish ingredients in an elevated way. When I dined in late August, the chalk stream trout, served with lentils, was a memorable main dish. But it was the bramble tart, augmented with dark chocolate, that felt like a true celebration of one of Scotland\u2019s beloved berries. Hall-McCarron works with local purveyors and farms for meat, fish and shellfish, and she regularly buys mushrooms and sea herbs from a local forager.<\/p>\n

Although The Little Chartroom focuses on Scottish products, it\u2019s not traditionally Scottish food.<\/p>\n

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A malt chocolate ganache tart served at The Little Chartroom. AwAyeMedia<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI do love taking old Scottish dishes and modernizing them, but I wouldn\u2019t say we have this identity of that\u2019s all we do,\u201d Hall-McCarron says. \u201cWe do have haggis on the menu, but not all the time. My background is British and French, so a lot of the food has those techniques and methods. But we\u2019re open to other ingredients. Within my team, I\u2019ve got people who have worked in different countries that I haven\u2019t worked in, and they\u2019re bringing in those influences.\u201d For example, an Asian ingredient, like white soy, can augment the flavors without being too obvious. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very subtle, and adds that balance of umami,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Little Chartroom, along with Eleanore and Ardfern, is part of a growing culinary scene in Edinburgh. Although chefs like Kitchin helped establish the city\u2019s high-end restaurant landscape, Hall-McCarron was inspired to open her own spots because she felt there was still a lack of quality eateries with relaxed environments. \u201cIt\u2019s really changed in the last seven years,\u201d she notes. \u201cEdinburgh\u2019s always been really good for a good selection of high-quality restaurants, but now more than ever, [it\u2019s] really thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her success, Hall-McCarron isn\u2019t planning to open another restaurant\u2014at least not now. She and Shaun run a separate wine importing business alongside two of their employees, and she has plenty on her plate with Cara, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree is the magic number,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are always ideas. There are always ambitions. I would never say that we wouldn\u2019t open something else, but I don\u2019t think I would ever go over having three restaurants.\u201d She wants to maintain her work-life balance, especially as Cara grows up. Plus, the chef knows that her attention can only stretch so far. \u201cAll of our restaurants are in a great place, and I wouldn\u2019t want to dilute that by spreading myself too thin,\u201d she adds. \u201cReally, it\u2019s like I have four children.\u201d<\/p>\n

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