An Edinburgh restaurant welcomed Prince Albert of Monaco last night during Cop26.
The cosy Italian restaurant Divino Enoteca, based at Merchant Street, has been becoming something of a hotspot for celebrity spotting in recent times but they were stunned last week when they were contacted by a local hotel.
The Balmoral on Princes Street got in touch with the joint-owner Leandro Crolla and made the booking for Prince Albert.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Leandro said: “We have got a good relationship with The Balmoral so they contacted us last week, and they obviously felt we were a restaurant they could trust.
“It was a table for six, including his two children, and all his security guards but they had the restaurant to themselves and ate in a private room.
“There were eight of the security team and the party arrived around 9 o’clock and we looked after them from there before he left around 10:30pm.
We didn’t want to ask for any photos and intrude on them and just let them have space to relax.”
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Leandro and his brother and co-owner Alberto have created a homely comfortable setting at their restaurant and say celebrities seem to enjoy the private location.
Prince Albert was just the latest A-lister to eat there and Leandro says they regularly see such famous faces.
He continued: “We have had JK Rowling in before, Sadiq Khan, Eddy Izzard and in fact we had a Scotland football player in here eating last night too so people seem to trust us, but I’d say JK Rowling has been the biggest one yet.”
Although they left the party to dine alone in comfort Leandro did manage to enjoy some chat with the Prince.
And he even managed to give him a good old fashioned Scottish carry out as he was leaving!
He quipped: “He enjoyed his meal and said he would come back again in a few days time. He left with a bottle of wine as well that he said he wanted to give to one of his friends at Cop 26!”
