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Update West End Dining

Persia goes Italian

Sad to relate, the highly-rated Persia restaurant on Great Western Road has closed, despite winning critical acclaim across the board for the exemplary quality of its cuisine.

In its place, and just about to open, will be Sylvano, Italian bar-bistro, which I am guessing will aim to do a Latin version of funky and successful bar-diner Black Rabbit down at Kelvinbridge.

One of the most enthusiastic reviews of Persia was by top food critic Joanna Blythman, who correctly identified the food as being the real McCoy, making allowances for the fact it was devised to suit a Glasgow audience, and that it could only be a representative selection from Persia’s vast culinary repertoire.
However while there are plenty of quality Middle Eastern restaurants in London, purely because of demography, in Scotland there’s still the merest smattering – now mostly concentrated in Edinburgh – and what had looked set to become a new sector in Glasgow dining (with three Persian restaurants on Great Western Road a couple of years ago) has now become a “niche” again.

Which is a great pity, since while Glasgow West End boasts the highest concentration of quality Indian restaurants in Britain the contrast offered by a neighbouring and different cuisine all added to the city’s allure as a great cosmopolitan dining destination.

A cynic could suggest the population is so addicted to West of Scotland interpretations of Italian food that all a restaurateur has to do is “go Italian” and the regular customers will continue to arrive – as witness the success of Tony Macaroni and its bold investment in Assagini at Partick Cross.
However as against that the Italian market in the West End is now “huge”, particularly once you also factor in every other kind of outlet with a handle on Italian food culture – for example delicatessens, cafes, ice cream shops.
Hopefully Sylvano’s will at least add an interesting new bar to the former Persia’s conspicuous corner site, but it’s difficult to see what else it can achieve in a high profile but determinedly mid-market stretch of road that isn’t already being done elsewhere.

The parent Paperino outlet in St Vincent Street closed recently, but its Byres Road sibling is unaffected and will continue to trade as normal – and broadly speaking the other well-known Italian venues, from the estimable La Riviera to La Parmigiana, seem to be holding their share of the traditional market against heavy competition.

Little urban … what?

Highly successful Finnieston pub Lebowski’s now has what’s billed as a younger and funkier sibling pub with the opening of Luac on what had previously been The Wise Monkey, on Great Western Road opposite Cooper’s at the junction with Bank Street on Great Western Road.

Wise Monkey was a dark, woody, grungy sort of venue which appeared set to do well from youthful enthusiasm for band music, but like the previous incarnation of The Halt on Woodlands Road (now reportedly flourishing under new management) found this an increasingly tough act to maintain in the face of noise complaints.

What seems like five minutes later ex-Monkey had been refurbed very comprehensively into a brighter and breezier venue which has a lot of the signature elements of Lebowski’s but in a noticeably “younger” way – and it seems to be pitching itself at a slightly aspirational party crowd, on somewhat the same wave length as the people who frequent The Black Rabbit.

And like the Rabbit (and a lot of other places, eg, The Lansdowne, the Squid and Whale and Munro’s,) it appears to be majoring on premium lagers and pizza – which seem to be the core ingredients of the classic Glasgow West End Night Out.
Recent online reviews suggest they’re on the right track, and that people like their square-shaped pizzas (including one with “pulled pork”), and it’s obvious – as again, with Munro’s, etc – that while young people like pubby food the caterpack lasagne and chips of yesteryear is no longer acceptable, and that people are prepared to pay a couple of pounds more for something fresh, original and tasty.

So in that sense it’s the latest venue to follow the trend toward making pubs “restaurants, lite” or perhaps cafes, max, in a market that’s now so competitive the customer is likely to benefit in many different ways – and not least on value for money.

Luac, meanwhile, stands for Little Urban Achievers Club. It’s an allusion to a cult book and film, The Great Lebowski, which has completely passed me by (and, I’ve discovered, quite a lot of other folk).

Everybody I’ve mentioned the name and the explanation to has frowned and made a negative comment, and while it’s no bad thing to have some sort of vague theme on which to hang a place’s identity – as attempted by The Hillhead Book Club in Vinicombe Street – it’s never going to resonate with everyone.

Nevertheless as with the parent venture it’s obvious, from decor to drink and food, that a lot of thought has gone into this latest venture, with the advantage of local knowledge shining through.

I wish it wasn’t matt black across its whole exterior ‘though – even although visually it’s now a much more fitting downstairs partner to the art nouveau frontage of what was always a magnificent building: what is now Viper nightclub was once, in the long lost days of gentility, a high class tearoom, complete with multi-tiered cake stands and waitresses in uniform.

Admittedly the sepulchral frontage of Luac is soon forgotten once you’re inside, where the surroundings are markedly more cheering – and creating some booths for just two people was surely a nice touch.

Luac certainly sits well within a stretch which now also includes (other side of Kelvinbridge) the Squid and Whale, formerly Bar Gambrino (and before that Republic West End), which appears to be majoring on ambitious Southern states food with lots of Hispanic influences – and which has been picking up good customer reviews for value-for-money, given the quality of food and service.

Best Beer Garden?

The battle of the blackboards continues, with prizes going to The Belle and particularly Vodka Wodka in Ashton Lane for the amount of effort their staff seem to devote to chalkboard artistry.

For example Vodka Wodka is now proudly boasting that it has the best beer garden in the West End – as extravagant a claim as “best cappuccino” or “best pint of cask ale” – and since you can’t see that feature from the lane the entire plan has been laboriously chalked out in 3-D, with annotated references to special features like roof cover, seating and heaters.

These features clearly indicate someone who is planning ahead, because while the last few weeks have seen wall-to-wall outdoor dining (Hanoi Bike Shop, a conspicuous winner), the area has obviously been planned with Glasgow’s default weather setting in mind – slate grey sky and lashing rain.

But is it the Best Beer Garden? Another contender for the title is near neighbour Bar Brel, which has a very convivial grassy area lying semi-concealed beneath the towering bulwarks of academe (eg, the Queen Margaret Union) immediately above it – all nicely decked out with covered seating.

Brel has a capacious conservatory lounge, too, where in the past many a brilliant little concert was staged involving unusually talented visiting musicians.

It’s a venue which has come a long way in the 18 years since it opened, and since it has now been taken over by the joint owners of Sloan’s restaurant in Argyle Street is apparently to be given substantial new investment.

Of course there’s more to a “beer garden” than just an open area – the best I’ve ever seen personally was the walled beer garden, complete with sundial, of the Masonic Arms in Gatehouse of Fleet – and few of the West End examples can be said to have much atmosphere.

If it’s extended to just “outdoor areas” the relaunched Kelvinbridge venue Inn Deep has a special kind of atmos as the shadows lengthen – and, from memory, is not such a magnet for midgies as in decades past … also you’re much less likely to see a bedstead, or whatever, floating past as in days of yore.

Plus, thanks to previous owners, it has a separate indoors seating area in an arched recess that’s part of the actual bridge, which wins a “most imaginative use of space” award – on a sunny day you could almost be in some venerable bodega in old Spain. Almost.

The Doublet Bar is a hot contender for Classiest Traditional Outdoor Area consisting of just two tables, equipped with ashtrays and, where necessary, smart parasol umbrellas.

Just over the road The Primary superpub has one of the largest areas, also equipped with heaters, while the West End’s most conspicuous and popular outdoor area is surely the front of Oran Mor, where the sun always guarantees a multitude – particularly when there’s a theatre production on, or a wedding.
But who’s got the best beer garden? Cottier’s is also a hot contender – you’re lucky if you can get a seat there on a sunny day – but ultimately it’s just down to personal choice.

The big drawback in a population-dense area like the West End is the likelihood of neighbour objections if there’s any kind of outdoor noise late at night.
This is a problem that was encountered some time ago by the Cumberland Bar in Edinburgh’s douce Stockbridge, where loud, southern-accented “yahs” were allegedly disturbing local residents.

The Cumbie is one of the most respectable showpiece alehouses in Scotland, so by extension any venue with an outdoors facility is relying heavily on its clientele to keep the noise within reasonable limits.

Contrast that with “real” beer gardens, of the sort you find across England, and we’re struggling – it’s one thing, shame to admit, the West End isn’t particularly brilliant at, simply because of the lack of facility in an area dominated by tenements.

Best beer garden in Scotland, and possibly the largest, is the huge outdoor garden facility at the Hawes Inn in South Queensferry, where Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote much of “Treasure Island”.

It’s well worth a visit, particularly just off season and away from peak times, when it’s as popular as Edinburgh Zoo and mobbed with families.

Enjoy yourself – soon

The world of retail catering is now so mercurial that Cafe Enjoy at Kelvinbridge has seen fit to post a notice in its window advising passers-by not to worry – it’s only closed for a refurbishment.

Enjoy has now been around to qualify as an established player in a stretch which has seen plenty of openings and closings over the last few years – for example there’s still no sign of life at the former Mancini’s a little farther along the road.

Enjoy dovetails nicely with nearby offers including Byblos, Lebanese bistro; and Cherubini, another established favourite which has greatly enhanced its overall appeal with careful development over the last five years.

Cafe stars in this general area also include the relaunched Phoenix Book Shop and Cafe on Woodlands Road, with its comfortable, easygoing atmosphere and “secret lounge” up the stairs – the only place I can think of which manages the difficult job of running a successful book exchange with a good-going cafe.

Brewdog bonds

Back in pub-land, Brewdog (a soaraway craft beer success story) appears to be poised for further development into an appreciative market, having devised an “Equity for Punks” business strategy which some have compared to a form of crowd funding – about which millions of words have been written by people who understand that sort of thing: suffice to say, it has its admirers and its sceptics.

The firm’s Glasgow outlet is one of just a tiny handful of managed pubs at the moment, since the idea all along has been – I think – to showcase the beer, and the concept, rather than to open outlets in every town – and all the evidence shows it has been a massive success, particularly with university-leaning 21 to 35 year-olds, but actually with plenty of other people besides.

Quite apart from that, any business strategy from Brewdog is almost bound to be full of vim and brio, since from the outset this company has continually thrown down the gauntlet to established tradition – which it never tires of ridiculing.
Take away all the excitable press releases, and some very interesting observations can be made. Youngish women who may previously never have touched craft beer now seem to have taken to something like Belgian beer culture, where relatively small quantities of dark, strong and complex drinks are enjoyed at leisure.

Before this outlet opened (opposite Kelvingrove museum) on the site of numerous previous ventures – including a Scottish-themed restaurant – an evening newspaper hilariously played true to form by quoting local community council worthies seemingly worried by the prospect of late night disorder.

In fact exactly the opposite happened and Brewdog instantly won a discerning clientele while definitely improving the array of food and drink options in that area.

The company itself has made a point of saying it has confident in future development despite the grim economic conditions – and we’re guaranteed plenty of lively future innovation from this enterprising firm.

Ice Cream Heaven

Not really surprising that during the hot weather in Byres Road, the West End’s Ice Cream Alley, it was like boom time in 1840’s California for operators who make a big thing out of ice cream – especially for Nardini’s and Crolla, both of which had queues of Greggs proportions spilling out the door every time I passed, and with every seat inside taken.

These places do well anyway, without much noticeable fall-off of trade in winter, but in peak season – and with the bonus of an actual summer – the Glasgow appetite for dessert goes into overdrive, and (particularly when it’s the good stuff) you basically can’t sell enough of it.

However even the West End cannot boast an ice cream parlour quite like the Arriete in the jolly town of Moffat in the south-west, which I’d heartily recommend as the perfect destination for a sunny day out at this time of year.
It’s named (in Italian) after the town’s emblem, a ram, and its extravagant menu of totally amazing Italian ice creams, or rather gelati, includes one laced with a sauce which includes two Espressos. It’s sensational – even uplifting.

This section: Eating and drinking Glasgow West End