FOOD & DRINK
RECENT OPENINGS
The best of the new restaurant, café and bar openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Prices shown are for an average two-course meal for one.
Glasgow CENTRAL MARKET BISTROS AND BRASSERIES 51 Bell Street, Merchant City, G1 1PA, 0141 552 0902, £11 (lunch) / £17 (dinner)
Named after the food markets that operated herea- bouts in the 1800s, café-restaurant-deli Central Market is rather fetching with slated floor, marbled tables and gleaming tiles offset by exposed stonework and vintage touches, all illuminated by huge windows. The open kitchen’s compact modern British menu delivers top- quality ingredients with plenty of imagination and skill. Crispy beef brisket salad is a textural triumph – blending crunchy, succulent and morishly chewy to addictive effect. Mains include steak and burger, plus excel- lent acorn-fed Iberico pork, and deftly handled whole spatchcocked poussin. Breakfasts, sandwiches, artisan deli produce, a good winelist plus fizz and oysters complete an enticing operation delivering exciting and exceptional food at reasonable prices.
ASSAGGINI ITALIAN 91 Montgomery Street, Hillside, EH7 5HZ, 0131 629 3727, caferenroc.co.uk, £10 (lunch/dinner)
Independent write-ups on all the restaurants worth knowing about in Glasgow and Edinburgh are available on our online Eating & Drinking Guide at list.co.uk/food-and-drink 64 THE LIST 13 Dec 2012–24 Jan 2013
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SNOUT AND ABOUT Hannah Ewan visits a neighbourhood cafe-bistro run with a determined ethos of simplicity and integrity
L aura Watson’s career took a major tangent recently: after 18 months of planning, she quit her job as a social worker and teamed up with brother Jason Coles to open The Purple Pig Café in Tollcross. In ambience it is indeed a café, with a counter packed with home-baking and window displays of on-trend vintage tea-sets in customised birdcages. From Wednesday to Saturday, however, they open until 8pm, late enough for a BYOB policy and a short bistro menu of simple classics like mac and cheese or Moroccan meatballs, and useful for pre-theatre dinner before a night at the King’s.
Breakfast and lunch menus are kept similarly pared down, understandable when you discover that everything from falafel to cakes is made by self- taught cooks Watson and Coles. You can taste the care going into cooking and sourcing: two thick daily quiches are served with freshly shredded slaw; pastrami-filled bagels are from artisan baker Patisserie Joldo, and nachos come topped with homemade salsa, guacamole and (slightly too) lightly spiced chilli. They’re still finding their feet in fresh premises, but are getting the basics right. And, as Watson happily admits, compared to her old job: the worst that can happen running a café is a cold bowl of soup.
THE PURPLE PIG CAFÉ 12 Leven Street, Tollcross, Edinburgh,
EH3 9LG, 0131 261 8067
Ave. price two-course meal: £9 (lunch) / £11 (dinner)
132–142 Dumbarton Road, West End, G11 6NY, 0141 334 8826, tonymacaroni.co.uk, £10 (set lunch) / £14 (dinner) The ‘Curse of the Bottom of Byres Road’ was in danger of becoming a scary bedtime tale that restaurateurs told to their children. In recent years a few have man- aged just months, but new occupier Tony Macaroni has a string of successful venues, including one next door. A glitzy refit helps the positioning as a prosecco bar – though the rather awkward mezzanine remains. Assaggini refers to the vast selection of small plates, offering Tony’s dependable food in tapas form (three will generally do), encompassing pasta and risotto, salads, surf and turf, and fritti, plus notable lamb skewers and two dozen focaccia pizzas.
CAFE PHOENIX CAFÉ AND SECONDHAND BOOKSHOP 262 Woodlands Road, West End, G3 6NE, 0141 339 3020, £7 (lunch) From the ashes of book-lovers’ favourite Biblocafé comes this small but bright and cosy café. Located in studenty Woodlands, it has held on to much of the personable approach and learned quirkiness of the previous occupant. Secondhand books are available at might-as-well-grab-one-with-the-brew prices. Food is local, homemade on the premises and, in keeping with the area, it’s all nicely priced plus there are veggie/ vegan-friendly options. Homemade soups mix the imaginative with the classics, sandwiches range from baguettes to wraps, and substantial specials feature the likes of chilli with nachos, mac and cheese, moussaka or stovies – or just pop in for a good coffee and some tempting cakes and bakes.
Edinburgh CAFE RENROC CAFÉ-BISTRO
Already well known as a versatile neighbourhood café, Renroc has had a breath of fresh air blown through it by former Montpeliers executive chef Pelham Hill. Now with more of a bistro style, it features low sofa seating in the small café space upstairs and a shabby-chic aesthetic in the sizeable basement, with white-painted brick walls, large mirrors and windows onto the old understreet ovens. The service is excellent and homely, and the food is simple but created with a flourish, a se- lection of breakfasts, salads and sandwiches alongside more substantial mains including herby sausages and mash in a rich onion gravy, dense, hearty risottos or Fin- nan haddie with mash and poached egg.
THE BLACKBIRD BARS & PUBS 37-39 Leven Street, Bruntsi eld, EH3 9LH, 0131 228 2280, theblackbirdedinburgh.co.uk, £13 (lunch) / £16 (dinner)
The gentrification of Edinburgh’s bar scene proceeds apace, with the arrival of The Blackbird just off Brunts- field Links. From the same owners as Treacle and Ham- iltons, the Blac kbird has emerged with a striking but understated interior featuring bare brick walls, leather sofas and quirky lamps. A sizeable cocktail list and well- thought-out food menu has sharing plates of fish or deli meats and modern takes on hearty favourites like steak and ale pie with Innis & Gunn gravy and Auchterarder venison steak with pumpkin mash.