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Byres Road: gelateria opens as deli closes

Another Byres Road closure

It’s being described as “a disaster” and “a tragedy” by many of its loyal legion of erstwhile customers – because sadly one of Hillhead’s enduring culinary favourites has finally shut up shop for good at the top of Byres Road.

Heart Buchanan had its work cut out, battling against heavy site costs and the recession – all the way through the dreary winter – but looked to be holding its own in the most challenging of circumstances.

Then on March 24, customers were invited to take advantage of a discount clearance sale of stock, after which – with a poignant farewell notice left painted on the window – what many people saw as the archetypal West End gourmet bistro closed its doors.

The venue’s website was still functioning this week, listing all the private dining, deluxe takeaway and other treats that will now be off the menu (presumably) forever.

Unlike another suddenly-shut Byres Road food site – of which more, below – there doesn’t seem to be any prospect of any reincarnation, with some revised kind of offer, for the foreseeable future.

That in turn seems to bear out recent newspaper doom and gloom reports of the perceived crisis hitting Byres Road retail.

Beside Heart Buchanan’s now vacant unit are the large premises occupied until very recently by Blockbuster, creating one very depressing empty stretch in what is supposed to be the most high profile part of the West End’s most famous thoroughfare.

One possibly heartening piece of news in these parts is that the former Clinton Cards shop opposite Hillhead subway – an empty eyesore for months – was “under offer” last time I passed it, although we’ll hold fire on the celebrations until we see what it’s going to become.

So apart from the obvious – high costs and straitened times – what went wrong for Heart Buchanan?

The prices certainly weren’t too steep for what was on offer, and in its particular dining format the place had that end of Byres Road to itself, with no rival operator attempting anything comparable.

The few people I have spoken to with the sort of experience that entitles them to a view on the matter say it was certainly the property fees charged on Byres Road, but also a gradual winding down of the “casual luxury” market.

It’s suggested that people are still venturing out in numbers at weekends, and for special occasions, but the weekday treat or corporate beano that could have helped Heart Buchanan retain healthy custom has died a death.

Byres Road is a strange and fickle market, where only operators who can somehow crack the difficult combination of what the public want (and are prepared to pay) can hope to prosper.

Going down market doesn’t necessarily help, as both KFC and Burger King failed to find their audience in Hillhead many years ago, and some cafes which were doing a solid job have seen four or five different revamps under new operators before finding a winning streak.

What will move into the Heart Buchanan site is anyone’s guess, as with the former Blockbuster, but meanwhile when you add this latest blow to the closed-down Otto, mid-way down the road, and the spate of closures at the bottom of Byres Road, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that food retail is a more perilous business than ever before.

Ice cream nirvana

However as is so often the case, as one door has closed on Byres Road another is about to open, and in a very surprising way.

In the autumn ice cream cafe Three Steps to Heaven shut down, with a notice to the effect that its operators “hoped” a new venture would emerge at some unspecified point in the new year.

It was another closure which horrified many local consumers, who remembered how wildly popular Three Steps had been a little over a year earlier – and not always in the middle of classic ice cream weather.

You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that Nardini’s – ice cream cafe extraordinaire – might have had something to do with the venue’s sudden demise.

Opened on the site of Morton’s, another failed cafe, Nardini’s was an instant success and was mobbed for several months before settling down to become merely “busy”.

Whether this was the main reason for Three Steps disappearing isn’t known, but few who mourned its passing can have guessed it would eventually be relaunched this wintry spring … as another ice cream cafe.

In a road whose surviving units are increasingly Italian in origin or inspiration we can now add  – to Paperino’s, Little Italy, La Vita Spuntini, Tony Macaroni, Assagini, University Cafe and of course Nardini’s – a “gelateria”, and one bearing a famous name.

In Italy a gelateria is typically a rather posh proposition, and (for reasons too lengthy to explain here), tends to specialise in frozen dessert products that for general quality soar high above what we tend to think of as “ice cream”.

They may also offer deluxe bistro cuisine and even liqueurs – and don’t really resemble the Scottish notion of typical ice cream cafe in the slightest.

So we can be sure the operators behind the new venture at the former Three Steps site are making a fairly bold statement on quality even before opening the doors, which will certainly be within the next few days, or weeks at most.

But the real eyebrow-raiser is the brand name over the door.  It is “Crolla” – a legendary local ice cream dynasty whose products are (to me, rightly) widely praised as among the best in Scotland.

Having this particular famous Italian name just a few feet from a venture with the legendary Nardini brand moniker is completely remarkable.

Rather than admit Nardini’s has the upper hand, profile wise, a deal has been struck which has “raised the game” by bringing Crolla straight to Byres Road, immediately beside an established fellow Italianate rival.

It’s the sort of competition where the real winners will surely be the customers, since both ventures – although they won’t say so, of course – will be trying extra hard to impress.

Since neither Nardini’s nor the new Crolla “gelateria” can hope to survive on dessert sales at this time of year, it goes without saying there will be plenty of other things to savour while we wait (in eternal hope) for warmer weather to arrive.

Thanks to Italo-Scottish entrepreneurial spirit, then, Byres Road isn’t a total disaster area after all.

Beer for all seasons

Maclay Inns’ new venue Munro’s duly opened this week on the site of the former Captain’s Rest near St George’s Cross, with a party bash that gave invitees plenty of opportunity to sample the voluminous beer choices on offer – not to mention the wine, the cask cider, speciality spirits and the rest.

One of the beers on offer is produced at the company’s south side pub The Clockwork Beer Company, and no doubt more will follow.

Everyone I’ve spoken to agrees this exciting new bar-restaurant is going to make a massive difference to this part of Great Western Road, drawing the same sort of crowd you’d expect to find at sister venture the Lansdowne, and at quality bars run by other operators nearby – for example Gambrini.

Much more on this exciting new addition to the George’s Cross scene in future weeks, but meanwhile it’s also just possible Maclay may have more local openings in store over the next year.

The company has a strong but tight portfolio of quality outlets across central Scotland, and is never in a hurry to open places simply for the sake of notching up a certain quota of units – and its measured approach seems to have been working well.

I’m told Maclay certainly has plans for more pubs in Glasgow and would like another West End outlet, but only if the right site can be found.

I can think of a brilliant unit in Byres Road which could work very well for the firm, but the fact that it’s tied up with a major leasing firm could be a disincentive … unless that company were to consider that a straight sale to a sound independent operator like Maclay could be a good move.

For Maclay it would also have to be more diner than bar, so as not to cannibalise custom at its existing success, The Three Judges at Partick Cross – but that wouldn’t be a problem.

They could even rename it The Rubaiyat, install a classical Persian-inspired design scheme, and reclaim a potent slice of long lost West End bar culture – and make lots of money.

However this is idle wishful thinking, and in the meantime at least we’ve the consolation of having three places (including Dram! in Woodlands Road) run by a local operator that patently understands the areas where it operates – and makes the most of its well-placed sites.

Curry Shop Heaven

Everyone is on the lookout for a keen deal, this weather, and The Glasgow Curry Shop – run by our sponsor Mother India – takes some beating when it comes to sizzling good value.

Its through-the-day offer gives you the choice of Thali (any two dishes) or biryani, each for just £5.75.  It cannot be stressed strongly enough that this is not your “standard Glasgow curry”, and is worth taking the time to enjoy.

We’d like to say it’s worth the trip up the stairs to The Glasgow Curry Shop, Ashton Lane, just to enjoy the unique and steadily-expanding archive of photographs and articles about the history of Glasgow’s Asian restaurants, but in fact it’s the cuisine – traditional in the best sense, and not in the slightest “retro” – that makes this little hideaway treasure something really special.

But if you do have any treasured mementoes of Indian restaurants in the far-off 70’s and 80’s be sure to pass them on to the staff …and perhaps see your nostalgia immortalised in the restaurant’s gallery of fame.

This section: Eating and drinking Glasgow West End