GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
A Byres market
First figs, now pigs. Donald Reid sidles into the latest bar-bistro to rev up Glasgow’s West End scene
T his is the recession, right? Calamitous days for bars and restaurants? Yet everywhere you look there are new openings, and decent ones at that. In recent weeks the The Two Figs opened at the foot of Byres Road, followed closely by the Blind Pig, appearing a couple of hundred yards up the road in the moribund, poster-plastered site that once housed Whistler’s Mother.
There are many similarities between the Figs and Pigs – both come from established local operators, both have bar and dining areas split by a tenement close, both have a stylish, switched-on approach and both take some care over their food. Good news for the Byres Road scene. The List visited The Two Figs a few issues back (637). The Blind Pig, meanwhile, takes a bit of working out. It’s part 1920s prohibition- era: the name is slang for a speakeasy, and the period feel is provided by walls and ceiling painted in dark charcoal with white cornicing, ornate gold picture frames and sparkling lights (including an intriguing deconstructed chandelier of crystal glasses and decanters hanging above the scuffed wood dining room bar) penetrating the murky atmosphere. Cocktails are served in teapots – an entertaining if not original feature.
It’s also part Scottish food champion, being far too sophisticated a place to slip into the trap of serving Bugsy Malone burgers. Despite the Asian leanings of Brad Stevens’ other ventures Bar Soba and Mamasan, the various menus here offer a tuned-in array of local sources, artisanal produce and handmade breads, chutneys and salads. In the relatively formal dining room the starter list includes a bold slab of ham hough terrine or moist potted duck served with plum chutney, while mains feature confidently assembled cod with Indian- spiced lentils and roasted ‘heritage’ tomatoes or a chunky slice of Dunsyre Blue and broccoli tart with an intense pea and mint puree. It’s encouraging to see a pastry chef earning his crust not just with a smart tart but different
TAKE THREE: PORKY TIES
COCKTAILS ARE SERVED IN TEAPOTS AT THE BLIND PIG
breads for the starters, petit rolls with the cheese board and fresh, soft profiteroles doused in chocolate sauce. Such things help to develop a thread of connection between customer, chef and food source that goes deeper than the relatively easy tricks of building an enlarged kitchen hatch and speaking the right-on language of local and seasonal on the menu. Over in the busier, buzzier bar, Scottish food 2.0 is even more pronounced with pearl barley
THE BLIND PIG 116–122 Byres Road, Glasgow
0141 357 5482
Food served Mon–Sat noon–10pm; Sun 10am–9pm [bar open till midnight]
risotto, hog roast roll and venison sausages fronting up the ‘grazing’ menu, though at around £12 for a main and a pint it’s not such a light touch on the wallet. Most popular of all in the Blind Pig’s early day are football-free weekend brunches and full-on Sunday roasts featuring joints from Broomhill butchers Christie. The era of prohibition on serving real local food in bars may be over.
The Kilted Pig 101b Colinton Road, Edinburgh, 0131 444 1911, www.kiltedpig.co.uk Kilted pigs are sausages wrapped in bacon, as any hotel commis chef could tell you. The pub bearing the name is deep in Edinburgh’s southern suburbs, and offers pub grub which may major on meat, but can be innovative and refined too, serving crab tagliatelle or squid ink and salmon risotto.
The Butterfly and the Pig 153 Bath Street, Glasgow, 0141 221 7711, www.thebutterflyandthepig.com The sort of dining room you imagine Tim Burton might like to set a film in: all sweetly mismatched furniture and chintzy tat. The menu, written somewhere between English and gibberish, turns the whimsy level up to 11, and they get away with it only because the kitchen is imaginative and the food is excellent. Oink 34 Victoria Street, Edinburgh, www.reiver-foods.co.uk There aren’t many menus in Edinburgh as short as the one at Oink: it’s pork roll with or without crackling. This tiny Old Town takeaway has a whole pig (head and all), slow roasted overnight at Reivers Country Farm Foods in the Borders, lying in its roasting tray in full view in the window, as an advert for what’s inside.
10 THE LIST 8–22 Oct 2009