FOOD & DRINK RECENT OPENINGS
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OTAGO NIGHTS Glasgow’s appetite for burgers and cocktails continues with this new venture from a seasoned restaurateur. David Kirkwood gets the skinny
T enements, tenements everywhere, and not a place to drink. So it was in Otago Street, a residential link between Great Western Road and the university that lacked a watering hole. With this venture, owner Alan Tomkins (of Blue Dog, Vodka Wodka, among others) addresses that and taps into the student population with an on-trend bar/diner selling cocktails and burgers. It bears his typical touches: classiness (tealights, spotlights and long, clean lines); quirkiness (‘hamburger’ in different languages on the wall); and an excellent bar. The long cocktails – mojitos, lynchburgs and ‘Skinny’s Lemonade’ – are especially well made. Food is enjoyable, too. Fried chicken and grilled cheese sandwiches are gloriously unhealthy, unevenly shaped options that taste big and homemade. And there’s the gourmet burger on brioche bun which may lack a bit of the full-on meatiness of some recent arrivals, but fares well against others from this postcode. Bought-in skinny fries and straight-down-the-middle mac’n’cheese are minor disappointments – though being a bar as much as an eaterie takes some pressure off the kitchen. Student promotions, Oreo sundaes and that useful location add to the appeal.
SKINNY’S
61 Otago Street, Glasgow, G12 8PQ, 0141 339 8455, skinnysbar.co.uk Ave price two-course meal: £13.50 (lunch/dinner)
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 BREAD MEATS BREAD BURGER DINER
rich chocolate tarts and fruity muffins to cookies and nutty treats, the line-up is expansive and dangerously tempting. Of course, there is plenty of bread too, including croissants, sourdoughs, baguettes and walnut loaves. A welcome return, and another feather for Kelvinbridge’s foodie credentials. LABORATORIO ESPRESSO COFFEE BAR & CAFE
104 St Vincent St, City Centre, G2 5UB, 0141 249 9898, breadmeatsbread.co.uk, £12 (lunch/dinner) This addition to Glasgow’s gourmet burger scene makes a serious case for a seat at the top table. It offers dry-aged Scotch beefburgers as red label (with spicy nduja pork sausage) and premium-cut black label, plus the house blend. Its classic is juicy, full of flavour and big – and it’s only a fiver. Other inexpensive options such as comforting grilled cheese sandwiches (with a soup dip) and full-beef hotdogs make this airy spot a very attractive choice. And it does chips – but better still, poutines: a Quebecois dish of potato fries, curds and sauce. That’s right, Glasgow now has gourmet chips, cheese and gravy – we live in exciting times. 93 West Nile Street, City Centre, G1 2SH, 0141 353 1111, laboratorioespresso.com, £7 (lunch) An intimate space with single-figure covers, Laboratorio Espresso will have architecture and design fans drooling into their flat whites. The floor is dark, the counter concrete, and there are striking strips of timber reclaimed from Glasgow School of Art on walls and ceiling. Similar care has gone into the expertly made coffee, and the Milanese ethic is plain to see and smell. The Italian take on breakfast includes cantucci di prato alongside pastries and bread. From a small selection of lunchtime sandwiches, a neatly presented meatball ciabatta is typical. The range of cakes is small rather than overblown, but this is a coffee shop for lovers of coffee with style.
COTTONRAKE BAKERY & CAFE
497 Great Western Road, West End, G12 8HL, 07910 282040, cottonrake.com, £7 (lunch) The closure of Cottonrake’s bakery in Hyndland was more of a blow to Glasgow’s sweet tooth than the recent loss of Aulds from its corner spot, now taken over by this impressive bakers. As a bonus, this time there are stools for perching at the window bar and perusing Great Western Road’s to-ings and fro- ings while enjoying a quality brew and cake. From
Edinburgh DEVIL’S ADVOCATE BAR
9 Advocate’s Close, Old Town, EH1 1ND, 0131 225 4465, @TheDAOldTown, £17 (lunch/dinner) The nooks and crannies of the Old Town have never been short on tucked-away secrets, and from the team behind the Bon Vivant comes another. A contemporary whisky, cocktail and craft ale bar hewn from the cramped mass of ancient and restored architecture between the Royal Mile and Market Street, this is a place of bare brick, rough walls, exposed industrial fittings and untreated wood. The mezzanine floor is set up for dining and serves smart bar food from flat-iron steak sandwiches to barley and beetroot risotto.
BOTECO DO BRASIL SOUTH AMERICAN BAR AND DINER 47 Lothian Street, Old Town, EH1 1HB, 0131 220 4287, botecodobrasil.com
As the host of the football World Cup next year, there will be plenty of media focus on Brazil coming up, and you can expect the themes of carnival, colour and energetic partying to get a good airing. Café-bar and nightclub Boteco do Brasil set up in Glasgow in 2010 and has now found an Edinburgh home in the former Negociants on the edge of Bristo Square. The tried and tested themes are much in evidence: you can get well-priced caipirinhas in the bar and salsa classes in the nightclub below. Meanwhile the menu of tapas, burgers and mains such as veggie lasagne is more mainstream than you might expect, though it’s studded with moments of distinction in a meaty bean feijoada stew and the appearance of cassava in various dishes.
NARDINI’S ICE-CREAM PARLOUR & CAFÉ Merchiston Place, Bruntsfield, EH10 4NP, 0131 228 4641, nardinis.co.uk, £8 (lunch/dinner) A generation back, the territories of Scotland’s various ice-cream families were fairly well demarcated. Following various contractions, mergers and partnerships, many boundaries are now blurred, no more so than by Holy Corner in the southside of Edinburgh where Nardini’s, originally of Largs, has opened a couple of blocks from an outlet of Luca’s of Musselburgh. Set up as a timeless gelateria and pasticeria, it’s all gleaming display cabinets and long benches with nostalgic photos on the walls and hunners and thousands of variations on knickerbocker glories and other OTT ice-cream-based desserts.
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
56 THE LIST 12 Dec 2013–23 Jan 2014