The Great Outdoors
While the first few three-week cycles of lockdown rolled by in a haze of anxious banana bread baking and protracted Zoom quizzes, the route map for easing restrictions has slowed the passing days to a glacial pace as we way for the shape of things to come to be revealed. Despite glitches along the way, it looks like we’ve made it to the point where we can embrace a new outdoor existence. Familiar food and drink places will start to return with an improvised roadside economy.
The owners of the Rotunda building in Finnieston are among the first to react, starting construction on the Cranside Kitchen, providing space for an international food market and beer garden in their car park. The venue will be free to enter, open seven days a week, with two pergola style marquees to cover picnic tables.
With space for 200 guests and social distancing measures, the food market will offer menus from five Glasgow’s restaurants – Rioja, Halloumi, Pickled Ginger, Kilmurry & Co and La Rotunda with a single drinks and desserts menu. Dishes will include Greek pork gyros, stonebaked pizza, sushi platters and Spanish grilled octopus. The bar will sell negroni, margarita and mojito cocktails alongside wine, beer and spirits.
The venture is led by business partners Kevin Campbell and Toni Carbajosa. Speaking during a site visit as the project got underway this week, Toni said : “We’re trying to work out ways to keep everything moving and keep the staff going. When we heard the news that we had to close at the start of lockdown it was worrying. Now we want to do something to keep the restaurant brands going and allow people to eat good food.
He said there had been a positive reaction from authorities when they introduced plans and that licensing authorities are working with restaurant owners to fast track changes to enable reopening: “In regards to outdoor seating, I think the council is being supportive when plans are presented”.
Toni believes the food market could be open next week. “We are very much waiting for the implications of what Nicola Sturgeon says, if you look at the road map for Phase 2, it suggests open air seating will be allowed provided social distancing is in place. We’re hoping that we can get going as soon as possible.”
The decision to move the restaurants into a kitchen space outdoors is in part influenced by the fact some of the restaurants in the local group may not open till social distancing measures are further relaxed. “We’re taking things down to the Rotunda because it is going to be difficult. If you take somewhere like Rioja on Argyle Street, that’s going to be almost impossible to reopen. Anything less than 80% capacity, with such a small unit, it’s not viable for us. Going forward, we are hearing the distance could drop to a metre, but we are just taking each day as it comes. We are trying to make plans, but it can change in a moment’s notice.”
Meanwhile, further along the Clyde, SWG3 have announced they will operate a new outdoor venue with plans including music, graffiti art, street food and drinks over a 25,000 sq ft area. Customers will be able to pre-book tables in advance and place orders using an app.
The Return of Local Bars and Restaurants
While reopening by government proclamation will kickstart the summer, we can’t just will local businesses back into existence. It will be impossible for some, difficult for others. The way we use Glasgow bars and restaurants is set to be disrupted by new regulations. Now is the time for compromise and reinvention. The formal guidelines remain unpublished, so owners have been relying on the advice of health and safety consultants and a lot of Perspex as they prepare to trade safely.
The changeover is underway. Builders were working on The Social at Royal Exchange Square this week. Elsewhere in town, Neil Douglas of Ardnamurchan on Hope Street has dramatically revamped his bar with individual pods for customers to eat and drink in. The move is in preparation for reopening once the pub and restaurant closure order is lifted in Phase Three of relaxing lockdown restrictions – expected to be 15th July.
Joanna Nethery tells me the team at Five March have their eyes set on this date: “Very happy to say that as long as the stages of lockdown continue as proposed we’ll be like wee kids at Christmas ready to welcome folk back on the 15th! Strangely nervous but the thought of seeing familiar faces is a truly great motivator.”
Jimmy Lee at Lychee Oriental has fitted social distancing screens between tables as he prepares the restaurant for reopening. Meanwhile, Tiki Bar on Bath Street are working on a revamped beer garden and The Locale at Charing Cross have a one-way system and new table plan to allow them to operate their popular drinks garden.
Saint Luke’s are planning an outdoor area for the front of the venue. Nearby bar 226 Gallowgate have applied for permission to serve 30 customers outside on the recently upgraded street space beside the Barrowlands. BAaD will also take advantage of outside space.
John Quigley at Red Onion is looking at refitting his restaurant to take 40 covers in phase three and continuing home meal delivery, while there’s talk of pop-up food space on Sauchiehall Street and a food village in Blythswood Square.
Café Strange Brew are in the midst of some repairs in their kitchen and anticipate they will continue with takeaway while social distancing is in place because of the limited size of their café. Sister café Mesa on Duke Street has a license for outside seating, but the space is more likely to be used for queue management when they reopen their kitchen in July.
Bilson Eleven are also facing the challenges of a small dining room while preparing to open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. They are introducing a staggered booking system and offering their private dining room for a party of four.
Peter McKenna from The Gannet tells me they are planning an early August reopening with changes to the dining room and a revised style of service. Right now, owners across the city have their measuring tapes out and are trying to figure out how things will work when people are reintroduced to their favourite places.
Derek Marshall from Gamba has repainted the dining room and deep cleaned the kitchen of his award-winning restaurant, ready to return when social distancing is relaxed. It’s something he is looking forward to: “I cannot wait to get back to work and get life back to some normality.”
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