Glasgow (1) Irn Bru, The Clyde and La Lanterna: Scotland '22 Part 1

Scotland's National Drink, Most Important River and Best Italian Restaurant

Getting There

Scotland

Glasgow

My satnav tells me it is 404km from home to our hotel in Waterloo Street, Glasgow. That is a long way, over four hours driving plus a coffee and sandwich stop, but it was a surprisingly easy. The M6 ran freely past Stoke and Manchester, became less busy as we progressed further North and once in Scotland, where the M6 becomes the M74, the traffic was refreshingly sparse. It became busier and more complicated approaching Glasgow but the urban motorway system decanted us onto the city streets only a few hundred metres from our destination.

Every British person knows where Glasgow is (or should do) but this blog has visitors from around the world, so here is a map.
 Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city is remarkably close to Edinburgh, the second biggest.
Thank you Lonely Planet for lending me your map

Meeting the Real Glasgow

We checked into our hotel. Our room had a jokey welcome message on the television, …

Welcome message, Ibis Styles, Glasgow Central

….while a can of Irn Bru and a Tunnock's tea cake sat on the bedside table.

A can of Irn Bru and a Tunnocks's Tea Cake

The humour may not be international, so for non-British readers here is an explanation - which I feel moved to make in verse. It’s a sonnet of sorts (well, it has fourteen lines).

The Delights of Scotland Explained for All

You maybe imagine that whisky is Scotland's national drink,
And you would be right.
Distilled, nurtured and bottled in the northern third of our shared isle,
It is exported to the world,
And the world is grateful.

But there is a soft drink, a soda, a fizzy pop, called Irn Bru
With long rolling 'r's in Bru and Irn both.
Made in Scotland from girders, they claim,
And exported to Scots worldwide,
Where locals remain inexplicably ungrateful.

And a Tunnock's teacake? South Lanarkshire made,
With a concept not unique to Scotland,
A hemisphere of marshmallow balanced on a crumbly biscuit,
All within a chocolate shell. What's not to like?

I have headed this section ‘Meeting the Real Glasgow’ and there is, of course, more to Glasgow than pop and cakes.

Glaswegians have a reputation for toughness, even aggression, and an accent which makes a friendly greeting sound like the prelude to a headbutt.

But

Everyone we spoke or dealt with during our brief stay was friendly and helpful and many were also amusing. Twenty or so out of 600,000 may not be a statistically significant sample, but it left us with the impression of a friendly and welcoming city quite at odds with its reputation.

The Clyde

Needing to stretch our legs, and attracted by the possibility of the sun breaking through, we took the short walk down to the River Clyde.

On the way we passed a mural, these are a feature of Glasgow, and there will be more in the next post.

A Glasgow mural

We reached the river a little downstream of the Squiggly Bridge.

The Squiggly Bridge

Most major cities have a river, for some it is incidental, like the Irwell in Manchester but for many it forms a major part of their identity. London is defined by the Thames, Liverpool by the Mersey and Dublin by the Liffey. Glasgow would not exist without the Clyde and the shipyards that once lined its banks made Glasgow the ‘Second City of the Empire’. But here, in the heart of the city, I was surprised by how small it is, bigger than the Liffey, maybe, but much smaller than the Thames and a mere brook beside the vastness of the Mersey.

The Clyde and the Squiggly Bridge

And why is that footbridge in the photo called the Squiggly Bridge? It is not obvious from a distance.

From close up the Tradeston Bridge (to give it its official name) clearly takes an S-shaped journey across the river. Allegedly this lengthens the bridge, allowing it to reach the height required by river traffic without having a steep gradient. The bridge was opened in 2009 and was part of the Tradeston regeneration scheme, giving the area a direct link to Glasgow 's main financial district.

The Bridge is Squiggly

The middle of the river is a fine place to view the city's architectural mix.

Just a small corner of Glasgow's architectural mix

The Armadillo and the SEC

We followed the riverside walkway, past an upmarket hotel, riverside apartments…

By the Clydeside apartments

… and the occasional reminder of the industrial past until we reached the Armadillo - the building that every news reporter in the city feels they have to stand outside to prove they are really in Glasgow.

The Armadillo, Glasgow

Opened in 2000 as the Clyde Auditorium, the architects' (Foster and partners) concept of interlocking ships hulls celebrating Glasgow’s industrial heritage was instantly dubbed The Armadillo.

The SEC and Industrial Heritage, Glasgow

It's is now officially the SEC Armadillo, part of the SEC (Scottish Exhibition Campus) along with the OVO Hydro which appears in the photo above along with a big chunk of industrial heritage.

La Lanterna

Established in 1970, La Lanterna is Glasgow’s oldest family-run Italian restaurant. It has won, and keeps winning, awards for its cooking and wine list, and was declared Scotland’s Best Italian Restaurant, 2021. Even better, it was just a 6-minute walk away, round the corner in Hope Street.

The walk took longer than planned. Phone in hand, we continued straight past the restaurant and failed to notice our error for another 50 metres. In our defence, it has a smallish entrance leading to a large basement. Perhaps we were distracted by the enormous façade of the Voco Grand Central Hotel which separates Hope Street from Glasgow Central Station. The hotel’s website describes it as ‘Victorian glamour’, adjectives that, for me, sit uncomfortably together.

Huge façade, Hope Street

On eventually finding the entrance, we were asked if we had booked. The answer ‘no’ caused a little consternation. Last year, Covid regulations meant almost everything had to be booked, this year we were to discover that even without social distancing rules, Scotland, like the West of Ireland has too few restaurants for those wishing to eat. Booking, we would find, is necessary in some unlikely places and my easy assumption that a popular spot like La Lanterna would have space on a Tuesday evening was optimistic. We were relieved when, after a five-minute wait, we were escorted to a small table in the packed basement.

The Dinner

We were soon equipped with a Negroni each. I thought I was too old to start bothering with cocktails until we went to Cuba in 2020.

Toasted focaccia, made in-house for us to dip into olive oil and balsamic vinegar – the suggestion of our waiter – was simple and moreish. This was real focaccia, not the stuff sold in supermarkets, and better balsamic vinegar and Italian olive oil than most can supply.

From the lengthy and impressive wine list I selected a bottle of Primitivo from Salento, reasonably priced, deep, dark red and full of Italian sunshine. ‘My favourite,’ said the waiter – I bet he says that about all the wines.

Lynne’s vegetarian moment was well rewarded by her Penne all Sorrentina, penne with courgettes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic. I chose Maniche Alla Barese. Maniche, a tubular ribbed pasta (and, co-incidentally, a retired Portuguese footballer – Chelsea, Atlético Madrid, Porto), with Tuscan sausage, broccoli, tomato and chilli. The sausage was meaty, the sauce spicy and the broccoli actually tasted of broccoli, which is not always the case.

Penne alla Sorrentin, La Lanterna, Glasgow

For dessert Lynne had Affogato (lit: drowned), first encountered earlier this year in Kings Lynn. The bonus at La Lanterna was not just having espresso to drown her ice-cream but also a glass of Bicherin chocolate liqueur.

My Zabaglione was a delight. Lynne reminded me that many years ago I used to make Zabaglione – I should never have stopped. The bonus here was a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream - vanilla that actually tasted of vanilla. I frequently moan about the ice-cream world’s use of vanilla to mean ‘plain’ that is not what it is supposed to be. There was nothing plain about this gem and it slides effortlessly into my pantheon of great vanilla ice-creams alongside Borza’s Ice-cream Parlour in Porthcawl (long departed but a happy childhood memory) and the Michelin starred Walnut Tree in Abergavenny.

We walked back through the streets of Glasgow as dusk fell (sunset is around 10pm in mid-July) with a general feeling of well-being.

Scotland 2022

Part 1: Glasgow (1) Irn Bru, The Clyde and La Lanterna:
Part 2: Glasgow (2): A Walking Tour
Part 3: The Battle of Culloden and Cawdor Castle
Part 4: Fraserburgh and Portsoy
Part 5: Huntly and Fyvie
Part 6: Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen
Part 7: Stirling