BAR OF THE F RTNIGHT
IN ASSOCIATION WITH SAN MIGUEL
RUSSELLS
77 Byres Rd
Glasgow
Mon-Thu llam-llpm (midnight with food). Fri/Sat Ham-midnight (lam with food)
Sun 12.30pm-llpm (midnight with food)
In the early nineties when the West End didn't extend much further south on Byres Road than the crossroads with University Avenue, Russells was one of the first bars to anticipate the coming spread of prosperity towards Partick Cross that has since seen a former off- license occupied by a designer shoe shop and an old butcher's play host to successive sushi and fine dining restaurants. While many such businesses have come and gone, trading on flash-in-the-pan fads or overestimating demand to fatal effect, Russells has quietly and unfussily established itself as an enduring and popular West End haunt. The decor is individual without being oppressively quirky, employing rough-hewn wood, rope and a ceiling mural of flying Scotsmen to create a shadowy, alluring interior.
Formerly Chancellors, an unreconstructed old man's pub that offered little more than haf'n'haf deals and Elvis and Sinatra on the jukebox, the pub was remodelled after a Dutch bar and coffee house, and although it now prefers to be known simply as Russells Bar Cafe’, continental touches remain, from quality coffee and foreign beers to the intimate, candlelit booths and the round-the-clock kitchen. The menu is a classic and extensive bar selection of steaks, pizzas, pastas, burgers, Mexican dishes and bar snacks, with some excellent deals including mussels and garlic bread for two with a bottle of wine for £14, and the legendary penne for a pound (when purchasing a drink) on Sunday nights. The staff, much like the clientele, are youthful and hip without being ostentatiously cool and large screens in both rooms make this a great, non-partisan football pub.
ENJOY YOURSELF AND DRINK RESPONSIBLY
I
CERVEZA DE PASION