Glasgow’s experiencing a remarkable culinary boom period. Success is encouraging hip restaurants to look for new locations, which is bringing changes to neighbourhoods and invigorating local high streets. Exciting times. At the vanguard of this new wave are the folk who created Porter & Rye, The Finnieston and Lebowski’s – three distinct venues that helped transform Argyle Street into the most talked-about strip in town.
For their next trick, they’ve turned an unassuming bar on Queen Margaret Drive into the Kelbourne Saint, a venue that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.
They open this weekend. With the sound of angle-grinders in the background, we spoke to General Manager James Killen during the final preparations to find out what the latest light in Glasgow’s food firmament is all about.
What were you doing before you found yourself building a new bar?
I used to work in Hutcheson’s in the Merchant City. Before that it was working in hotels – I used to run the Champagne Bar in the Grand Central and I worked in Gleneagles and Crieff Hydro Hotel.
Is this the first time you have worked on an opening?
I worked at Hutcheson’s right after they opened and I’ve worked on openings for Kained Holdings, the company I’m working for now.
You had this bar under the name So, What Comes Next? – was the idea to always progress to the Kelbourne Saint?
Absolutely, we took over what was a very iconic bar for Glasgow – Trainspotting was filmed in here and it has a great background around it. We wanted to give it a contemporary feel. Initially when we first came in we did some work on our back garden to create a pretty fantastic spectacle. In terms of building permits and things like that, it held up work on the inside. So it was a two stage programme.
The company itself is built around supporting local communities and we’ve realised how tight-knit the Maryhill community and the Queen Margaret Drive community is and that really resonated with us when we were looking at this property.
That’s an interesting point actually. Your group has expanded quickly in Glasgow and has plans to continue to do so. What do you look for when you are considering opening a new place, is it to do with the building itself or is there an element of taking a chance on an area where there is an opportunity?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that we’d take a chance, there’s quite a lot of in-depth things that we go over in terms of location and logistics of the building. The history of the place. Our managing director, Graham Suttle, is the gentleman that looks after the vast majority of the ideas when it comes to the refurbishment, so a lot of it has been based around his extremely creative mind and how he thinks he can improve a venue. This was very much the brainchild of him. He found the location and we’re reaping the benefits with how it looks now.
As someone who works in the Glasgow hospitality business, why do you think things are so buoyant right now? Across the city we’re going through a purple patch for new openings, where does this confidence come from?
I think a lot of it is connected to the Year of Food and Drink last year [a Scottish Government initiative led by VisitScotland]. It was a chance to champion the three things that Glasgow has: great food, great drink and great people. Many times you meet people who come to visit Scotland and as soon as they set foot in Glasgow they realise it’s their favourite city. It’s become more of a cosmopolitan city, a shopping destination but I think food and drink is now bringing people from far and wide to the city.
Like you said, there’s a purple patch for restaurants and a strong sense of rejuvenation. It’s a great opportunity.
In a way it all feeds into each other, I suppose, and gets it’s own sense of momentum. What you are doing and others are doing, it creates a real scene.
We originated in Finnieston and there is a camaraderie there, we’re all connected, we’re all friendly with the other venues. It is quite a concentration of restaurants there. It creates a destination more than a sense of competition.
Where the Kelbourne Saint is opening, there’s a long-established community and then there are lots of new people that have moved into the area with new residential developments. Are they glad that you are arriving in the area?
I’m confident that they are. I live in Maryhill. Traditionally the old Crosslands bar, as it was before we moved in, the clientele coming down from Maryhill was working class and then there was the surrounding community here at Queen Margaret Drive.
As soon as we moved in our first port of call was local groups to make ourselves known. We’re not focusing on the wider West End, we already have two communities with fantastic people. My family live in Maryhill. There’s no reason with all the different demographics around here that everyone can’t have something here that’s enjoyable. We’re not going to be pricing people out or anything. It’s going to be an eclectic venue for all walks of life. It will be pretty special.
Give us the highlights from your food and drink menus.
We have always worked very closely with West Brewery, so we are installing a polished copper tank system. It’s taking it back to the way we used to drink beer. Instead of kegs we’re bringing in the truck and pumping beer straight into these tanks. It’s the freshest beer that you’re ever going to get. We were very fortunate that West gave us the opportunity to make our own beer so we’ll have our Apache Pilsner.
It’s only available in Kained Holdings units. It’s a 4.2% really nice and crisp Pilsner. This was something we initially thought of for Kelbourne Saint.
So, this is not a gimmick or being quirky, this will make a difference to the pint you serve?
Absolutely. People talk about the lines you have in your bar [that take your beer from storage to pint glass]. The distance the beer travels is a big thing to do with the quality of the beer. Our tanks are standing right beside the bar, it’s probably the shortest distance I’ve ever seen. The quality of beer we’re pumping through too is going to make for a pretty fantastic pint.
In terms of food, we have a beautiful rotisserie machine – a couple of the staff are using it to get a heat at the moment because we haven’t got the heating on! It’s front-facing to the restaurant and we’re going to cook everything weird and wonderful in there. From chicken to pork loin to octopus. Everyone will be able to see what’s there and order directly from the rotisserie. We’re trying to offer things in a new way, a way that’s not being done in Glasgow.
What about the emphasis between being a bar and a restaurant, is it going to be like Lebowski’s where people can just come in and grab a beer or they can have a full meal?
When we first purchased the place it was very much a bar, and a great bar at that. We are a fully functioning bar and restaurant now, there’s the two different aspects. We don’t want people to feel that they can’t come in for a drink.
I’m glad you brought up Lebowski’s because it is like there in more ways than one – Lebowski’s has this amazing appeal that spreads from business folk getting burgers and beers to tradesmen grabbing a pint on the way home. We will still be a local, with an amazing food offering.
Kained Holdings has their own training academy. There’s a lot more emphasis on training and service across the new generation of Glasgow restaurants, solidifying the work that’s been done by some of the establishment names. Does this make the hospitality industry more attractive as a career for your staff?
I think hospitality is probably the most skilled career that someone can have without considering it a career! We look for people with the perfect attitude. We can train them in how to work in a restaurant but we can’t train them in how to have a personality. With our academy we have a training manager, a guy called Harry Savory, who has worked with me through all the preparations at Kelbourne Saint.
He’s taken things to a different level. It’s about showing your employees respect as opposed to just pointing out where the glasses are and telling them their number for the till. This is the first company I’ve worked for that invest massively in training and you can see the benefits on the other side.
What’s the deal with the name?
Part of it is because the venue itself is an old church hall. We’ve stripped a couple of the walls back to the 19th Century original brickwork. The Kelbourne part of it is because we have Kelbourne Street on the other side of the road.
Also, when Maryhill extended down to what is now Queen Margaret Drive, the whole area was full of fruit markets and meat markets and dairy farms. All of these had the name Kelbourne attached. We wanted to take a place that was well known as the Crosslands bar and reach even further back to find a name that resonates with the area.
On a vaguely related topic, let’s talk producers. What kind of relationships do you have with local suppliers?
We take huge amount of care when selecting the people we buy our products from. Everybody who walks in our front door to deliver food is on a first name basis. They are all Scottish producers. We get all our meat from Tom Rodgers, the butcher. He gets it directly from one select farm and he delivers it himself. That’s the kind of relationships we build. We would never bring anything in if we didn’t know where it was from, when it was caught or when it was butchered. It’s a trust thing with your suppliers and it’s a trust thing with your customers as well.
Kelbourne Saint opens at 182 Queen Margaret Drive this weekend.