Roy Beers: West End Pub Guide

Roy Beers: West End Pub Guide - September, 2003

Arisaig - New West End Restaurant

No sooner had I told you that highly-regarded Merchant City restaurant Arisaig was about to launch a new venture of the same name in Byres Road than - jings and crivvens! - up it popped on the site of what had been The Living Room.

I know some trade operators are remarkably quick off the mark - Bar Milano appeared in a matter of weeks - but the overnight transformation from young adult "style bar" to completely Caledonian concept bar and restaurant seemed almost instantaneous.

The reason for the apparent speed turns out to be very simple - entrepreneur Robert Chalmers owned the Living Room as well as Arisaig in Candleriggs, so was able to carry out the refurbishment without any buying or selling of property. He had been meditating an expansion of his successful city centre restaurant for some time, and simultaneously had decided the Living Room bar - which had outlived the average "style bar" incarnation by at least two years - was in need of a new look. It was a bold decision to change an established venue into something quite new, and without any fuss or advanced publicity.

I passed the new venue about a week ago, around 9pm, and it was both busy and very inviting, with the distinctive Arisaig logo over the door picked out in glowing blue. Civilised folks of all adult ages were looking very cosy and pleased with themselves over platters of delicious-looking food - and in fact "cosy informality" is how Arisaig in town describes its general approach to "ambience."

Since then I've met both the owner, his general manager, and also Merchant City chef Stephen Bonomi - who is passionate about Scottish cuisine and who reckons the national fare tends to get somewhat played down in the general rush to embrace world cuisine, contemporary southern European, and all the rest.

He' 's conscious, too, that "Scottish" can often translate into somewhat overblown and "touristy" food, of the sort you might encounter in a posh Edinburgh hotel catering for well-heeled foreign visitors - you know the sort of thing, with a cabaret of Highland dancers, bagpipes and Burns renditions thrown in. Glayva sauce on everything that moves.

That's not to say that kitsch-Scottish is necessarily all bad - maybe better to see a White Heather Club ceilidh than none at all - but beyond those circles, and some extremely expensive if excellent country house restaurants, it's arguably easy to admit (as Egon Ronay observes) that "Scotland does not realise it has a cuisine." If you were heading out for a special meal some evening how far up your choices list would "very Scottish" be? You might want something suitably swanky (for a graduation, engagement, whatever) along the lines of Rogano or Zinc or Amaryllis; or you might want first class French cuisine, or Italian ... but Scottish? That's mince and potatoes, isn't it? Or a big slab of meat in that Glayva sauce (or it could be The Wallace Liqueur sauce or indeed Drambuie sauce ? I'm not on a retainer from a drinks company or anything).

For about a year Arisaig in Candleriggs has been comprehensively disproving the notion that "real" Scottish cuisine is limited, or bland, or stodgy, and is now bringing its challenging and exciting Caledonian chic to the West End - and in a distinctly West Endy sort of way.

Exactly as was the case with Bar Milano when it opened recently, the Byres Road outlet trades under a public house licence, and the layout of the place means it can offer both a bar (which will flag up the malt version of the national drink) and the adjoining restaurant. The scale of operations is different from the original Arisaig, so the menu won't be an identikit of the Candleriggs offer - though it's important to stress Mr Chalmers doesn't in any case want a string of restaurants which offer formulaic and identical meals.

Without going into exhaustive detail it's maybe enough to say each venue will play to its own particular strengths and aim to appeal to its own particular audience.

As usual I'll skip any detailed appraisal of the cuisine, which must inevitably figure in an Eating Out piece on a future occasion, but the Arisaig approach (which takes as its starting point superlative local Scottish regional produce) has been winning plaudits on many fronts. As just one example it has received a Vegetarian Society nomination, which particularly pleases Stephen Bonomi - if only because it proves you can do interesting things with Scottish vegetarian produce ("just think of the seaweed!"). Although, Scotch beef, and lamb, and seafood in all its fabulous variety, are naturally main offers for many customers.
Again you'll have to study the Byres Road menu for its own offer, but no doubt it will be equivalent in excellence.

Having spoken to the people concerned I am again convinced that we have a highly significant new arrival in what's fast becoming the most "happening" drinking and dining enclave of the West End - that is, Partick Cross and environs.

A few years ago that would have been a ridiculous suggestion, but not any more. Quite apart from the cask ale and bonhomie in the recently refurbished Three Judges pub there's:

Gordon Yuill & Co West End (one of Glasgow's most famous restaurant names)
Egon Ronay-rated La Riveria
Mario Romano's splendid restaurant with attached bar, Bar Milano
Two Fat Ladies
Colin Beattie's Arisaig-empathetic pub The Lismore
and for added spice the Ichi-ban Japanese restaurant

- apologies if I've missed anyone out - and all this in an area (I shouldn't keep going on about this) which The Scotsman infamously claimed was a hole-in -the-wall you would drive past in seconds, and where the only potentially customers would be impoverished students. Instead what has been steadily happening over the last few years has been the development of a Byres Road - Partick counterpoise to the well-developed attractions of Ashton Lane (bless it).

The arrival of Arisaig provides still more choice and variety at the quality end of the market, and in an engagingly West Highland-Scottish way.

Mr Chalmer plans yet more Arisaigs, but in "rolling out the brand" will not aim to have an Arisaig in every town - he reckons a sizeable handful would be about right. Again they won't be identical outlets with identical menus, and will inevitably be in different-sized buildings and widely differing locations - for example he'd like to open one in Edinburgh's atmospheric, historic and bohemian Old Town (arguably the only place in Scotland on a par for general "atmos" with the glorious West End). Best advice - try soon and book early: Arisaig in town is regularly booked out and the Byres Road restaurant is obviously smaller, and therefore even more likely to have a full house, particularly from Thursdays. A lady colleague of mine who has tried Arisaig in town (and raved about it), urges: "try the deep fried beetroot - it's great."

Who ever imagined Scottish food could be such fun?

Sunday, 29th September, 2003.

The Nicholson committee's report on liquor licensing

The big news in Scottish Licensed Trade News these days is the Nicholson committee's report on liquor licensing - a 90 page - recommendation document which is certain to revolutionise the way we use everything from bars and restaurants to off-sales and supermarkets. Headed by Sheriff Principal Gordon Nicholson QC it's the modern-day equivalent of the Clayson Committee's report in the 1970's - which in its own time led to a radical approach to the way licensed premises are managed.

A special hello, here, for specialist licensing lawyer Jack Cummins, who admits to having read this column - and who was actually on the committee. Most people I've spoken to think the report is pretty good, and will bring things up to date while recognising social criteria - but of course exactly what becomes law is down to the Scottish Parliament and the input from local MSPs.

Thirty years down the line from Clayson (which famously proved that you can open pubs after 10pm without provoking civil disorder) there's been an increasing realisation that the world has moved on, and the current Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 is reckoned to be basically sound but top-heavy and antiquated. Under present rules, for example, there are seven different types of drink licence (eg, hotel, refreshment, public house entertainment), and it has become increasingly difficult for modern businesses - which need operational flexibility to function profitably - to shoehorn their trading formats into tight and often illogical criteria.

So what's all this got to do with the vibrant licensed trade scene in the West End?

Well, to put it bluntly, everything. You may have read some coverage in the papers along the lines of "24 hour drinking" and the likelihood that pubs will be open all nght.

In fact this simply won't happen. Instead there will be no pre-set opening and closing times applicable to all venues, and what you will have is a pub, restaurant, whatever, running to its own individual business plan - a plan which will have to be approved by the licensing board (and which can be opposed, objected to, amended etc). And to replace those seven different types of licence there will be just two - a premises licence and a personal licence held by a licensee.

This will abolish the current tangle of rules which mean that in some places you have to sit down at a table and order food before you can order a drink. It's not that licensees will be able to do anything they like - but rather anything that's contained in their business plan.

Glasgow's licensing board chairman Gordon Macdiarmid, generally reckoned to have a "liberal" approach to licences, reckons certain areas of the city will have an inbuilt logic for opening late, and highlights Ashton Lane as a good example of an area that can function late without any problems. Chief Superintendent Louis Munn, in charge of the city centre and West End, says the problems caused by thousands of people leaving pubs at closing time, followed by a second wave leaving nightclubs a few hours later, can be addressed by having venues open and shut at different times - the police won't, then, have to supervise what amounts to an inebriated football crowd milling about an area where there's insufficient transport to clear the streets in a reasonable time. He stresses, though, that the infrastructure has to be there for this new approach to work - so there should be more late buses, sufficient taxis, etc.

Family Friendly Licensed Premises

What else? Well at the moment there are relatively few places which admit children, and when they do it's often under strict criteria and only during certain hours and in certain places - meaning a family seldom feels exactly welcome in a pub or restaurant.

This will be swept away, in favour of a presupposition that children should be admitted to licensed premises, though again there will naturally be conditions attached. This week I spoke to West of Scotland List MSP Stewart Maxwell, who is launching a private member Bill in the Scottish Parliament to ban smoking in venues which serve food, and I asked him whether a condition for admitting children should be a total smoking ban - and, unsurprisingly, he agreed (but more on smoking another time).

There will also be new controls on what the trade calls "deep discounting" and others call "irresponsible promotions" - meaning the sort of place which offers very cheap drink - the 50p vodka, for example - will be under the microscope as never before.

Changing Scene in the West End

Photo: Botanics from tower. The whole exercise is now out for a four month consultation, and could be law within 18 months - by which time I think the trade scene in the West End will already be hugely different from what we have today. Major new venues will have opened - for example Skerryvore and the Grosvenor Cinema - and Glasgow Harbour will effectively have added several thousand presumably prosperous new residents to the West End - Partick. So we are in for a period of dramatic change, and for people in Partick or Hillhead the challenge will be to maintain local character and "ambience" in the face of a rapidly-evolving new social scene. Glasgow Harbour boasts that the West End will become Glasgow's "Greenwich Village" - a playground for the riverine community in the newbuilds along the river - but has anybody asked West End residents what they want? A frequent complaint in Leith is that it has been "yuppified" with scant regard for local people or their traditional way of life (a trend exacerbated by rocketing property prices), and I predict the emergence of strong local "resistance forces" to oppose the more inconsiderate plans.

However my main point in this ramble is this: the demographic changes are happening at the same time as the (fiendishly complicated) licensing changes, and there is clearly a great deal to discuss. Believe the facile accounts of what is happening in the newspapers and you could wake up one day to find your world changed in very great measure. You will be told you had the chance to contribute your tuppence-worth and that it is all "sorted', and it will be too late to do very much to alter it.

The "New" West-End

I also predict (regular Nostredamus that I am) that local entrepreneurs and trade operators will play a vital role in shaping the "new" West End. Why? Well because they run businesses which have to make money, and are aiming for regular, "good" custom in an area where they want to exist as part of the accepted social fabric.

Will this be true of Glasgow Harbour? Large corporate chain outlets aren't automatically bad for an area, but against the casual assumption that all this newbuild will attract quality outlets, eclectic restaurants, etc, is the stark reality that comparable projects have in the past tended to attract the bland and the merely big.

What's been happening in the West End this summer?

Photo: Booly Mardy pub. Which brings me, finally, to what's actually been happening in the West End this summer. In the space of a few months we've seen the launch of the former Chandrighar restaurant in Vinicombe Street as Bloody Mary's; the skeleton if a major new licensed restaurant facility sprout from the ruins in Church Street; and the major newbuild site beside the Three Judges at Partick Cross acquiring an 'under offer' sign. It's to be a pub on the ground floor, restaurant on the first floor - new owner still to be announced. We've seen The Cook's Room of Giffnock move into what had been Nairn's Restaurant (to excellent reviews) and - still to be confirmed - I've heard the highly-rated Merchant City restaurant Arisaig (which specialises in high quality Scottish food) has plans to expand into Byres Road. Skerryvore is powering ahead. Our photographer Gavin was given a wee tour by Colin Beattie, recently, and was clearly impressed by what he saw. "It's really going to be quite something" Gavin informed me. "Yes, that's what I've been saying for a year" I told him. The plan is to open on February 14 next year - for a wedding function organised for Colin's daughter.

Makeover at the Three Judges

Back at the Three Judges there's been a major "makeover", which meant a three-week closure and a healthy dose of fear for all the regulars This is because you never know what a refurbishment is going to be like until it's finished. Was yuppification to be the order of the day? Puce walls and wrought iron work? Chilled Chablis and ciabatta? No, it's exactly the same pub as before, with significant but inoffensive cosmetic changes. Back on the freshly-painted walls have gone all the framed certificates from the Campaign for Real Ale and Scottish Licensed Trade News, certifying that this place really is in a league of its own. One lady customer there observed that her table was "coggly", which cheered me still farther - could be it was even deliberately made to preserve that feel of rustic simplicity? The big thing that hasn't changed at all is the beer. Apart from all the normal standard offers there is a wide selection of German and Belgian bottled beers - Weihanstephaner, Erdinger Weisse, for example - and, most importantly, of cask ales served in perfect condition.

Cask Ales

There was a brief experiment in listing the cask ales on a board running overhead along the full length of the bar, but this just didn't work - customers had to analyse that whole length of the bar to see what beers were on offer. So the old blackboard has gone up underneath the telly where it belongs. Most recently the offer included Dark Island from the Orkney Brewery - in my humble opinion a simply fabulous beer - and the sessionable ale Bitter and Twisted from the Harviestoun Brewery, a beer which recently received the ultimate cask beer accolade from CAMRA for the whole of Britain. If you want the whole script on this magnificent achievement check out the CAMRA website entry on
http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowDoc&DocID=5253

Also there were both Maverick and Somerled from Fyne Ales of Argyll and some splendid beer from the magnificent Durham Brewery (my personal favourite brewery of all time, and patriotism notwithstanding).

Booly Mardy's?

I mentioned "Bloody Mary's" but if you passed it recently you may have noticed it is now "Booly Mardi's", or something similar - and I hear further and maybe even weekly changes along the same lines may follow. This is because of a spat with the G1 Group, owners of Gong and the Grosvenor Cinema project, which has its own bloody mary venture on the south side - and which reckons it has exclusive use of the name. My colleague Scott Wright, who knows everything there is to know about Glasgow's smart bar scene (we don't call them "style bars" anymore - it's so "90's") has been in and was well impressed. Cribbing freely from his opus in Scottish Licensed Trade News I find the venue has recruited "some of Scotland's best young bartenders" with the aim of devising a cocktail spot and bistro second to none.

"Hopefully we're adding a touch of glamour to that side of Byres Road" said co-owner Alan Tomkins - and any time I've passed I've reflected he's probably right. Downright continental, it is, with smart but casual folks relaxing at the outdoor tables. Drinks are founded on "premiu" brands like Tanqueray Gin, Johnny Walker Blue Label whisky and Planters Single Barrel bourbon. Decor is "minimalist" but not as sparse as that sounds.

Wintersgills

Meanwhile in an area of the West End you seldom hear much about - Great Western Road heading for St Georges Cross (or Kelvinbridge the other way) one of the most distinctive trad bars in the area has been given a major refurb by new owners Belhaven. Belhaven is a steadily-expanding pub company which also has a major beer wing, headed by flagship product Belhaven Best.

At Wintersgills it has taken a bar founded in 1936 (on the site of a still earlier-trading Victorian bar) and brought it thoroughly up to date - but, crucially, without spoiling one single detail of the original format. It is an art deco masterpiece from the same era and approach to quality architecture and design as the legendary Rogano, and the facade alone is quite remarkable. There are framed photographs on the wall recalling earlier days, and some history notes too - for example we learn that in the 30's ladies were able to visit if accompanied by a male companion. Besides the main bar, typically full of blokes of all ages watching big screen sport, there's a tastefully-refurbed art deco lounge bar too. Altogether a nice piece of work, and a must-see for anyone who fancies they know anything about West End history.

The oscars of the Trade

I can't round off this column without a hefty plug for the Scottish Licensed Trade News Awards - "the Oscars for the trade" - which sees around 600 movers and shakers gather in Glasgow's Hilton Hotel in October for a BAFTA-style event, hosted by a celeb, and a great deal of exuberance as the honours for best independent pub caterer, best malt whisky bar, etc, etc, are read out. West End venues have done very well before, and naturally I'm hoping I'll be able to write about another major local success in October (as I've mentioned before, Colin Beattie, co-owner of the Skerryvore project, and owner of The Lismore in Partick, was a double award winner a few years ago: his manager Stephen McBride was licensee of the year). Judging is in full swing, which means a great deal of being driven about Scotland for our editor and the rest of the judging team, and I'm told this year's crop is particularly impressive.

But of course we all have our own personal and permanent award winners, and I'm off to one for a pint right now - it's Saturday, after all.