GetStuffed FoodDrinkRestaurants
Crumbs of comfort There’s a place in Glasgow’s West End where Auntie M bakes whoopie pies all day long, as Kate Maclennan discovers
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Glasgow
VANISHING WILLOWS CAFÉ Erskine Garden Centre, Bishopton, 0141 814 4626, www.erskine.org.uk, £8 (lunch) Vanishing Willows is a new venture between Erskine, a charity to support ex-servicemen and women, and chef Nick Nairn. Part of Erskine Garden Centre, near Bishopton and Erskine town, the café offers a healthy and welcome stopover point on a day out of town. There is a bright dining area and a large outdoor terrace overlooking the hills – or the garden centre depending on which way you are sitting. Nick Nairn created the menu which includes brie and bacon or hummus, red pepper and spinach paninis and a good selection of cakes and tarts. Soup and hot lunches, served until 2.30pm, change daily but might include local bangers and mash or haddock and chips, and all profits go to the charity.
T ucked upstairs in De Courcey’s Arcade, Auntie M’s Cake Lounge offers a very West End antidote to Starbucks et al. It has a homely retro feel comprised of 1950s furniture and flower print tablecloths. Dainty cups and saucers take the place of chunky mugs while tea and cakes, rather than coffee and Danishes, are the staples. The menu changes daily with cake prices ranging from £1.95 to £2.75. Favourites such as brownies and scones are usually in place every day, but the real excitement of visiting M’s is the owner Michelle Aaron’s innovative cakes – maybe white chocolate pistachio or sweet potato and pecan. Sweet potato may not be a familiar baking ingredient but it adds density and moistness to the sponge and, combined with the caramelised pecans and thick icing, it’s blissful. Also worth trying are whoopie pies – available in Harrods and so à la mode.
10 THE LIST 10–24 Jun 2010
Whoopie pies are Elvis-style cake sandwiches: the outer slices are made of chocolate cookie cake and the middle is filled with peanut butter cream. Auntie M’s drink suggestions to complement the whoopie, or indeed any other other cake, centre around a range of loose-leaf teas, but if you must drink coffee it is available in filter form, along with several soft drinks. + The icing - Man (and woman) cannot live by cake alone
AUNTIE M’S CAKE LOUNGE De Courcey’s Arcade, Cresswell Lane, West
End, Glasgow, 0141 334 4053. Mon/Tue & Thu–Sat 11am–5.30pm;
Sun noon–5pm. Closed Wed.
THE BUTCHERSHOP BAR & GRILL 1055 Sauchiehall Street, West End, 0141 339 2999, www.butchershopglasgow.com, £12 (lunch) / £20 (dinner) In case you can’t guess from the name, the Butchershop is decorated with clues that steaks and burgers are the main attraction. All steaks are 28-day dry-aged Angus beef and the quality of the sourcing is clear. For non-meat eaters there is a seasonal veg risotto and some fish dishes. Blink and you miss the short dessert menu but there is a seasonal special, and the coffees are excellent. The view from the terrace of Kelvingrove and Glasgow University makes it an ideal spot for a sundowner, with an extensive choice of cocktails for pre-club action in the early evening.