THE language is becoming increasingly blunt. We are in a period of lockdown where non-essential social contact is not permitted. The number of cases continues to be troubling.

Restaurants and bars will stay shut in the Central Belt for a further week. The Scottish Government is in no mood to get into a discussion on what constitutes a café. A five-tier system of restrictions will come into force on 2nd November.

Based on the current outlook, it’s difficult to find anyone who thinks Glasgow won’t still face top tier restrictions in November. Time for another pivot. I occasionally feel like there should have been a more serious look at how we use public space and bold attempts at improvising an outdoor streetscape, where socialising is safer. A glance at the weather outside casts this idea as folly but other similarly dreich places seem to manage it.

Plenty of local businesses will tell you that they are adhering to best social distancing standards and that they can keep customers safe indoors and staff working over the winter. Maybe their voices will be heard, or this circuit breaker will provide enough evidence to provide a glimmer of hope. In the meantime, if we are not going out for dinner this weekend, what are we doing?

Home dining kits are back. In fact, chef Nico Simeone thinks they are here to stay – he’s launching a nationwide distribution platform for new food and drink experiences to be enjoyed at home. This will include a vegan tasting dishes menu, artisan cheeses, wine flights and food from the Six by Nico team to be ordered online.

Glasgow Times: Chef Nico Simone Chef Nico Simone

The move will involve creating 100 permanent jobs across a head office on Miller Street and a 7000 sq.ft distribution warehouse in Anniesland that will include kitchens and a packing centre.

I’m curious to see how this all plays out when we have a full range of hospitality options. If we are now moving towards a future where we are increasingly working at home and bring our restaurant food in at the front door, there’s added convenience but the absence of spontaneity and that feeling you get when you are part of a crowd in a restaurant when the atmosphere is really buzzing.

A key part of a set course dinner is the performance of it all. Balance that against the advantages of having access to a skilled prep chef when you feel like showing off in your own kitchen.

Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Right now, dining at home kits are a way to support local businesses, keep staff in place in our neighbourhood favourites and bring back a bit of what we are missing.

Le Petit Cochon on Radnor Street have dipped their trotter into the dine at home market with their Pig Out menu, bringing an impressive collection of French inspired dishes together for you to pop in the oven.

The week one menu involved lobster Thermidor croquettes, which is the simple, satisfying dish I didn’t realise had been missing from my Friday nights. Distribute to chip shops immediately. An easy to prepare and suitably impressive French onion soup was the other starter. Putting a gloriously comforting ox cheek bourguignon into a casserole dish then into the oven and opening a bottle of wine was all that was needed for the main course. Potato dauphinois and baby parsnips completed the set. Retrieve a Paris Brest from the fridge and you have dessert.

Put me back in a dining room and pass me a menu as soon as it is safe to do so. For now, that meal hit the spot and was a suitable reminder of the kind of places that we should want to endure and succeed.

Le Petit Cochon will be putting together other menus, details will be posted on their website. Elsewhere, Sugo will deliver fresh pasta kits through your letterbox, local favourite Martha’s has re-emerged to offer home delivery or collection from Platform, Gamba has a home dining menu, Porter & Rye have launched a steak dinner service, Five March has a menu for collection and you can find excellent delivery options from the likes of Ramen Ramen, Embargo in the West End and Topolabamba.

Street Art

It has been a forlorn sight since the start of lockdown: Rogano, Glasgow’s oldest restaurant, closed and boarded up. Now the Art Deco façade of the building has become a rotating canvas for artists under a new plan for artists to tell stories about the famous venue that’s played host to stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart.

The first piece by illustrator Ida Henrich drew a huge reaction and is a colourful reminder of the hospitality that will hopefully return here when the restaurant reopens next year.

Managing Director Lynn Mortimer said “When guests thought we were closing for good we were inundated with their stories from the restaurant over the years. It is more important than ever for us to preserve the history of Rogano. It has been part of the fabric of Glasgow for over 85 years and while we can’t meet with our friends at the moment we want to help evoke some of our guests memories from dining or drinking at Rogano over the years.” The restaurant plan to sell prints of the artworks to raise money for charity.

Josh Barr at The Locale has worked with other bar and restaurant owners to create temporary artworks and in the early days of lockdown a poster art campaign emphasised health messages and invoked lyrics from songs by local bands to raise a smile. Rebel Bear’s graffiti tribute to NHS workers on the side of Ubiquitous Chip on Ashton Lane and his depiction of someone chained to the coronavirus on Bath Street highlighted both our resilience and frustration.

It may seem like small gestures but public art is a way of making a connection across the community and that is something that should be encouraged right now.