Added on Monday 30 Jul 2012

If someone were to invite you to a meal at "an Italian bistro", what sort of place would you expect to find?

Possibly some cosy little cellar diner-cafe with check plastic tablecloths, and those empty Chianti bottles in raffia holders, used as candles and smothered in candlewax - and of course wholesome rustic Italian family kitchen "standards" served with carafes of house wine.

There would be squeaky chairs, an excitable chef audibly banging pots in the kitchen, and some scratchy but poignant Neapolitan melodies playing on the antique sound system - it would be paradise, perhaps, in its own idiosyncratic way.

However that is emphatically not what is on offer at curiously-named The Italian Bistro beside the Pond on Great Western Road.

It's an established local restaurant that's nevertheless set to take on a major new lease of life under effervescent, sharp-as-a-tack West End operator Nasreen Aksi - a trade all-rounder who until now has inevitably been best-known for her Ashoka venture in Ashton Lane.

"Bistro", a word originating not in Italy but Paris, traditionally means a small (often tiny) dining venue, one with a simple but enlivening menu of homely fare. By contrast The Italian Bistro (which was Lux and Stazione until about three years ago) is set in a magnificent late Victorian listed former station house, and on a good day vaguely resembles some grand, 19th century Italian country villa - if you can forgive the obvious lack of olive trees and other standard Mediterranean trimmings.

It is both one very big venue - it can comfortably seat around 100 diners - and also a delightful, rambling building with a faux minstrels' gallery overlooking its central hall, a sparklingly swish main bar area, an upstairs "atrium" with classy terracotta tiled floor and also its own intimate bar ... leading out to what I think may be the best balcony area anywhere in the entire west of Glasgow.

This seats around 30, will be a natural mingling place for wedding guests "getting a breath of fresh air" - and on the all too few warmest days of the year will be a first class sun trap too.

Admittedly the view is of Gartnavel hospital rather than the glories of Old Siena - but it's still all rather grand, and a nice place to be.

In the main restaurant there was nothing drastically wrong with the previous management's decor, but every major venue needs a new look at regular intervals and it was time for a "lift".

Nasreen's arguably subtle use of muted candy stripes and vivid reds against the dark wood of the deeply traditional interior works to exquisite effect - while in a smaller place it would be overpowering.

So far so good, but what is this "bistro" going to become, who is it for, and why would anyone want yet another Italian restaurant in an area (as in a few minutes' away in Byres Rd) already seething with Italian restaurants?

Nasreen, famous in restaurant circles as "the Curry Queen", has convincing answers to these and many other questions.

"We are going to make this the best weddings functions business anywhere in the city," she says with characteristic self-assurance and a winning smile. "We are going to cater for the many people who want an excellent and above-average reception but don't want to go to the most expensive places in town just because these have a name for being ostentatious."

Mere bling, she observes, is a strictly pre-recession affectation.

She adds: "More than anything they want to be in a place where they're treated as special, where the food is terrific, and where the staff are only content when they're making everything even better than the happy couple had hoped it would be."

Of course, weddings (and other celebrations) will be just one seam of endeavour within an already ambitious and varied overall proposition, but it is a very important one - likely to attract a great deal of interest from immediate local areas including Hyndland, Hughenden and Cleveden, as well as Bearsden.

It might seem odd to invest in a major licensed trade proposition during a double-dip recession in which so many catering businesses are struggling, but as a seasoned entrepreneur Nasreen has made the calculation that people still want to get married, still want "the best", and will give her their custom if they're convinced the Bistro is the right place to be.

She also reckons she has an excellent team to call upon including, for example, a former manager of now-departed Byres Road restaurant icon Antipasti. Nasreen has always been as much a pasta princess as a curry queen, she insists - her own pasta creations are clearly popular at home - so it's safe to say the already well-regarded cuisine here (with, for example, favourable mention in The List guide 2012) will continue to develop.

We'll have more on this ambitious venture in future columns.

Pod be praised

It's always nice to get a positive mention from anyone, let alone a verbal "write-up" in a podcast interview on an award-winning website.

Trampy and the Tramp's curry website is the definitive work in English about Glasgow curries to be found on the internet, and has rightly been acknowledged as the best of its kind - anywhere.

Fun, lively, erudite and colourful it's a labour-of-love romp through the rogan josh-laden dining tables of west Glasgow and beyond - based on the adventures of an informal dining club whose invariable answer to the time honoured Indian restaurant greeting of "Pakora, poppadums, chapatis?" is "yes please - and do you do Kingfisher lager or is it Cobra?"

In the most recent podcast update the team review the entire curry scene in a radio-style dialogue, in the course of which they mention this site and also restaurateur Monir Mohammed's engaging attempt to create the mother of all tribute venues at his former Wee Curry Shop in Ashton Lane.

Now rebranded as The Glasgow Curry Shop this is steadily morphing into an intriguing visual wander down memory lane, replete with faded furnishings and sepia photographs of curry haunts of yesteryear - to which are being added some poignant and occasionally even outrageous anecdotes about the great days of the early curry houses, for example in Gibson Street.

Given it's part of the Mother India stable, the food should be pretty interesting too - and we're not talking 1970's vindaloos on asbestos plates. There will be more detail on this exciting new venture in weeks to come, but meanwhile for anyone genuinely interested in Asian cuisine in Glasgow - and that's an awful lot of people - it's well worth tuning in to the Trampy and the Tramp website.

The podcast (episode 9), and the wider site with all its many insightful dining reviews.

Caffe Italiano

Meanwhile back in Italy - or rather Byres Road - the former Cafe Absolutely 161 is now under new Italian owners as Caffe Amare, with an offer very similar to before but with some neat little Mediterranean flourishes.

Italian diners will feel right at home because while I was there one lunchtime the radio was belting out what sounded like the Italian version of Radio Clyde, possibly partly for the benefit of the owner - but what a nice change to be in a cafe playing Italian pop music instead of the usual amorphous Britpop rubbish. Meanwhile I'd recommend fighting off the temptation to dine from the ultra-Scottish menu, with its giant breakfasts, black pudding rolls, etc (all terrific) and "go Italian" with paninis, pastas and salads - the Italian grilled chicken variety I ordered was the best of its kind I've had in the West End, Like the magnificent University Cafe down the road this is an Italo-Scottish bistro happy to serve either style of food with equal enthusiasm, and of the more recent arrivals on Byres Road may be the best all-round cafe (or bistro) of them all - it surely deserves to do well.

You plonker, Rodney

I'm indebted to Lindsays licensing solicitors for drawing my attention to an article in The Daily Mail - not a paper I generally rush out to buy of a morning - detailing how a youth attempted to buy drink with a fake identity card.

On the card was a picture of "Rodders" (played by actor Nicholas Lyndhurst) in the wonderful Only Fools and Horses series, and a date of birth that suggested the bearer must be 52 years old - and also Rodney's trademark catch-word: "Cosmic".

As an attempt at deception it arguably wasn't terribly clever, possibly gambling on the notion that hard-working bar staff may not actually bother to look at ID they have asked for.

And of course not only did the youth in question not get served any drink he was also written up in characteristically OTT style by the Mail.

But the case highlights an important issue. More credible fake ID's will obviously be produced from time to time, and then the onus is on the operator to show that he or she exercised "due diligence" in establishing the actual age of a young-looking would-be drinker.

According to the Mail the manager at the Newquay Arms immediately became suspicious when the clearly drunk lad, claiming to be 24, produced the novelty fake driving licence bearing the picture of Rodders.

He added: "I haven't ever seen a celebrity ID trying to be used before, but the worst case we have had was probably when a white man tried to use his friend's ID, who was clearly African American, and said he had 'been on holiday'." The Rodders card was confiscated and the youth wandered off before police arrived - fortunately for him, perhaps, as attempting to pass off a fake driving licence as real can carry a prison sentence of two years (although a stiff fine would have been more likely in this case).

We'll have more stories of ID card dramas as and when we hear about them.

Glasgow's best cafe?

We promised some time ago to talk up a local cafe every "issue", given that the West End has some of the finest in the country - and Amare, above, is a fine example of the genre.

However for sheer brilliance this week's prize goes to the Trans-Europe Cafe in Parnie Street, one minute's walk from the Tron Theatre in town, in a nest of niche shops and art galleries which has been building its very distinctive offer since 2005.

I don't normally get too excited about city centre ventures, since unless they're truly different and special why would you bother venturing from the West End? - but the TEC is definitely worth a visit.

Its modest pitch is "classic bistro dishes at a reasonable price", and while by day it is a cafe par excellence - with truly superb coffee - by evening it has a new and clearly quite ambitious selection of main meals which should appeal to theatregoers seeking a place with charm, individuality and flair.

I could rattle on about the friendly staff, the easygoing ambience, the newspapers and board games and much more besides - but if you like West End cafes you'll probably love this place, morning, noon or night.

You'll find a lot more detail about its excellent food offer on its website.

Ola Dubh delight

On the other side of Argyll Street from the Tron in "the Merchant City", actually Candleriggs, one local operator can boast what I think may be a Glasgow exclusive - with a deluxe bottle of beer called Ola Dubh.

Arisaig Restaurant in Merchant Square is better known for its quality Scottish cuisine, with an emphasis on excellent ingredients, and also has a genuine enthusiasm for the national drink that attracts a steady stream of aspirational whisky connoisseurs of both sexes.

So why get very excited about a bottle of beer? Ola Dubh is a small-batch strong dark beer matured in Highland Park whisky casks, and is from the excellent Harviestoun Brewery, whose standard products include Bitter and Twisted session ale and Schiehallion Lager - both critically acclaimed as among the best beers in Scotland.

Meaning "Black Oil", this excellent product has hitherto only been generally available in classic ex-pat markets including North America and Australia, but is now a niche option at Arisaig - meaning that beer lovers seeking quality are given the option of a special treat.

The beer is not a big volume commodity and won't sell in large quantities in Arisaig or anywhere else - it is just another nice, if small, example of a Scottish product that can claim, like Scotch Whisky, to be in a league of its own.

Harviestoun has various ideas for ideal accompaniments for Ola Dubh, from mackerel pate (fitting in neatly with classic Arisaig fare) to "really good Cheshire cheese and some oatcakes".

But I think my favourite suggestion is "with a rich fruit cake" - because, yes, you still do meet the odd rich fruitcake in the West End. Slainte.