Food&Drink News&Reviews
‘Allo Glasgow Historically, Glasgow has been lacking in the French restaurant department. Erica Goodey visits a new place doing the full-on frogs-legs thing
SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
SOMETHING FISHY is happening in Glasgow’s City Centre. New opening
Creedence is serving up seafood from Arran and Loch Fyne in a cosy basement venue on West Regent Street, while Sauchiehall Street’s Taste is gearing up for pop-up seafood dining (plus hog roasts) at weekends until the wee small hours.
WHILE THEY WAIT for the Gardener’s Cottage off London Road in Edinburgh to be
spruced up for a planned opening in June, ex-Atrium chefs Dale Mailley and Edward Murray are running a weekly pop-up outdoor restaurant at Edinburgh Farmers’ Market. Weather permitting, they’re serving meals using ingredients gathered from producers the day before. thegardenerscottage.co SCI-FI, COMICBOOK AND GENRE- FICTION specialist Pulp Fiction Books at 43 Bread Street in Edinburgh has relaunched with a café alongside the bookshop, complete with takeaway lines and a deli counter. pulp-books.com
‘F rench’ tends to be a label that’s very loosely slapped on a restaurant in Glasgow – often truly being ‘French with a twist of this or that’. That’s changed, however, with Le Bistro Beaumartin popping onto the petite-yet-elite scene to teach Glasgow a thing or two about real French food, escargot and all.
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French flavours matched with Scottish ingredients Lacks the touches of a fine-dining experience
stripped-back and authentic. Don’t be disappointed, for example, when the confit duck arrives looking like a duck shepherd’s pie – once you’ve got over the ready-meal appearance (the chef assures us this is how it’s done in Burgundy), it’s a truly beautiful dish of light creamy potatoes and chunks of spiced duck in a rich, meaty sauce.
Stylish and elegant at the front, yet homely at the back, the restaurant is like a kitsch continental front room: all black-and-white photographs on the walls, rich thick wallpaper and retro bistro chairs. Co-owner Richard Dupupet ran his own successful bistros in Paris for 11 years before deciding to come to Glasgow, bringing his Scottish-born, French-trained head chef (and co-owner), Andrew Stott, with him. The pair have recognised that France and Scotland share one key trait (apart from a mild distaste for les rosbifs): both have fine natural larders overflowing with fresh, delicious ingredients.
To start, home-cured salmon marinated in honey, dill and sparkling wine sounds fantastic, though the marinade’s flavours barely whisper in the final dish. For mains, however, the fillet of beef is among the finest steaks currently being served in Glasgow. Well- sourced from Ayrshire, you can almost smell the green grass and fresh Scottish air as tender, juicy meat dissolves on your tongue. Don’t expect Michel Roux-style flourishes here: the dishes come out like they would in a bistro: simple,
26 THE LIST 26 Apr–24 May 2012
Desserts, meanwhile, are other-worldly: a black cherry flan with bulbous cherries bursting in your mouth alongside pockets of fluffy, creamy-sweet flan. Appealingly, the restaurant has a multi-dimensional set of menus, ranging from open sandwiches at lunch to post-4.30pm platters for the after-work crowd, with a modest à la carte for the evenings. The realities of the Glasgow dining scene may take a bit of getting used to for the owners – but take this restaurant for what it is, genuine French bistro-style food, and you will find some excellent eating.
LE BISTRO BEAUMARTIN
161 Hope Street, City Centre, Glasgow, G2 2UQ
0141 226 4442, lebistrobeaumartin.co.uk
Mon–Sat 11am–3pm, 4.30pm–11pm. Closed Sun. Ave. price two-course meal: £14.50 (set lunch)
/ £21 (dinner)
DEUCHARS RECOMMENDS THE BLUE GOOSE 7 Lanark Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1TG, 0131 629 4143
Recently refurbished and under new ownership, the Blue Goose is putting on a Cask Ale festival on 5 & 6 May with a BBQ and live band. Having now restored the beer garden to its former glory beside the Water of Leith, Gerry and his team provide the perfect spot to enjoy that special pint of Deuchars.