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Glasgow Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
7 brunch spots with outdoor seating in Glasgow
From West End bakeries to new city centre openings, here are seven restaurants and cafes where you can sip iced coffees and enjoy eggs benedicts under the sun. Zique's Hinba 66 Hyndland Street With coffee roasted on the Hebridean Isle of Seil and a menu of brunch dishes including tomatoes on toast with red pesto and pickled peppers, or freshly baked croissants with Netherend Farm butter and jam, Zique's Hinba's is the perfect place to spend a lazy Saturday morning. Singl-End 15 John Street or 263 Renfrew Street Serving at locations in Merchant City and Garnethill, Singl-end are long-established favourites of Glasgow's brunch scene. Whether you choose a pastry from the heavily-loaded baking display, or keep things savoury with skillet-baked eggs and chilli fennel sausage, a trip to these busy brunch spots is guaranteed to set you up for the day ahead. The city centre outdoor seating area, in particular, turns into a real sun trap when the warm weather hits. Sunny Acre 745 Pollokshaws Road In the Scotland-focused episode of the hit Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil, actress Kelly Macdonald split a huge stack of cakes and bakes with host Phil Rosenthal at this Southside cafe. Anyone who has visited for themselves will understand why his enthusiasm began building with each bite. It's a popular place, which means securing a seat can be a difficult task, but slices of their homemade quiches and frittatas taste even better under the sun in the newly introduced outdoor seating area. The Wilson Street Pantry 6 Wilson Street If picture-perfect eggs are your favourite way to start the day, look no further than The Wilson Street Pantry in the city centre. Order them poached, fried, or scrambled on sourdough toast with optional extras of cold smoked salmon, feta cheese or link sausage. The team's specials are always worth a look too, with past creations pairing Corrie Mains eggs with chive, coriander, crab and smashed avocado or Thai basil cream cheese and crispy bacon bits. Partick Duck Club 27 Hyndland Street Just down the road from Zique's Hinba, the Partick Duck Club offers customers the chance to dine in quirky outdoor 'duck huts'. These booth-like benches look out towards Masnfield Park, making them a great choice for people watching while you tuck into a breakfast bun with homemade haggis, scrambled egg or beef dripping hash brown. The brunch menu is served all day, which means later on you can swap the coffee for a spicy Bloody Mary or fruity mimosa, if you fancy it. Cottonrake Cafe 717 Great Western Road There are plenty of fantastic brunch spots dotted along Great Western Road in Glasgow's West End, but the attention to detail and winning flavour combinations at Cottonrake earn them a place on this week's list. Think coconut and chia seed overnight oats with cherry compote and sweet nut dukkah, toasted rye topped with prosciutto, charred spring onion whipped cheese, hazelnut pesto and grilled nectarines, or grilled sourdough sandwiches with gruyere, cheddar & dijon mustard. The team has recently started opening in the evenings too, with a brand new dinner menu. Scran and Roadie 180 Saltmarket Previously located on London Road in the city's East End, Scran was known for regularly topping lists of Glasgow's best brunch spots. Although the team moved to a new unit last month, adding a selection of freshly made pizzas to their offering, there's no need for OG fans to worry. At their larger home just off Glasgow Green, you'll still find the team's best-selling brunch dishes from poached eggs with Stornoway black pudding to chicken salt hash browns topped with parmesan and truffle mayonnaise available from opening until 3 pm. As for the London Road spot? It's been taken over by the team behind Ho Lee Fook.
The Herald Scotland
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Seven brunch spots with outdoor seating in Glasgow
From West End bakeries to new city centre openings, here are seven restaurants and cafes where you can sip iced coffees and enjoy eggs benedicts under the sun. Zique's Hinba 66 Hyndland Street With coffee roasted on the Hebridean Isle of Seil and a menu of brunch dishes including tomatoes on toast with red pesto and pickled peppers, or freshly baked croissants with Netherend Farm butter and jam, Zique's Hinba's is the perfect place to spend a lazy Saturday morning. If you're more tempted by a lie-in followed by small plates and cocktails in the evening, you can read our review of their dinner menu from last month here: Glasgow restaurant institution has new owners - how is the food? Singl-End 15 John Street or 263 Renfrew Street Serving at locations in Merchant City and Garnethill, Singl-end are long-established favourites of Glasgow's brunch scene. Whether you choose a pastry from the heavily-loaded baking display, or keep things savoury with skillet-baked eggs and chilli fennel sausage, a trip to these busy brunch spots is guaranteed to set you up for the day ahead. The city centre outdoor seating area, in particular, turns into a real sun trap when the warm weather hits. Sunny Acre 745 Pollokshaws Road In the Scotland-focused episode of the hit Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil, actress Kelly Macdonald split a huge stack of cakes and bakes with host Phil Rosenthal at this Southside cafe. Anyone who has visited for themselves will understand why his enthusiasm began building with each bite. It's a popular place, which means securing a seat can be a difficult task, but slices of their homemade quiches and frittatas taste even better under the sun in the newly introduced outdoor seating area. The Wilson Street Pantry 6 Wilson Street If picture-perfect eggs are your favourite way to start the day, look no further than The Wilson Street Pantry in the city centre. Order them poached, fried, or scrambled on sourdough toast with optional extras of cold smoked salmon, feta cheese or link sausage. The team's specials are always worth a look too, with past creations pairing Corrie Mains eggs with chive, coriander, crab and smashed avocado or Thai basil cream cheese and crispy bacon bits. Partick Duck Club 27 Hyndland Street Just down the road from Zique's Hinba, the Partick Duck Club offers customers the chance to dine in quirky outdoor 'duck huts'. These booth-like benches look out towards Masnfield Park, making them a great choice for people watching while you tuck into a breakfast bun with homemade haggis, scrambled egg or beef dripping hash brown. The brunch menu is served all day, which means later on you can swap the coffee for a spicy Bloody Mary or fruity mimosa, if you fancy it. Cottonrake Cafe 717 Great Western Road There are plenty of fantastic brunch spots dotted along Great Western Road in Glasgow's West End, but the attention to detail and winning flavour combinations at Cottonrake earn them a place on this week's list. Think coconut and chia seed overnight oats with cherry compote and sweet nut dukkah, toasted rye topped with prosciutto, charred spring onion whipped cheese, hazelnut pesto and grilled nectarines, or grilled sourdough sandwiches with gruyere, cheddar & dijon mustard. The team has recently started opening in the evenings too, with a brand new dinner menu. Scran and Roadie 180 Saltmarket Previously located on London Road in the city's East End, Scran was known for regularly topping lists of Glasgow's best brunch spots. Although the team moved to a new unit last month, adding a selection of freshly made pizzas to their offering, there's no need for OG fans to worry. At their larger home just off Glasgow Green, you'll still find the team's best-selling brunch dishes from poached eggs with Stornoway black pudding to chicken salt hash browns topped with parmesan and truffle mayonnaise available from opening until 3 pm. As for the London Road spot? It's been taken over by the team behind Ho Lee Fook. More on that here: Barras street food sensation Ho Lee Fook to take over popular city cafe.
Scotsman
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The EIBF has learned nothing about real diversity
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Last year, the board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival was forced to sever ties with its sponsor of two decades, Baillie Gifford. The threats from protestors to disrupt the festival due to Baillie Gifford's alleged ties with Israel and fossil fuel companies were simply too grave to ignore. Greta Thunberg pulling out of the programme and a pious bunch of petition-signing celebrities helped pile the pressure onto the EIBF and, with regret, they kowtowed. For those of us in the writing world with openly heterodox opinions, it was a sorry but predictable farce the Scottish arts world had brought on itself. This is what happened in a culture that had done nothing but, for instance, pander to trans activists when they were hounding people with reality-based views on sex and chant blindly along with every trendy 'social justice' slogan. If you make political diversity heresy, don't act surprised when the torch-bearers turn on you. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Activist Greta Thunberg, seen at a protest in Paris, cancelled a planned appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival over investments in the fossil fuel industry by the event's then-sponsor Baillie Gifford | AFP via Getty Images Alongside the justified schadenfraude there was also tentative hope that a lesson would be learned. That the Scottish literary scene would start to amend this crisis of its own making and start platforming a spectrum of political views. The theme for this year's festival is 'Repair', after all. Alas though, things remain broken. One would think that in the year the UK Supreme Court confirmed the definition of women in law and multiple politicians have rescinded their support for gender self-ID, there might be a single event featuring a notable women's rights campaigner. Quite a few of them have written excellent books recently after all. Victoria Smith. Julie Bindel. Susanna Rustin. Orwell-prize shortlisted Hannah Barnes. The Scotland-focused Sunday Times bestseller The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, has come out on paperback, in which over thirty essayists (including myself) are featured. Yet nothing. I'm not naive enough to be surprised but it remains highly depressing. One particularly glaring omission There is one omission that seems particularly glaring however, and that is Jenny Lindsay, a performance poet and leading figure in the Scottish literary scene. In November last year she published a book 'Hounded: Women, Harms And The Gender Wars' and there's few texts that would have complemented the 'Repair' theme more aptly. Because before you can fix anything, you have to understand what's gone wrong, and that's exactly what 'Hounded' explores. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Drawing on Lindsay's own experience in the arts, where overnight she found herself a target of wrongthink hounding for the crime of calling out violence against women, her book moves through the psychological, social and democratic harms the normalisation of bullying-disguised-as-virtue is wreaking on society. Lindsay had drawn attention to trans-identified Cathy Brennan, a writer for The Skinny, who'd advocated online for physical violence against lesbians at that year's Pride. For this, Lindsay was branded a 'TERF' and subjected to years of harassment and career disruptions. A matter of days after, Brennan allegedly attacked lesbian and women's rights campaigner Julie Bindel at Edinburgh University. As Lindsay speculated in a recent podcast interview , her being proven right was the most unforgivable thing in her hounders' eyes. Of course, it's at the EIBF's discretion to invite who they please. No one is entitled to a platform. But on the programme are several of Lindsay's most vicious and vocal hounders. Alice Tarbuck, for instance, the Literature Officer at Creative Scotland who brought disgrace on the institution when she was exposed as having actually rang bookshops and demanded they do not stock Lindsay's book. There's also Harry Josephine Giles, who co-authored a censorious petition to The Scottish Poetry Library against Lindsay and fellow poet Magi Gibson. (I confess I've a particular abject loathing for those that orchestrate petitions against individuals, trumped only by my disgust at the sheep who sign them). Statement of allegiance? Giles, whose most recent noteworthy public appearance has been screaming 'Give us wombs and give us t***ies!' to a crowd of baying activists after the Supreme Court ruling, will be appearing at six events in the programme. It's hard to read this as anything but a statement of allegiance to misogynistic bullies over a renewed dedication to freedom of expression. What a concerning indictment of the Scottish arts scene. Susan Smith, left, and Marion Calder, co-directors of For Women Scotland, celebrate outside the Supreme Court in London in April after its ruling on the definition of a woman | PA In the interest of transparency, Jenny is a dear friend of mine. I've known and loved her as a sister in feminism trying to navigate the Orwellian artistic landscape in which we (still) find ourselves. But before that, I knew her as a poet and writer. Without bias, the EIBF has snubbed not only a throughly principled artist but an enviably talented one. Around the time she published her brave, articulate essay 'Anatomy Of A Hounding' in The Dark Horse magazine, I was a creative writing student and seeing first hand the damage ideological hiveminderey was doing, not only to aspiring writers' freedom of expression, but literary quality itself. 'Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others' as Albert Camus said. There are seemingly few artists left that embody this spirit. Jenny is one of them. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My favourite poem of Jenny's is 'The Schism Ring' from her collection This Script. She opens it by describing the menu for a feminist literary gathering - a superficially inclusive, oh-so-safe borefest of gluten-free and vegan cakes, before going on to describe the meaty, unctuous, mischievously un-PC feast she secretly craves - frogs legs, steak on the bone, duck eggs and full-fat buttery mash. It's a beautiful metaphor for the intellectual hunger so many of us feel around modern feminism, the literary scene or both. It would be disingenuous to say the EIBF doesn't feature a lot of talented, compelling writers outside the likes of Tarbuck and Giles. All the same, I read the programme and see an artistic climate that remains starved, mostly of courage.
STV News
21-05-2025
- Business
- STV News
STV to create new commercial radio station
STV has announced plans to launch a Scotland-focused commercial radio station. The new mainstream music station, aimed mainly at 35-to-54-year-olds, will be available on DAB and online. STV said that creating a radio station is a 'natural extension' for the company and will help it create a strong, 'future-proofed' advertising business across digital and audio. The studio will be based at STV's headquarters in Pacific Quay, Glasgow. Bobby Hain, managing director of audience: news, audio and regulatory at STV, said: 'We already have a strong connection with our audiences who know and trust our brand and radio is a natural extension for us, so we're delighted to be breaking into this market with an exciting new offering for listeners across Scotland. STV News Graham Bryce, new head of STV's radio station, and Bobby Hain, STV managing director of audience. 'We have a clear ambition to be a top-three commercial radio station in Scotland by 2030. 'This is a move that will help us grow our audience even further and create exciting new commercial opportunities. 'Together, our broadcast channel, streaming platform and radio station will enable us to offer a powerful cross-platform and affordable advertising proposition with real regional flexibility and local targeting capabilities.' The radio station will be headed by Graham Bryce, who was previously chief operating officer of Bauer Media UK. It has been announced as part of a wider strategic update from STV on Wednesday. The radio station is part of its newly created Audience division, which incorporates the company's broadcast channel STV, streaming service STV Player and the new audio business. The name of the station and its key presenters will be announced later this year. 'I'm delighted to be leading this new venture with STV, expanding its offering into the dynamic world of audio,' Mr Bryce said. 'Radio listening remains robust and with Scots having a strong appetite for commercial radio I'm confident our new national station will offer something different and exciting to the market. 'This will be a truly national commercial station for Scotland with presenters, news and content focused on the needs and interests of listeners living in Scotland. 'We believe there is a real gap in the market, and I can't wait to get started and shake things up.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Glasgow Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
I ate at Glasgow's University Cafe 10 years after TV fame
A kitsch callback to a simpler time, it's leading them indoors where stainless steel buckets filled with sweet ice cream lie in subzero temperatures beneath the counter. Kudos to them for finding the perfect antidote to the balmy Spring weather, but I'm here in search of a dish that will stretch the limits of my appetite far further than a scoop of stracciatella. 'I'm pretty sure god is against this,' late chef and beloved TV personality Anthony Bourdain said of his dinner eaten in this spot for a Scotland-focused episode of Parts Unknown, which first aired on May 10, 10 years ago. READ NEXT: Is Ho Lee Fook the best street food in Glasgow? READ NEXT: The inside story of Glickman's - Glasgow's oldest sweet shop (Image: Newsquest) He delivered this one of signature, razor-sharp one-liners while reaching for another chip, swimming in curry sauce and topped with a blanket of melted cheese so thick that you could almost feel the weight of it through your screen as it cooled and congealed. Of course, this was just a side order to his main event of deep-fried haggis (served here in 'tube form') and a portion of crispy battered haddock. A decade later, looking for a way to acknowledge the milestone, I've decided to risk a spike in cholesterol levels for the chance to experience the same meal which the Kitchen Confidential star ultimately hailed as 'one of life's great pleasures'. Outside of a star feature in Bourdain's celebrated CNN travel series, The University Café is an institution in its own right. Run by the Verrechia family, there's over 100 years' worth of history packed into these walls, and the interiors remain delightfully unchanged as one of the West End's busiest streets morphs and evolves around them. Pictured: Chips, cheese and curry sauce is just the beginning (Image: Newsquest) I sit towards the back of the space, where I'm caught off guard by leather seats which fold down just the same as those you'd find at a theatre. It's snug, but the perfect spot to survey the comings and goings of the café. Aside from swarms of students buzzing in and out with queries about today's ice cream flavours, there's only one other solo diner occupying the sit-in dining area. I eye his can of Irn Bru from across the room and wonder if he too has chosen the Bourdain Special, a repeat of the chef's Frankenstein order which has become a permanent fixture on their menu due to its popularity with fans. With my back to the wall shared with the kitchen, I can hear, but not see, my own single serving of the special being prepared. Crackle. Pop. Bubble. It all comes to a crescendo fuelled by blistering hot oil as each component of this gut-busting feast is plunged into a fryer. Having already dropped off the fizzy drink included in the Bourdain Special, the waitress almost catches me in the act of self-filming a video for our social channels when returning with the rest of the order. Pictured: The Bourdain Special at the University Cafe (Image: Newsquest) Thankfully, there's little time to agonise over whether the main man himself would have dubbed this blatant quest for content creation lame, because there's food here to be eaten. And a lot of it. The curry sauce goes first, poured at a height from a small white milk jug with a chip in its lip and falling in an uneven, gloopy stream. Foodie Room 101 though it may be to some, I find curry sauce to be the ultimate companion to any meal that feels just a little bit 'dirty'. There's a perverse pleasure in ordering this yellow-tinged condiment from a Chinese takeaway or chippy, knowing that that these sweet and spicy flavours don't quite belong but doing it anyway. I know this slathering of the good stuff will turn the batter of that freshly fried haddock into an instant mush, but I don't care, and continue to pour until the last drop. Of all of the items that complete Bourdain's god-offending order, I'll find that the haggis is the best. Whichever brand they use is of a high enough quality that there's decent texture even after being exposed to intense heat, and the richness of meat described in the TV segment as 'sinister sheep parts' shines through any greasiness. Take this from someone who compared six variations of our national dish, including one packed into a can, in honour of Burn's Night earlier this year. Is the haddock as good as the stuff they serve at say, the Fish Works in Largs, or the Anstruther Fish Bar? The short answer is no. But I'm not here for any kind of upmarket experience. It's salty, oily and the white flesh flakes just as well when released from a cocoon of heavy batter. A colleague later describes the meal as looking appetising in an 'after four pints' kind of way, and I understand his point. This is the type of food that can only be fully enjoyed when any notion of calorie counting or refined dining left at the door. Something that we should all surrender to now and again, whether sober or far from it. When I arise from the table, leaving the red leather seat to snap back it its original position behind me, I overhear a couple who have plonked themselves down with an impressive collection of backpacks asking the waiter about the Bourdain Special in unfamiliar accents, a reminder that his fans can be found all across the wide world he once travelled. 'It's funny, a lot of them seem to have sold today,' I'm told when approaching the counter to pay my bill. Before I have the chance to decide if I should reveal my journalistic motives for visiting, the long-serving member of the team offers up an anecdote from Bourdain's visit without any prompt. 'I had the place spotless,' she says, 'and then a child sat at the booth next to where they were filming and smeared their hands right across the glass.' I'm here to write about that very day, I tell her, in the hopes that she'll share more of what it was like to host a man whose work I found myself engrossed in as soon as I started to develop an interest in food and world cuisine. In all of the fun of the afternoon, her response is a sincere yet sobering reminder of the issues which plagued the chef when the cameras stopped rolling and would later develop into something much darker. He wasn't rude by any means, she stresses, but when she approached him to make conversation, the chef seemed somewhat disconnected and closed off. 'You can tell with some people, when something's not quite right.' (Image: Newsquest) Rewatching the Parts Unknown episode in the years following Bourdain's death in 2018 has a bittersweet effect. There's a sense of pride in the moment's when he highlights the city's true spirit rather than leaning into the stereotype of a gritty place plagued by violence and crime. But we now return to those soundbites, knowing that he will never walk its streets again. "A happy place from my past where once I frolicked young and carefree in the field of friolated arts. The University Cafe, where I learned at the foot of the masters the doa of hot fat and crispy batter." 10 years since we first tagged along with him for the ride, his name permanently printed on the menus at a place he returned to time and time again serves as a reminder of the seismic impact this troubled, yet brilliant chef and reluctant celebrity figure has left behind.
