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Cafe Culture in Glasgow


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#1 Pat

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 01:31 PM

Glasgow City Heritage Trust invites you to join the debate:
"Can we have a cafe culture in Glasgow when it rains all the time?"

Wednesday 29 September 2010 - The Grand Ballroom, Sloans,
Argyll Arcade, Glasgow
6 - 8pm FREE please RSVP info@glasgowheritage.org.uk

It would be lovely if we had sunshine more often but cafe culture seems to be alive and well in Glasgow. We're hardy souls. What do you say folks?
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#2 Hingmie

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 02:06 PM

Glasgow City Heritage Trust invites you to join the debate:
"Can we have a cafe culture in Glasgow when it rains all the time?"

Wednesday 29 September 2010 - The Grand Ballroom, Sloans,
Argyll Arcade, Glasgow
6 - 8pm FREE please RSVP info@glasgowheritage.org.uk

It would be lovely if we had sunshine more often but cafe culture seems to be alive and well in Glasgow. We're hardy souls. What do you say folks?

It is a typically drizzly dreich day today and yet I have just returned from Partick where I met some colleagues for lunch at Bibi's. We sat inside but just along the road I noticed some folk were sitting outside under awnings enjoying their lunch. Maybe smokers ? I don't know but yes, Pat we are a hardy bunch and I have to agree that cafe culture has been well and truly embraced by Glaswegians.
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#3 samscafeamericain

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 02:12 PM

The trouble with drinking coffee outside in Glasgow is it takes so long to finish the cupfull
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#4 yonza bam

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 02:24 PM

Well, when I lived in the west end, I liked the home made soup and half pizza with a fried egg on top in the Grosvenor, the knickerbocker glories in the Gardens and the scotch pie and broon sauce in the City Bakeries.

But this isnae a nostalgia threid, though. You'd be hard pressed to find any of the above mentioned items in the cafes I see (but never go into) in Byres Road today. What is 'cafe culture', exactly? Folk sitting on bar stools at windows like animated mannequins drinking coffee and eating tottie wee triangular sandwiches with foreign sounding fillings. I don't see the attraction, myself. I'd rather get a takeaway from Gregg's and sit in the Botanics, or on the benches across from Tennent's.

Nope, I must be getting old, but I don't 'get' cafe culture and it does seem to me to be a peculiar usage of the word 'culture'. Presumably, it implies there's more to going into cafes these days than just having a snack. Have cafes become a social hub, like pubs?
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#5 Hingmie

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 02:24 PM

The trouble with drinking coffee outside in Glasgow is it takes so long to finish the cupfull

Is that because it keeps filling up again with the rain ?
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#6 Pat

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 02:29 PM

Well, when I lived in the west end, I liked the home made soup and half pizza with a fried egg on top in the Grosvenor, the knickerbocker glories in the Gardens and the scotch pie and broon sauce in the City Bakeries.

But this isnae a nostalgia threid, though. You'd be hard pressed to find any of the above mentioned items in the cafes I see (but never go into) in Byres Road today. What is 'cafe culture', exactly? Folk sitting on bar stools at windows like animated mannequins drinking coffee and eating tottie wee triangular sandwiches with foreign sounding fillings. I don't see the attraction, myself. I'd rather get a takeaway from Gregg's and sit in the Botanics, or on the benches across from Tennent's.

Nope, I must be getting old, but I don't 'get' cafe culture and it does seem to me to be a peculiar usage of the word 'culture'. Presumably, it implies there's more to going into cafes these days than just having a snack. Have cafes become a social hub, like pubs?


I think one difference is, yonza, that people use the cafes not just as meeting places, or somewhere to grab some refreshment, but to work. You see lots of folk out with their laptops - cheaper than office rent and coffee at the ready.
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#7 samscafeamericain

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 03:22 PM

Is that because it keeps filling up again with the rain ?


got it in one :lol:
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#8 tam

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 03:35 PM

This will be my second reply. After typing the first one, i clicked tae post and a message said that this thread didnae exist.
So, whit does the weather havetae dae we culture ?
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#9 Lone Groover

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 05:12 PM

:lol: I don't know why my previous reply on this was censored and deleted by some demented modera.... hang on, wrong thread :lol:


Sitting outside most Cafes is a health hazzard due to the clouds of smoke.

The other way to boost custom is to reduce the price of cake. There is an almost uniform over pricing that is ridiculous.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Saturday, you can bet I'll get a bit of cake there !
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#10 Pat

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 09:02 PM

:D I don't know why my previous reply on this was censored and deleted by some demented modera.... hang on, wrong thread B)


Sitting outside most Cafes is a health hazzard due to the clouds of smoke.

The other way to boost custom is to reduce the price of cake. There is an almost uniform over pricing that is ridiculous.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Saturday, you can bet I'll get a bit of cake there !


You've not shopped around enough, LG. I'm surprised you've not tried the cafe just along from The Lismore, the name escapes me at the moment, but very cheap - even the cakes.

Watch out for that special cake they have in Amsterdam. B)
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Posted 22 September 2010 - 10:15 PM

You've not shopped around enough, LG. I'm surprised you've not tried the cafe just along from The Lismore, the name escapes me at the moment, but very cheap - even the cakes.

Watch out for that special cake they have in Amsterdam. :D


Great nostalgia Yonza, love it !!

Also love Cafes probably as I love a wee blether and lots of my pals go into Cafes during the day, I'm not a pub person in the daytime. Love being able to sit outside and nosey at the folk going by, also my dog is allowed outside to sit with me but not many allow her inside. I think the sitting outside encourages friendlieness too.

Long may it last.

#12 rolo tomassi

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 10:56 PM

Great nostalgia Yonza, love it !!

Also love Cafes probably as I love a wee blether and lots of my pals go into Cafes during the day, I'm not a pub person in the daytime. Love being able to sit outside and nosey at the folk going by, also my dog is allowed outside to sit with me but not many allow her inside. I think the sitting outside encourages friendlieness too.

Long may it last.


Likewise, LarryT, I do the exact same with my pet teenager :D

This past week or two the sun's got so low that you have to wrap up a bit to sit outside Atrium but come about 5pm, it comes west around the rooftops for about half an hour :D

Probably about time Kember and Jones put out their furry seat covers. But I prefer not to sit there myself---I refuse to queue for an overpriced piece that's been marketed to the limit of all tolerance; freshly line-caught sun-blush tomato enhanced by the finest of mozzarella stamped into shape by Tuscan peasants.. all on 'rustic' ciabatta that you cannae eat without benefit of a chainsaw.

Some days I just ache for a half pizza with an egg on top. But call me old-fashioned :D
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#13 Lone Groover

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 11:02 PM

Watch out for that special cake they have in Amsterdam. :D

Wise words, :D don't remember a single thing about previous visit !

Yeah that little coffee shop is nice and as you mention "reasonable" inthe cake dept. .



Rollo. Pizza and egg????? ffs !
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#14 ozneil

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 11:12 PM

Trouble with sitting outside is it gets so bloody hot unless a decent awning

#15 Hingmie

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 11:27 PM

Trouble with sitting outside is it gets so bloody hot unless a decent awning

You are so right Ozneil, the sun when it does shine, really needs shaded as we here are so susceptible to skin cancer. Awnings are very useful, also keep the rain off us unless the wind has decided to blow our way ! !
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#16 ozneil

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Posted 22 September 2010 - 11:35 PM

You are so right Ozneil, the sun when it does shine, really needs shaded as we here are so susceptible to skin cancer. Awnings are very useful, also keep the rain off us unless the wind has decided to blow our way ! !

Yes and it will get a lot warmer as spring advances

#17 samscafeamericain

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Posted 23 September 2010 - 05:44 AM

:D I don't know why my previous reply on this was censored and deleted by some demented modera.... hang on, wrong thread :D


Sitting outside most Cafes is a health hazzard due to the clouds of smoke.

The other way to boost custom is to reduce the price of cake. There is an almost uniform over pricing that is ridiculous.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Saturday, you can bet I'll get a bit of cake there !


Only visited the 'coffeeshops' once. My wife was almost 6 months pregnant with our daughter when she was caught short and we dived into the first place we could find. While she visited the ladies I went to the counter to order something to justify our entry into the wee shop. My request for a small beer and an orange juice was greeted with incredulity, the guy even had to shout the to manager 'do we sell orange juice?' :D

Enjoy your chillin.
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#18 Pat

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Posted 23 September 2010 - 08:14 AM

Only visited the 'coffeeshops' once. My wife was almost 6 months pregnant with our daughter when she was caught short and we dived into the first place we could find. While she visited the ladies I went to the counter to order something to justify our entry into the wee shop. My request for a small beer and an orange juice was greeted with incredulity, the guy even had to shout the to manager 'do we sell orange juice?' :D

Enjoy your chillin.


You're going to the wrong places, samsc. What are you uptae ordering beer in a coffee shop? :D

Try Sonny & Vito. Or Rio's - when tam comes we'll probably go along and share a platter with HH. :D
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#19 Hingmie

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Posted 23 September 2010 - 10:11 AM

You're going to the wrong places, samsc. What are you uptae ordering beer in a coffee shop? :D

Try Sonny & Vito. Or Rio's - when tam comes we'll probably go along and share a platter with HH. :D

I like Rio's but have only been in during the day. I must have missed the news that Tam was coming here to Glasgow. Shy though I am, I may manage along to any gathering that he is attending. If invited of course and no promises.
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#20 Gangster's Moll

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Posted 23 September 2010 - 11:58 AM

Glasgow is a sociable city and for a long time now the traditional pubs have become cafe-bars, mostly with outside spaces for the smokers and friends of smokers.

I think 'cafe culture' is more to do with putting the world to rights over a beer or a glass of wine - salon philosophique style - where topics ranging from foreign policy to the price of bread are discussed with passion.

I don't think coffee really comes into it :P
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