Food&Drink News&Reviews
Super-duper market The arrival of the vast, upscale Whole Foods supermarket on Glasgow’s Southside has attracted bafflement and swoons of delight in equal measure. Jay Thundercliffe took a trolley-tour
SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
HAVING
TEETERED ON the brink of disappearing, Howies has been saved by
David Howie Scott, the man who founded the group in 1990 then sold his interest in 2006, along with his wife Alison Craig. The pair have taken over the sites on Victoria Street and Waterloo Place in Edinburgh, along with Chapel Street in Aberdeen.
FROM THE OWNERS OF
the Left Bank and The Two Figs in Glasgow comes a new
Southside venture, The Bungo, at 17–21 Nithsdale Road. It’s a familiar mix of sharp design, home cooking, decent drinks and laid-back charm. thebungo.co.uk
FOLLOWING A BIT OF A
tease on Facebook, a pop-up, ‘guerilla’ burger bar featuring top chefs flipping organic patties in unexpected spots around Edinburgh has already sold out its first February sitting. Catch the latest at burgherburger.co.uk and expect more like it later in 2012.
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Y ou have to hand it to the Americans – they certainly know how to create an impressive supermarket. The opening of Whole Foods Market in Giffnock has had foodies, healthy eaters and ethical shoppers from Glasgow (not to mention resentful Edinburghers) swooning in the aisles – packed as those shiny shelves are with such a bedazzling array of healthy, natural and organic produce that it feels like a detox just walking around. While adhering to the chain’s ‘Four Pillars of Healthy Eating’ (wholefoods, plant-strong, healthy fats and nutrient dense), it’s all distinctly upmarket – think Waitrose with a bigger moral compass – and undeniably American in the extravagant range of high-quality produce and faultless presentation, with not a whole cheese round or sourdough loaf out of kilter. Like scoop shops of old, there’s plenty to bag or bottle yourself, including coffee beans, nuts, pulses, oil and even beer.
To say it’s completely new is rather unfair on places such as Grassroots Organic and Roots & Fruits. OK, they’ve no mighty US machine turning cogs but in Grassroots case they’ve been offering Glaswegians those same ‘Four Pillars’, just in miniature, for three decades, roughly when Whole Foods began in Austin, Texas. Nowadays, Scotland’s burgeoning small-scale producers have highlighted the impressive larder on our doorstep, and we are a bit wiser to the ethical
30 THE LIST 5 Jan–2 Feb 2012
A blueprint that all our supermarkets should use Proof there can be too much of a good thing
implications of our consumption, from how vegetables are grown and animals reared to food miles and packaging. Whole Foods Market is a welcome windfall for the hundreds of carefully chosen suppliers they use, from cheesemakers, brewers and scallop-divers to pig farmers – although it must seem more of a destructive Atlantic storm system for the fishmongers, butchers and delis nearby.
The shopfloor’s faultless set-up doesn’t extend to the undersized café where food bought in the shop is microwaved and eaten from disposable packaging. It is no way to enjoy the tantalising food on offer, all prepared in-house, from a tasty Tuscan soup and a chunky Mediterranean focaccia to delicious parmesan-crusted chicken, and sage-infused quinoa and sweet potato cakes. Those looking for a healthy start to the New Year should pop in for some unadulterated goodness, although if you’re tightening the purse strings as well as the waistline you may want to whistle Dixie at the checkout.
WHOLE FOODS MARKET
124–134 Fenwick Road, Glasgow, G46 6XN
0141 621 2700, wholefoodsmarket.com Mon–Sun 8am–9pm. Ave. price meal: £11
BAR CRAWLER
SHEEP HEID INN 43–45 The Causeway, Duddingston Village, Edinburgh The self-styled oldest pub in Edinburgh has seen a recent restoration that mixes well-worn rustic charm with a bit of pleasant but formulaic pastel makeover. A destination watering hole for a trek over Arthur’s Seat, there’s a refreshed menu of hearty favourites, which means that Bar Crawler’s favourite Sunday roasts are still there. So are the skittle alley, thank goodness, and the screeds of historical whatnot.