Sparkle Horse The Vintage
RAISING THE BAR Over a pint or two, David Pollock fi nds out why there’s been a spirited revival among neighbourhood bars and pubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh
B ack in August, the Good Beer Guide 2014 declared that up to 4000 British pubs would go out of business over the next year, and that it was ‘high time they closed their doors’ to make way
for new licensees with fresh ideas.
Maybe what the editors imagine is something like the scene in Glasgow and especially Edinburgh, where pub regeneration is spreading out to less well-served neighbourhoods, with spit’n’sawdust saloons being gutted and replaced by smart, customer-focused bars with professional kitchens and well-stocked beer fridges.
‘It would be difi cult to open in the city centre without major backing,’ says Steven Clark of Glasgow’s Sparkle Horse (and the electro-pop trio Bis), a new Partick venture set up in conjunction with Craig Steel (both formerly of Café Gandoli ), and Barney Waygood, who used to run The Flying Duck. ‘We’re an entirely independent operation funded by savings, personal loans, wives, girlfriends and favours. Due to our local knowledge and, let’s face it, drinking experience, it was a site we believed could be turned round to suit our collective vision.’ Some key factors – low move-in costs, lack of competition around them and a real understanding of an area that they can call home – also
seem to be inspiring others in Glasgow, including the retro revival of the Kelvingrove Café and Williams Bros’ opening of Inn Deep at Kelvinbridge.
In Edinburgh, the opportunities offered by less likely areas were observed a decade ago by Anna and Mike Christopherson, a Swedish couple who opened the stylish and homely Boda on Leith Walk and who now run i ve bars including 2012 opening Hemma in the more central but still under-represented furrow between Dumbiedykes and the Royal Mile. ‘We moved to Edinburgh in 2003 and happened to settle in Leith,’ says Anna. ‘Soon we realised there was nowhere to go if you were a woman, wanted a nice glass of wine or a coffee.’ Many more have followed in their wake, with Leith Walk’s Woodland Creatures and the Shore’s excellent, restaurant-quality Vintage being among the latest colonisers. ‘The decision to set up in Abbeyhill wasn’t a hard one,’ says Andy Caird of Edinburgh’s recent opening the Safari Lounge, a restoration of the crumbling Victorian-era Station Bar. ‘The surrounding streets house a very diverse population, and so far the bar has appealed to a varied clientele. It proves that serving quality products and produce is a formula that can work even where people don’t think it’s viable.’
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