West End favourite is Best in Glasgow

moth inI wish I had been the one who described this year’s glittering Scottish Curry Awards ceremony at the Thistle Hotel as – and I quote – “a swanky bash”.

“Swanky”, best pronounced with a Kelvinside accent, is one of those words that hearkens back to the black-and-white memories of a bygone age, conjuring up images of, say, some posh, French-leaning restaurant, circa 1953 – and I approve of any effort to save it from oblivion.

It appeared in the official Facebook description of this year’s curry awards, along with all the sort of photographs you’d expect from an annual dinner staged in a city rightly famous for the quality of its Indian restaurants – including one for lifetime achievement handed to Satty and Bobby Singh, owners of Mr Singh’s India near Charing Cross.

Another restaurant in that general area, Akbar’s of Bradford – which has only been in operation for a year- won the award for the most imaginative menu. Meanwhile Purvaiz Mohammed of nearby Heera Restaurant won the chef of the year honours … making this nearly-in-the-city corner of the West End one of the most enticing Asian restaurant strips of the UK.

Jiggy Mahju was awarded the coveted Curry Queen title, while the Killermont Polo Club – a hardy annual of the west-of-city Asian dining scene – gained the Team of the Year honours.

But it was particularly nice to see one our sponsor’s best-loved restaurants romping home with the Best of Glasgow accolade – even although the restaurant is a good ten minutes’ walk from the apparently magical Charing Cross nexus of winning outlets.

Mother India’s Cafe (which I haven’t visited for ages – I usually go to its sister, Dining Inn, practically next door) is the restaurant that proved the “tapas” concept works as well with Asian cuisine as with Spanish, and has been quietly honing its frequently adventurous
skills since 2004.

The top award in Glasgow is yet another affirmation that the original idea is not only just as valid as nearly a decade ago but also “ahead of the game” in every important culinary way.

Here’s what one leading guide (this year’s edition) said about Mother India’s Cafe:

“With the ability to turn tables fairly quickly, it appears loyal customers don’t mind waiting and with over 40 tapas on offer the balance between meat, fish and vegetarian dishes is as you’d expect.

It’s comforting to know that immersed in abundant choice opting for one dish or two is welcomed, meaning one can eat very decently here at relatively low expense.”

To me that perfectly sums up the ethos of the place – fantastic choice, beautiful food, a lack of overt “swankiness”, and reasonable prices.

However just to show that Glasgow doesn’t always get things its own way the top honours for the whole of Scotland went to Mithas restaurant in Leith (which although run by Edinburgh is not “in Edinburgh”, as one writer rashly claimed) – and fair play to it, too, particularly as Leith is one area that can go toe-to-toe with the West End when it comes to strikingly different and individualistic outlets of all kinds.

kohinoorVictory at last?

Meanwhile another famous name in Glasgow restaurants, the Koh-i-Noor, isn’t exactly celebrating its legal victory this week – but at least its owners have the satisfaction of being able to prove they were right all along.

Readers with longish memories may recall this once-famous mainstay of the Gibson Street Indian restaurant scene collapsed into the River Kelvin during the 70’s – an episode still to be properly recounted in detail for posterity.

It moved to its new location in North Street, only to be pursued by fresh misfortune in 1996 when the wall of a tenement crashed through the roof during a gale.

The Koh argued the council were to blame, as they should have known the dangerous condition of the wall made an accident likely, and a court agreed – awarding £175,000 damages, plus interest.

However the council duly appealed, and has only now finally been told that it was wrong all along, and did indeed fail in its duty of care – although its lawyers don’t agree.

It’s a complex little yarn, but suffice to say cost-savings on the work carried out on the tenement were argued to be implicated in the collapse, although the council is said to be considering whether to launch another appeal.

The saga has already rumbled on for 17 years, but for the restaurant it’s all a bit academic as the council cash in any case goes to the insurance firm that picked up the tab for putting the shattered restaurant together again.

three judges ale.jpgBeer Renaissance

Hard to believe that barman and cask ale savant Ronnie at The Three Judges at Partick Cross is really 65, but it must be true because the bar laid on a special festival of 65 different rotating beers to commemorate the fact.

It had just finished by the time I got around to drifting in for a pint, last week – possibly just as well – but the cask ale guest board was as lively and interesting as ever, and after due deliberation I went for a pint of 5 per cent abv Flodden 2013 from the wonderful Hadrian Brewery.

They had obviously decided in a friendly, beery sort of way to remind us Scots that this is the 500th centenary of the greatest military disaster ever to befall Scotland (that is, until the World Wars).

James IV, you will recall, perished along with much of the Scottish aristocracy and thousands of ordinary soldiers whose names are lost to posterity – and the battle ranks alongside Culloden as a dark and bitter episode in our bloodstained history.

Still, never mind, because next year is the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn (resounding win for underdog home side), which should certainly inspire some new Scottish beers – Borders Brewery Broughton already produces a splendid Black Douglas dark beer.

Hadrian is one of the best of the north of England breweries regularly featured at the Judges, while Scots companies appearing on the magic beer board there include William Brothers, Kelburn, Fyne Ales (my particular favourites), Strathaven, Tryst and Harviestoun.

In fact that particular melange of Scottish with north-England beers, leavened with ales from way down south, has been working to brilliant effect in the pub for some years – in some ways the choice reflects the “typical” likes of the clientele.

Except that one veteran union man I enjoy having a pint with from time to time invariably asks: “Have you got a classic English bitter” – and doesn’t always get one.

But as a columnist rightly pointed out in The Herald the other day, not enough racket is being made about the truly great Scottish beers (some of which, incidentally, had their roots in the pioneering work of English brewers!).
Most beer fiends I know say that while new microbreweries will ride the crest of new interest in cask ale (or “craft beer” generally) there are plenty of well-established breweries here already.

The same columnist reckoned brewing outfits like William Brothers and Brewdog – both now with pubs in the West End – are “mainstream”, and that more attention should be focussed on the niche.

I don’t agree with this argument, because while both these brewers certainly produce significant volumes and own pubs they’re still light years in scale away from the mega-brewers, whose products – as he complains – tend to dominate the Scottish pubs market.

Not all of the microbreweries will survive (same as last time there was a cask ale surge), and in fact not all of them will want to grow to any significant size, while “remote” producers like the Colonsay brewery – try their stuff at The Halt – naturally only ship their beer to points south in bottled format.
I’m more concerned about distribution than massive variety. There are about half a dozen pubs in Glasgow that are seriously good at ale, and no single one of them can offer the full panoply of what’s theoretically available – even from Scotland.

But times are definitely changing. Young people, and young women, are drinking cask ale – or “craft beer” (which is just a generic term from America meaning “quality beer that may be available in cask form on draught”).

I know some women who utterly hate the stuff, and some who only go for continental lager – and quite a few that hate beer altogether – but the Brewdog approach, a bit like the beer culture of the Belgians, is to entice with strong, sassy and often complex beers offering fantastic tastes. For some it’s even “the new wine”.

We’re entitled to rattle on about beer in the West End because most of Glasgow’s good beer pubs are in this area.

It’s notable that (besides Brewdog) the newest bars on the block (the Maclay venture at George’s Cross, and also the former Deep Blue at Kelvinbridge, now William Brothers), now see what had been drinks for middle-aged men as hot sellers for youngish people of both genders.

It’s maybe significant, too, that they’re run by operators with a sound understanding of pubs, beer, and developing consumer trends.
That article in The Herald was spot on, however, when the writer noted that outside Edinburgh there’s still only one real “circuit” of quality ale outlets – almost like the days when most of Glasgow’s Indian restaurants were in or very close to Gibson Street.

It would be crazy to expect every bar to try and become a Bon Accord, Brewdog, State Bar or Three Judges, but if the trend towards quality “craft” Beers continues more operators might want to experiment with quality bottled beer, and maybe even try drawing up a short beer list, Belgian style, to match menu choices.

Brel in Ashton Lane set the benchmark in this regard, but with Belgian and other continental beer matched with “rustic” Euro-cuisine – a winning formula. There seems little reason why similar ventures, but with a Scottish flavour, might not also catch the mood of the moment.

Secret Plan

Which brings me to a plan currently being framed by a veteran Glasgow bar operator and a veteran east coast brewer – both with formidable experience of their fields – to open something that would bring together exactly that style of venue in one package.

They have been looking at West End sites, and also one or two beyond Charing Cross, but hadn’t made the final choice last time I heard. From the little I know it’s a very exciting proposition, and given the people involved it will be a quality “one off” others might eventually try to emulate.

A discussion about this venture took place not unnaturally in a West End ale pub, but unlike a straightforward bar it would be bringing “real” food together with quality beer in a natural but also sophisticated way – I can’t wait to see it happen.

Finnieston Plan

Meanwhile there’s another plan – almost secret – by a totally different operator, to open another new bar in Finnieston. Again it appears set to tap into the seam of brilliant pubs in that area by adding another venue led by quality beer and food – and has been hiring staff for some time.

However there is the inevitable red tape for the operators to negotiate before it can happen – opening anything with a licence is seldom straightforward.

Still on Argyle Street, the Kelvingrove Cafe this month reportedly hit a licensing blip on what appear to be “mere technicalities” – although nothing in licensing law is “mere” these days – and I am hoping it is sorted in double-quick time, if only for the sake of customers who really aren’t interested in the fine print of licensed premises’ operating conditions.

It’s a matter of record that the now iconic bar-restaurant Stravaigin, in Gibson Street, battled the council (rather than the licensing board) long and weary over whether the authority’s rigid planning system would allow a customer to have a beer without also ordering a sit-down meal (“with a knife and fork”).
The story of how that battle was won is too complicated (and deadly boring) to recount in detail, but the net result is that today – no thanks to “the system” – we’ve got exactly the sort of venue the operators and their customers wanted all along.

The quality of recent pub arrivals around Woodlands, Kelvinbridge and Argyle Street has been outstanding, often with quality food as a major part of the offer, and we can only hope the developing West End “buzz” – already struggling a bit in Hillhead – isn’t dumbed down by pointless bureaucracy.

The latest arrival in Kelvinbridge is The Squid and The Whale, 372 Great Western Road, describing itself as a Bar/Cantina serving food from The Gulf of Mexico. 

Closed shop

It’s hard to believe that Grassroots has shut shop, after trading well on that site since 1977.  The owners will focus on their business at Clean Plates Cafe, Maryhill Burgh Hall.  The popular artisan bread from Bavarian Bakehouse, which they sold for many years, can still be found at various West End locations fWest End locations: Roots and Fruits in Argyle St or Gt. Western Road; George Mewes Cheese on Byres Road and Grays Kitchen in Broomhill.

The closure of this West End institution could be taken as another example of the niche giving way to the multiple operator with deeper pockets and a wider range – if Waitrose had an effect on delicatessens, for example, it follows Whole Foods Market will hit quality food retailers of all kinds.

There’s a whole argument about whether the niche food shop can hope to survive in today’s challenging conditions, and it’s maybe no accident some of the success stories have doubled as cafes.

But for a really “local” kind of shopping experience we’re increasingly having to rely on, for example, the wonderful Asian shops of Woodlands Road, or Solly’s in nearby Great Western Road – or, perhaps, the recently-opened South African cafe-deli, Veldt, at the top of Park Road.

The butchers and bakers of once-bustling Maryhill Road have been replaced by Lidl and Iceland, and a huge Asda at Summerston; and Partick’s vibrant but under-pressure independent trade is threatened by supermarkets too.

The maxim “support your local shops” was never more relevant than now.

fest13icecreamcartFestival Frenzy

The dust is still settling on this year’s revived Byres Road street parade, on a day when the whole road was pedestrianised for a full day of entertainment. Apparently 80,000 people turned up.

The bars definitely did well that day, along with the restaurants – some pubs were still going strong long after the traders and entertainment had packed up and gone home – but more than that the whole thing just brought some extra life to the area from more than the usual assortment of weekend “revellers”.
Unfortunately it also brought traffic concerns, and it seems we’ll have to wait to see whether it’s really practical to bring Byres Road for a standstill while packing it with thousands of people – there might be a better way of doing things.

The Festival really started with the burst of good weather, with every outlet able to field an outdoor table seemingly working to capacity most lunchtimes – for a few days it looked as busy as a street in central Edinburgh.

Conspicuous winners included the usual suspects – Oran Mor, whose courtyard drinking area is mobbed whenever the sun shines; Booli Mardi, famous sun-trap of the West; and also Ashton Lane bars able to capture their fair share of the rays, for example Brel.

The Primary superpub on Woodlands Road is a crowd-magnet when the sun’s out, along with the outdoor areas at places as varied as Gandolfi and (tiny but intimate) Cherubini, both on the stretch between Kelvinbridge and George’s Cross.

Sonny and Vito’s on Park Road, now with a drinks licence and open to seven, also attracts the al fresco diners.

Hopefully these and outlets like them will see a great deal more of the same in July.

Update West End Dining
Byres Road revival?

This section: Eating and drinking Glasgow West End

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Avatar of PatByrne Publisher of Pat's Guide to Glasgow West End; the community guide to the West End of Glasgow. Fiction and non-fiction writer.

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