FOII & IRINK
Groucho St Judes
You shouldn’t consider moving, or indeed shaking in London media circles unless you're a member of the Groucho Club. In its short fifteen year life, the members’ only club has become the home from home hang out for the capital's A- list glitterati, with Stephen Fry, Keith Allen and Damien Hirst all infamous patrons.
Glasgow is now to have its own
version of the club with the
opening of Groucho St Judes, a collaboration between the London operation and local entrepreneurs Bobby Paterson (ex Mojo's, ex bass player for Love And Money) and Paul Wingate (big in property).
~ When it opens at the beginning of August in a converted Victorian
town house on Bath Street, Groucho St Judes will be a hotel, a bar and a fine dining restaurant.
'I always wanted to open a hotel,’ says Paterson. 'It stemmed from travelling the world with bands and
= staying in some really wonderful hotels and some which were really, really terrible. I just had a hankering to open somewhere where I'd have liked to have stayed on tour, somewhere with a bit of a
vibe.‘
He and Wingate were well underway with the , development of St .ludes before The Groucho got 5 involved, but as the project became bigger and bigger, they realised that they needed some extra support. Deyan Sudjic, director of Glasgow '99 City of Architecture, introduced them to Anthony Macintosh and Mary Lou Sturridge of the Groucho group who had been looking around for a project outside London. Within a week, a development manager was up in Glasgow. ‘We liked the building, it's got a very Groucho
Five bars . . .
where you can get a game of pool without having to take on the local pool table psychotic.
The Canal Hot Mammal You can smell the baize burning. Three full-sized American pool tables which you can book by the hour for a fiver. God bless America and all who sail in her. Especially Paul Newman when he was in The Hustler.
The Canal, 300 Bearsden Road, Glasgow 074 7 954 5333.
116 THE UST 22 Jul-S Aug 1999
was, . .
Marxism today: London's Groucho will soon be clubbing Glasgow-style
it seemed like such
club feel to it,’ says Sturridge, MD of The Groucho Club. ’We really liked Bobby and Paul on a personal level and
., ‘Iji.
, 11"* a I'd" ‘t,
4.“ '-.
’3; I‘.’ '1]: ,f‘
a good opportunity.’
Unlike the London affair, Groucho St Judes isn't just for
wouldn't really be
I Groucho St Judes, 8800.
Nice ‘n' Sleazy: chalking up the hits The Carwash Upstairs in the funkadelic, dayglo grotto of The Carwash lurks a handy pool table. Pulling off that tricky double isn’t always easy when the concentration is shattered by ’Crazy Horses' making its regular appearance in the night’s piped musical entertainment. The rare collection of early Top Of The Pops album sleeves makes up for it. Rumours that Donald Dewar and Alex Salmond often nip down from the nearby Parliament for a lunchtime pint and a game of pool with a £2 side bet
those who can get voted in and pay the membership fee. Paterson reckons that a members' only club
right for Glasgow: 'Up here they're
not bothered about private members‘ clubs, people are quite happy to come to a nice, cool environment where they know they are going to be surrounded by a similar i peer group. It'll find it's own level of like-minded people.’ (Rory Weller)
790 Bath Street, Glasgow, 0747 352
' following close ' behind. The
couldn't be further from the truth. The Carwash, 7 7 North Bank Street, 0737 220 0054.
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut The hub of Glasgow's music scene and the first Scottish stOp for most of Britain’s smaller touring bands, KTWWH also boasts a pool table. Wags might suggest that pool table skills could provide a handy back-up career option should the mega bucks record deal not come through. King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 272a St Vincent Street, 0747 227 5279.
The Tron Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s the place that used to be the old Tron Ceilidh House but there's more cue action than fiddle fireworks happening here now. A chalk drawing of Yoda lays down the law of the pool table just in case anyone decides to pull a light sabre over whether or not two shots carry on the black.
The Tron, 9 Hunter Square, Edinburgh, 0737 226 0937.
Nice 'n' Sleazy Just like the name says, this is where the hustlers come to pick up their marks. Oh alright, it’s where the students and musicians come to play pool. One can dream.
427 Sauchieha/l Street, Glasgow, 0747 333 9637.
, Especial With a
colour of Aztec
gold, this warm and mellow liqwd f spreads a light,
peppery, aromatic flavour across the
: malt whisky
former bourbon
premium tequila ; are rich and . smokey, with a
the first of its kind
2 Spit or swallow Z It’s all in the best possible taste.
i Tequila deserves rather more respect than being flung down the throat as a Slammer or lost in the mix in a
marguerita. The process of ageing tequila, for example, began in Mexnco
3 about 100 years ago, probably due to ‘r Spanish and American experiences with ageing sherry and whiskey. The
results are now slowly edging into the Scottish market — not as yet into off- licences, but into certain bars and restaurants. So veer away from white tequila and try the following neat or
: over ice.
lose Cuervo
palate. If sipping
reminds you of
toasty nights
; beside a raging fire, this conjures up
images of basking in the desert sun
- with nothing but cacti in your eyeline.
lose Cuervo Anejo Because it has been aged in
oak casks for a
year, the initial flavours of this
sweetness
Central American equivalent of port and madeira aged whiskies; or think of it as the Islay malt to the white tequila of the mainland.
Gran Centenario Agavero This amber-coloured tequila liqueur —
in the UK — uses an extract from the Mexican damania flower for its sweetness, and so it pleasantly lacks the thick sugary coating of, say, Glayva and Drambuie. The sharpness of the tequila balances with the cinammon and all spice for Christmas pud, Mexican-style. (Alan Morrison)
fflMVH It)
I Jose C uervo Anejo and Gran
C en tenario Agavero are available from Bar 97, Underworld, Brunswick Hotel and Salsa (Glasgow); Baroque, Cantina Mex/cane, Tex Mex, Miros Cantina, EH7, Cactus Jacks and Cafe Habbo es such as Blue Danube, ’ana (Edinburgh); La Bamba (Aberdeen) Comma Cafe Bar (Fa/kirk) and Ginger Cafe Bar (Stirling).