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Byres Road revival?

Oran Mor at the top of the road has enough reasons for celebration these days, having notched up an astonishing 300 performances in the groundbreaking A Play, A Pie and a Pint series – which is just one of the more prominent and far-reaching successes established in the super-ambitious venture launched by Colin Beattie.

Recent press coverage of Oran Mor centres on the plays, and also on the mural work carried in the magnificent upper hall by local artist-author Alasdair Gray, who is now apparently about to enlarge the geographical range of places depicted in his colossal endeavour by going as far east, artistically speaking, as …. Edinburgh.

However wander a little farther down Byres Road from this unqualified West End success story and – if you were a visitor – you might wonder if the place was being gradually demolished.

There’s the former sites of Heart Buchanan and Blockbuster lying conspicuously empty, also the large former Clinton Cards branch, while on a lengthy stretch of road outside the Curlers a major building site is in full swing – a visual atrocity which, however, doesn’t seem to have deterred weekend revellers in the least.

Passing by the now-closed fruit and veg shop there’s what must now be the ugliest shut-down business in the West End, the scandalous and derelict former Otto bar-diner, which has been a shocking architectural sore thumb for far too many months now.

We’ve reminded readers previously that this site (immediately opposite The Aragon) once played host to The Rubaiyat, arguably one of the finest pubs ever to grace the circuit back in its 70’s and 80’s heyday.

Now it is an abomination, adorned by a forlorn “This pub is for lease” sign – which so far does not appear to have attracted any obvious interest.
The licensed property game can move very slowly indeed, and if a new leaseholder does come forward – and is convinced that he or she can make a success of a business on that site – it could take time to get all of the legalistic p’s and q’s in order.

There’s also the fact the place (refurbishment apparently planned) needs – we’re reliably informed – major interior work.

A bit farther down the hill there are some more encouraging signs. The former PJ’s basement venue appears to be trading well as Faktory, and if you want to find out more about what’s going on there you should check out the venue’s Facebook site.

Meanwhile just beyond Partick Cross the former Bruadar pub, which resurfaced briefly over the festive period, has now been relaunched as The Inn at the Cross by a new operator, and will clearly be out to make an impression from the start.
But as things stand you couldn’t possible advise anyone from out of town that Byres Road was in any sense a fun place to be – even with off-street attractions like Hanoi Bike Shop in Ruthven Lane to look forward to (this particular restaurant has been “hit-listed” in one of Scotland’s main food guides as being one of the places diners really need to visit in Glasgow).

Until now attractions ranging from Oran Mor to Booly Mardi’s to the Bike Shop, Bar Soba and other quality outlets have had to put up with a general trading environment which seemed to be distintegrating visibly by the week.
But at last, along with some paltry rays of weak late spring sunshine, comes good news.

The West End Festival is back … as in back in Byres Road where (many local people argue) it really belongs.

We’re talking of course about the return of the Mardi Gras parade, which will see the whole of Byres Road transformed into one huge family party occasion all the way from the Botanics to Partick Cross on Sunday, June 9. It’s possible 50,000 may attend – perhaps more.

For local traders it is fantastic news. I remember the chagrin which met the decision – forced on the organisers – to shunt what had become one of Scotland’s most successful urban festival highlights to Kelvingrove Park, where a lightweight assortment of stalls practically disappeared beneath tens of thousands of bemused visitors.

There are hundreds of events large and small in the Festival, and the Parade was never intended as more than an eyecatching entertainment to open the festivities, but in the year it left Byres Road it was exactly as if the circus had packed up and left town – of festival “buzz” around Byres Road there was little to be found, with the notable exception of events in Oran Mor, Brel in Ashton Lane and one or two other active West End trade players.

Last year some enterprising young musicians (sorry, forget name) even took to staging small “guerrilla parades” down Byres Road at quietish times on a Sunday, bringing back a spark of the old magic – but this time around we can look forward to a full scale extravaganza, rain or shine.

Meanwhile the Gibson Street Party and the Glasgow Mela, in Kelvingrove Park, will be on my personal list of favourite events – so it’s not as if there isn’t anything happening away from Byres Road.

The return of the parade is excellent news for the Festival and for the whole area, however, since while it is after all just one day of restrained bohemian fun it sends a strong signal far and wide that Byres Road and Partick Cross really are the heart of the West End – worth visiting at any time of year.

That roadworks atrocity outside Curlers (which has nevertheless produced a nice new slab-concrete pavement extension) will, thankfully, be gone on May 31, in nice time to see the area transformed, if only briefly, into something like the lively and cosmopolitan hub the newspapers keep assuring us it is.

Valhalla Rising

Meanwhile, as ever, there is plenty happening on the dining and quality food shopping scene in other areas of the West End.

With absolutely no publicity, what had been the Quel Vin wine shop operated by the owners of Paperino’s and La Parmigiana has been sold to brewing enterprise the Williams Brothers – who for good measure have also taken over their near-adjacent pub (the one that offers a railings-side view of the river), formerly the Deep Blue, beside the Kelvin.

It is a remarkable realignment of local assets for the Italo-Scottish former owners, and sees the arrival on that prime Kelvinbridge stretch of a completely “new” operator (whose sterling cask ale products, however, are familiar to customers at The Three Judges at Partick Cross).

In place of Quel Vin would-be customers will be faced with the highly unusual new name for the venue, Valhalla’s Goat – which sounds a bit like some long-lost prog rock brand of the distant 70’s.

In fact, as the lady behind the counter wearily but cheerfully informed me (it is going to get through to the staff having to explain the name, endlessly) it derives from Norse legend, and the super-enormous goat that was able to supply huge amounts of beer to Odin’s ferocious Viking heroes.

The Norse influence taps into the ancestral Hebridean brewing recipes used by the Williams Brothers in some of their highly-respected beers – of which the best known in probably Fraoch heather ale.

The new incarnation of this site will now offer, unsurprisingly, a vast and eclectic range of speciality beers, besides wines, premium spirits, quality cigars, fancy chocolates and all sorts of other goodies – not least the William Brothers’ own ales.

Meanwhile the pub has been renamed “Inn Deep”, and – somewhat in synch with the wine and beer shop – is offering no less than 121 different beers (last time we checked) to tempt ever-curious customers.

As a joint proposition it’s a major move away from the previous offers, and brings something refreshingly different to an area where there’s a large and potentially very appreciative local clientele, just waiting for the “right” place to come along.

So-called “craft beer” is in, in a big way, and the made-in-Scotland, hard-won street cred of the Williams Brothers will make both the pub and the shop a major draw for connoisseurs of fine ales – neatly complementing, perhaps, the brilliant job The Cave has been doing on the other side of Kelvin Bridge for many years.

Out of Afrika

If anyone asked me to guess what international food offer would be next to move into Kelvinbridge I’d probably hazard a guess at something Asian – but I’d be dead wrong.

The premises on the corner of Great Western Road and Park Road which was most recently a children’s clothes shop, and which before that was a North African cafe, is now back in African territory – but at the other end of the continent.
Called Veldt, this outlet has been transformed into one very airy and attractive cafe-deli, with an extraordinary range of Afrikaner produce most of us have probably never heard of before (including a Malay-derived curry called Bobotie, which came to what was then the land of the Boers from the Dutch East India colonies in Batavia).

With native African as well as European and Asian influences, Afrikaner cuisine is a culinary adventure story, with plenty of “new” things to try – and a very promising newcomer to the increasingly lively Kelvinbridge food shopping and dining selection. Much more on this interesting arrival in future.

Levantine bliss

We don’t generally do “reviews” as such on this blog, preferring simply to note things that seem particularly interesting – now and then adding an honest opinion about something we thought really good.

However we’ve got to make an exception for Byblos, the Lebanese bistro practically next door to Veldt, on Park Road, a family enterprise which has pulled out all the stops to bring us that most elusive of commodities, the “authentic Lebanese shawarma”.

We mentioned the fabulous, vigour-inducing Lebanese coffee on offer here just after it opened last year, but while the menu certainly looks interesting enough – a tight but carefully-chosen selection of Lebanese cafe favourites – its entrees are just superb, and clearly produced to order.

There’s a choice of snack options, like the lamb and chicken shawarmas Pat Byrne and I ordered, or what amount to full meals, and we’re left in no doubt that accomplished traditional Lebanese cookery, involving subtle use of spices (as in the neighbouring cuisine of Persia), is the main offer here.

Byblos, it is obvious, is more than just a theme. It is the fascinating home town of owner Joseph and his family, a place with a history that was already deeply ancient during the days of Richard Coeur de Lion and Salah-ad-Din – it’s generally reckoned the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world.

Once the thriving territory of ancient Phoenicia, it would be all too easy to gaze out on the Mediterranean from Byblos Port and imagine Masefield’s “quinquiremes of Nineveh” putting into harbour.

It is certainly one of the world’s most beautiful and beguiling cities, replete with unforgettable historic sites – such as the stunning St John the Baptist church beside the old Crusader fortress – set in a balmy cityscape of lush gardens and palm groves.

The family behind Byblos, Park Road, grew up around this and other living monuments to an illustrious tradition, and are quietly and jovially very proud of their native cuisine, which – along with the family – is obviously central to their rich Lebanese culture.

That, in my humble opinion, is the ingredient you don’t always catch in a fleeting visit – or a clinical if generally accurate review of the food.

Like all good family bistros, it’s a one-off and, crucially, a nice place to be.
We do not yet operate a “hit list” along the lines of the guide referred to earlier (although we are working on something similar), but in an area never short of exotic delights from overseas cuisines Byblos is nevertheless something special – recommended.

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