Added on Sunday 22 May 2011

Byres Road - King of Streets?

If there is one thoroughfare which most people automatically regard as the epicentre of the "real West End", with all of its fascinating boutiques, cutting edge cafes ... er, building societies and charity shops ... it's Byres Road. I thought I was imagining things for a moment when I saw a newspaper article gushing about its joys and how it has been entered in some bizarre competition to identify the most wonderful and happening street in the country. You cannot be serious!, to quote a well-known tennis player. Does it really have anything in the way of "star quality" to match some of the other candidates on offer?

Over in Auld Dreichie the local candidate for the prize is Cockburn Street and, being someone who loves Edinburgh in spite of itself - although not at Festival time which is too busy and too expensive - I heartily agree. Cockburn Street was once fairly "dodgy" - my mum tells me that in the war years it had the reputation of being a place where it was not suitable for nice girls to be seen - but these days has a bohemian raffishness, and a visual charm, not easily matched.

Starting from the bottom, you pass, in no particular order, an old-fashioned sweetie shop, the Malt Shovel bar (splendid pub), a smart little wine bar - Ecco Vino, run by Glasgow's Baby Grand Group - a Mexican restaurant, shops selling what I can only describe as Bondage Gear, a shop selling Buddhist bric-a-brac, then on your left a Victorian arcade linking the street with North Bridge, and then find yourself wondering whether to have a pint in the incredibly rootsy and fun Scotsman Lounge.

This pub has one of the most amazing jukeboxes on the planet, with something for every bizarre retro taste, and in a city which is supposedly devoid of banter is (a bit like The Royal Oak in Infirmary Street, only more so) a great place in which to strike of odd, transient friendships with fellow exuberants of all shapes, sizes and proclivities.

Cockburn Street is overlooked by the best pub window seat (with the best view) in all Scotia. This - don't all rush at once - is in the rear lounge area of Albanach pub in the High Street, a wonderful if pricy and tourist-saturated bar with a stunning decor scheme devised by the West End's own Ranald McCall. Check the curtains! They're from another West End enterprise, Timrous Beasties. Anyway ... this window commands an eyrie-like view of Cockburn Street, allowing diners to survey at leisure the eclectic comings and goings with Olympian detachment, and is much in demand by those in the know - it's so popular I doubt it can be booked.

Against this, what does our own Byres Road have to offer? It's a simple fact that roaring high rents make it extremely difficult for people to make a crust here, which explains the not unwelcome plethora of charity shops - of which my favourite is the Oxfam bookshop, now one of the few places in the city where you can buy books at all.

Byres Road gets off to a fine start at the Great Western Road end with Oran Mor, which has definitely pushed its appeal sky-high, Bo-Bar and one of only four Waitrose branches in Scotland (the others are in Morningside and Comely Bank in the twee-est parts of Edinburgh; and the giant new flagship branch in Newton Mearns).

There's Heart Buchanan cafe-deli, Papyrus gift shop, then an optional sharp left into Vinicombe Street to savour the rival charms of Booly Mardis and Hillhead Book Club (ie, The Salon), the wonderful emporium of low-price music and film which is Fopp, more cafes - some on sites whose owners seem to change with the weather; others which are lasting the pace - then the relaunched Curlers Rest bar, whose abrupt lurch towards respectability appears to be working well, and of course (on the junction with Highburgh Road and University Avenue) iconic Tennent's Bar.

This pub and its clientele have so far fought a successful battle against gentrification and expensive brand-formulated boredom, and it's really one of the last redoubts of what many would call the Real Pub, and is obligingly full of Real Characters ... and real ale.

Over the road and heading for Partick Cross we have Patisserie Francaises, the estimable Blind Pig (which rescued the defunct Whistler's Mother site and appears to be thriving), Peckham's, the excellent Absolutely 161 cafe across the road, then - at the bottom of the road - a forest of For Lease signs relieved only by the entrenepeurial Chocolate Emporium, which deserves success; the bright n' breezy Tony Macaroni Italian restaurant, Two Figs and Pakistani Cafe.

So there's plenty going on in the retail sense, but if you subtract the bars, cafes, restaurants, delis and other specialist food shops you'd have to concede Byres Road is really pretty humdrum - and it's far from being the most exciting pubs strip in country.

At weekend evenings it becomes brash and boisterous as out-of-towners flock to the fleshpots of Ashton Lane, and on busy weekdays the car pollution is so bad the area was designated an area in need of traffic control some years ago. It's indispensable, has a lot going for it, and has preserved some sort of character despite all the changes thrown at it down the years - it could, for example, have become gentrified and spoiled like once-fascinating Stockbridge in Edinburgh (now a chintzy suburb for merchant bankers and their ilk) - but I cannot for the life of me see why it deserves the honour of being the "best" of anything, except maybe in the sense that it's the best way of connecting to other parts of the West End.

It's a pity Glasgow doesn't do "planning" in any useful way, or by now it really would be the fabled Covent Garden of Glasgow newspaper mythology and would be substantially a pedestrian area with limited access for service, emergency and disabled use vehicles - but that won't happen and we'll have the typical "Italian car jam" scenario to look forward to on an increasingly frequent basis. Maybe when it comes down to it the best thing of all about Byres Road is the subway, which gives access in minutes to the city centre or points south. How very Byres Road, too that local artist-author Alasdair Gray's latest mural work will be in the subway, possibly alerting visitors to the fact they've arrived at Bohemian Central in a way even more alluring than the giant pub ads for G1 venues.

Botanic Cafe

Much to my surprise the city council has decided to enter the cut-throat world of non-licensed food n' drink retail by launching a tea-room venture in the Botanic Gardens, with a 100-seat "Viennese style" (says the Evening Times) salon housed in the former visitors centre beside the hothouses.

I can't see it causing much offence, with its promise of landscaped gardens and its implicit brand proposition of refined gentility - but, it being the city council, I can't see it working either. I agree with the Prominent West Ender (not a publican) who opined that while it may do a turn in the couple of weeks of sunshine we get in a typical year it will hardly be packing them in during the ten month rainy season, particularly as there will be no drink on offer.

Glasgow is so paranoid about drink that for years it has defiantly resisted every attempt to open what could have been excellent licensed facilities in parks, of the sort you see in so many continental cities.

However we're not a continental city, and are in fact a brutish race of habitual inebriates to whom the very suggestion of alcohol is - as with the beloved Father Jack - incitement to Dionysian debauch on a scarcely imaginable scale.

So the council appears to have aimed its pitch squarely at the Miss Marple market. In what may turn out to be a brilliant evocation of the fabled Miss Cranston's Tearoom of yore it will presumably serve Earl Grey and a wee scone by way of a pleasant intermezzo to botanical ramblings amid the nasturtiums and begonias.

Of course this is the self-same council that was very enthusiastic about getting an entrepreneur to open a considerable nightclub operation in the subterranean former railway station beneath the Botanics - but that was, er, different.

I can see several problems with this tearoom, apart from the lack of retail margin the council would have derived from the Demon Drink. There's nothing to stop people eating their own food in the park at a fraction of the price it's likely to be sold at in the tea-room, and also there are innumerable places within five minutes' walk where conceivably better fare might be obtained.

It may do very well on a sunny weekend, but what about a wet Monday. In January? How many of these 100 seats are likely to be occupied then, and how much tea (etc) will the enterprise have to shift to make a profit?

Needless to say, I'll be happy to eat my words - and a wee scone and jam - when the venture turns out to be a howling success against all the odds.

However I'd be more impressed if there was some major scheme afoot to finally refurbish the Kelvingrove Bandstand, a derelict disgrace, which some months ago was reportedly set to be saved by a deal with the Glasgow Buildings Preservation Trust.

It would have made a fantastic cafe and visitor centre for Kelvingrove, but would have to be run by an independent operator to work well - and such an operator would want to serve wine with meals, which appears to be an insuperable obstacle in these super-sensitive times.

Meanwhile I wonder if anybody else is old enough to remember the Silver Slipper Cafe of ancestral memory? It was a few yards up from the Great Western Road entrance of the Botanics and acted as an unofficial entrance to the park, too.

All I can remember about it is getting an ice cream there on a regular basis - I must have been about seven years old.

Festival Time

It's that time of year again and festival time has arrived in the West End. This week we kick off with Folk, Blues and Beyond, acoustic music festival, helping to 'Keep Partick Weird' in conjunction with Partick Folk Festival.

It's also the time when the Glasgow newspapers traditionally show us a photograph of mobs of people surging about in carnival gear - which the wider public then assume is the actual West End Festival rather than just the opening jamboree.

The events programme guide is particularly good this year, laying out in nice and easy-to-follow detail all of the many treats in store, which range from Fete de la Musique in Ashton Lane to an exposition of the history behind the architecturally famous Sixty Six Steps by assistant city archivist and Alexander "Greek" Thomson Society member Roger Guthrie ... and a whole lot more in between.

As ever the area's multifarious bars and restaurants will nearly all be trying to do something special at some point over the fortnight starting on June 3, from beers themed to famous films at The Three Judges to specialist gin and rum-tasting evenings at Bar Brel (also one of the more important music venues). Oran Mor comes into its own at this time of year, and is in some senses the unofficial headquarters of all Festival Spirit (also offering some of the most notable shows), and this year Cottiers will be in its element with the reopening of its theatre.

It would be very straightforward to rattle of a few thousand words about all the things you could potentially enjoy once the dust has settled on the opening day parade and party on June 4, but it's much easier just to thumb through a programme or (if, like me, you lent yours to somebody) just download a pdf of the programme.

Festival venues to look out for are Oran Mor, obviously, Brel, Dram (former Uisge Beatha), Cottiers, Lismore, while taking in more recent arrivals I'd also suggest you'll find a Fringe atmos in full swing at places including Pakistani Cafe, Wise Monkey, Blind Pig and the revamped Stravaigin in Gibson Street. Great events to look forward to include the Gibson Street party on Sunday June 12, "whatever the weather" - although if it's a sunny day it will be at least five times more enjoyable.

Then there's Lobey Dosser Day on Saturday, June 18, a now well-established celebration of the life and times of cartoonist Bud Neill - which naturally enough starts at the statue of Lobey on Woodlands Road and ends in Dram for a wee libation later on.

The skirl of the pipes will be heard, meanwhile, at the Islay Inn on Sunday June 5 (from 8pm), with music from Lorne MacDougall and friends showcasing numbers from his new album Hello World. It's a warm-up for Piping Live! 2011, from August 8 to 14 - and promises to be one very different pub music gig. And some of the city's finest musical talent of the last 30 years will be paying tribute to the brilliant West End restaurateur Allan Mawn, who tragically died suddenly in January this year - and who is to be remembered in the way he would have liked best, with wine and song. It's on Friday, June 17 from 7.30pm till late.

All of the ticket proceeds go to the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and British Heart Foundation charities, and tickets - limited to 100 - are available priced £7.50 from Velvet Elvis and The Criterion on Dumbarton Road (Thornwood), tel. 0141 339 0688.

Silk Road Surprise

The immediate success of Persia restaurant at the foot of Cecil Street on Great Western Road may just have persuaded the people behind a former Near Eastern rugs shop a little farther along the road - across the steps from Belle pub - that the time really is right for a Mediterranean cafe and deli - and the rather spacious premises, already looking fairly impressive, were being kitted out when I passed.

It's a cuisine which is by no means new to Glasgow, and of course Sheherezade deli in Bank Street has been purveying its delightful olives, baba ganous, Turkish delight and baklava there for many years - but this promises to be a welcome addition to an increasingly colourful scene. Imaginative name, too. It's to be called Saladin's Silk Road Diner and Deli, which sounds a little like the sort of place long distance camel-drivers might drop in to for a bite during a break from their caravan trek from Samarkand, or somewhere similarly exotic.

Saladin, or Salah-ad-Din, was of course the chap who crossed scimitars with Richard the Lionheart in days of yore, and were he alive today might be surprised - but also pleased - to find a Glasgow cafe named in his honour. Meanwhile it could be we'll again have the pleasure of being able to buy fresh Persian flatbread, as previously available at an earlier venture called The Blue Nile in the same area. Much more on the dining and deli fare on offer at this place once it's open and has got into its stride.

Viva Mexico

In another international twist, Mexican takeaway Taco Mazama (already established in town) has suddenly popped up at the premises formerly occupied by I Heart Candy beside Gregg's in the middle of Byres Road - a lunchtime fast food hot spot.

It seemed to be refitted and open in about two days, and last time I passed it it was jammed with customers ordering large tortilla wraps, fajitas and all the other Mexican classics. At last the young folks have something suitable to drink with their imported Mexican beer.

The prices seem reasonable, given the quantities which seem to be involved, and it will be interesting to see if Taco can muscle in on a local takeaway scene which is currently dominated by kebab shops and chip shops.

Dram Good Laugh

The Dram on Woodlands Road (beautiful interior design job, by the way) has established itself as "a venue" from the very start, and has already launched a successful series of comedy nights. This will be its first Festival and folk nights will also be one of the main attractions on offer.

Manager Stephen Little tells us: "Since relaunching last autumn, we've built up a bit of a following with our comedy nights but we're looking to make them even bigger and better. Entry is free and we think it will be the perfect way to get the weekend started early"

Dram, formerly known as Uisge Beatha, underwent a major half million pound refurbishment in the December 2010 to strip the bar back to its roots giving it "an urban yet traditional feel" with comfy booths, exposed brick wall, church pews, stag head, slate floor and leather bar creating a quirky yet homely feel.

It's certainly on my short list of best West End pub interior - and as with the site's previous incarnations divides conveniently into separate but linked areas, all thoroughly attractive.

There's also a range of traditional Scottish dishes all with a contemporary twist at fairly reasonable prices - haggis and jalapeno anyone?

Carnivore's Delight

Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor's Byres Road restaurant Bo'Vine, on Byres Road, has launched a new summer menu with a selection of light bites and fresh salads reckoned perfectly suited to dining in warmer weather - although, he noted bitterly, they're probably just as acceptable in the grim November weather of the pathetic excuse we've been given for the allegedly Merrie Month of May.

The menu boasts a range of "sophisticated starters, sumptuous mains and light desserts", as well as offering a selection of meats and fish from the restaurant's Grill.

Meanwhile, Bo'Vine's Salad Garden has introduced a new summer salad selection including seared mackerel nicoise and a roasted beetroot, shaved fennel and sesame seed salad.

Seasonal starters include beetroot cured salmon, pink grapefruit and watercress, Scottish rock oysters with lemon and shallot vinegar; and carpaccio of Perthshire venison, pine nuts and parmesan served with Bo'Vine's own sloe gin shot.

To follow, Bo'Vine offers main meals such as Scrabster-landed pollock with confit tomato, herb crust and German style warm potato salad and vegetarian options including strozzapreti pasta with lemon, caper and sun-dried tomato.

Diners looking for something more substantial on cooler days can still take advantage of menu favourites including Stornoway black pudding, fillet of Shetland salmon and Aberdeen Angus beef - normally the sort of fare you'd pack away in December but, yes, perfectly acceptable for May in Scotland.

Over the River

Another venue with a new menu led by Aberdeen Angus beef is the 1901 bar and grill on Pollokshaws Road on the south side, which has been developing a reputation for well above average pub food for some years - and which is now indistinguishable from a good restaurant, although it arguably has more atmos and charm than some.

I was in there with a colleague on a Monday or Tuesday lunchtime in March or April a year or two ago and was surprised to find it mobbed with diners. Clearly it's the place to go for the immediate local market, but the area itself is becoming increasingly interesting - not least in the restaurant sense - and since the bar has also recently gained Cask Marque accreditation for cask ale it's very definitely on the map for curious West Enders eager to find some variety in other parts of their city.

The 1901 grill now features fresh cuts of prime 28 day matured Aberdeen Angus beef, "seasoned and char-grilled for real flavour."

Cuts include: 8oz rib eye, dry aged on the bone to produce exceptional taste and tenderness; 8oz sirloin, cut is from the centre section of the short loin which consistently produces great flavour and texture; 14oz T-bone, sirloin and fillet matured on the bone; 8oz fillet, "the most tender cut with little marbling and trimmed of fat and Chateaubriand, a particular thick cut from the tenderloin".

Grill specialities include: braised lamb shank on a spring onion mash with a rosemary and red wine jus; marinated free range chicken breast in Cajun spices served on crisp house salad; fresh sea bass fillets pan fried with a mango, lime, coriander and sun dried tomato salsa; marinated Barberry duck breast with honey, soy sauce, ginger and spring onion glaze and the 1901 roast of the day served with all the trimmings.

The new 1901 grill menu also features a selection of skewers, pasta, pizza and burger dishes - many of which can also be found on its new bar menu.

There's a a two course express lunch from Monday to Friday from noon till 2.30pm for only #8.95 or a two course early evening menu from Monday to Thursday from 5pm till 7pm for the same price.

A breakfast menu, including a full Scottish served with toast and coffee or fruit juice, is available till 2pm.

Word to the Wise

Music bar The Wise Monkey at Kelvinbridge cheekily informs us it has the best value lunch for freshly-made food anywhere in the West End - a remarkable claim, given the incredible deals you find in some of the area's best places these days, but well worth putting to the test.

It has launched a two mains for £10 lunchtime deal, which is nevertheless on offer right through till 7.30pm.

A frozen food free zone (right down to the hand-cut chips), The Wise Monkey promises that it uses only the finest of fresh ingredients, and that all dishes are made to order from scratch.

Manager Graeme Hosie said: "The Wise Monkey is all about the music and the great grub, and with our 'Two Mains for £10' deal we're serving up generous portions of superior quality pub grub cooked fresh to order to give diners the best value freshly prepared meals available in Glasgow."

Mains at The Wise Monkey include: steak and 'philly cheese open sandwich; Monkey Club toasted triple decker sandwich; "beer battered-to-death fish and chip"; Aberdeen Angus and Scottish ale pie; hot and spicy chilli-con-carne; lasagne al forno; vegetarian lasagne; chicken and chorizo penne pasta; veggie pasta of the day and a range of gourmet burgers and stone baked pizzas.

Live music five nights a week and a broad selection of cask ales (I think I spotted Kelburn last time I was in) are among the other attractions.

Charity Cocktails

Byres Road's New York-inspired 'speakeasy' bar, The Intoxicating Tearooms at The Blind Pig, recently hosted an exclusive event for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, with all the profits from a cocktail night going to the fund.

Head cocktail guru Scott Stevens hosted an interactive cocktail masterclass as part of the Tea Party, teaching how to create the concoctions on offer while also explaining the history behind prohibition and speak easies.

Brad Stevens, owner of The Blind Pig, said: "Teatime Martinis herald the rebirth of cocktail hour and to show our support for Maggie's Cancer Care Centres we thought we'd raise money for the charity by doing something to celebrate this with all the profits going to them."

Rook and Chips?

Rook is back on the menu at Stravaigin and The Ubiquitous Chip, following what seems to have been an early run of success at Stravaigin a couple of years ago - although there's no mention as yet of another experiment, squirrel, becoming a regular feature at the moment.

We're told the restaurants will be using the bird, a member of crow family, in a range of rook specials including rook pudding, rook Masala and rook leg ravioli. The observant among you will have noticed a common theme developing there. We're also told that due to the short rook season (I wasn't previously aware there was such a thing as a rook season, but there you go) diners will need to be quick.

Rook can only be culled during a short window as a part of a pest control programme on farms. Numbers are limited and unpredictable with the restaurant only using birds that would have been culled anyway.

In fact the rook specials are expected to last only until around June 3. Rooks were introduced onto the menu at Stravaigin, on Gibson Street, in 2009. The dishes proved so popular they were quickly taken across town to sister restaurant The Ubiquitous Chip, in Ashton Lane.

Rook dining has become an annual event at the two restaurants, and since 2009 more than 100 diners have tried a rook dish, with demand overtaking supply. Colin Clydesdale, owner of Stravaigin and the Ubiquitous Chip said: "The taste of rook can be compared to pigeon - it is very lean and tender meat. People are often surprised by how delicious it is but it was a very common food during the Victorian period and wartime rationing.

"There is a trend in the culinary world to revisit unfashionable cuts of meat and to use previously discarded species of animals and fish. The rooks we use would have been discarded or left in the field. It's a shame to waste a great tasting bird."

He added: "Top to tail dining has been part of all our restaurants since the beginning. Diners are always interested in overlooked dishes and old techniques used in a new way."

Each restaurant will use the bird in a slightly different way. The Ubiquitous Chip will focus on using the rook flavour "undressed" while Stravaigin will be combining rook with cuisine and techniques from across the world. Worth getting in a flap about? Well, you've got to admit it's different ... .