Three Sisters Bake have announced that they will open a Cake Bar on Great Western Road. The new cake and coffee spot will be ready in early May.
Glasgowist spoke to Gillian Reith about the new project.
You currently run two cafes in countryside locations on the periphery of Glasgow, and you’re about to open your next shop on one of the West End’s busiest roads. What brought you to this decision?
I think we were all ready for a new challenge, we opened our Killearn café in 2014 and haven’t had a major new project since then.
We have a great community on Instagram, many of whom are students and young people who don’t live anywhere near to our existing cafés, so part of our decision was based on a desire to bring our baking with a new brand identity to this community.
Did being part of Platform at the Argyle St Arches influence your decision to open in Glasgow?
Definitely. Customers have asked us for years when we are going to open in Glasgow, but I’d say the reception we have had at Platform has given us the confidence to go for it.
We aren’t relocating from Platform though, we absolutely love being part of the community of food traders and will be staying as long at they’ll have us!
Will Cake Bar be different from Three Sisters Bake?
The same but very different! We are describing Cake Bar as the “little sister brand and unruly childish streak” of Three Sisters Bake.
We have just published our new Cake Bar social media pages and have been quite honest about the process which led us to launch a new brand.
We have been on a real journey in our business over the past couple of years which at times was really difficult but ultimately led us to decide to embark this new adventure.
It’s slightly terrifying but very exciting at the same time. You’ll have to check out our Cake Bar Instgram or Facebook page to read the full story!
Why Great Western Road?
We love the feel of Great Western Road, it’s full of independent, passionate small businesses.
It’s becoming like Byres Road was before all the big brands moved in and pushed up rents.
Our new shop is located one block down from Kelvinbridge Subway Station, a couple of blocks from Kelvingrove Park and very close to Glasgow University.
Soft serve ice cream and ice cream sundaes made with chunks of our brownies and cakes will be a big part of our menu so we wanted to make sure we were close to one of Glasgow’s amazing parks to allow people to grab a takeaway and lie on the grass with a sundae on a sunny day!
What’s your own Glasgow story, what are some of your favourite local people and places?
I grew up outside Glasgow and moved here to go to Strathclyde Uni when I was 18.
I lived in the Southside for years and worked in restaurants and cafes all over the city so I’ve great memories around every corner.
Although I’ve now moved back to the village I grew up in, I still love Glasgow’s architecture, the people and the buzz.
I lived in Australia, Belgium and Ireland in my twenties and was so homesick for Glasgow – the feeling of pulling into Central Station looking out at the view across the bridges will never tire for me and always makes me feel like I’m coming home.
What can we expect when you open?
Our inspiration when developing the new brand and ideas for the shop has been creating a place which makes people smile.
Our mission statement is to have fun and to bring that fun to others in the process.
As the name suggests, Cake Bar will be predominantly focused on sweet treats.
We will also offer a speciality coffee menu with beans hand roasted by a Paisley based family business, The Gatehouse Coffee Roasters.
The shop is going to have a small number of seats but will be predominantly take away.
We will be open 8am-8pm and will have a range of brunch muffins; scones and cardamom buns for morning time as well as brownies; cakes; traybakes; soft serve ice cream; hot brownies and brownie sundaes! Our planned opening date is early May – watch our brand new Cake Bar social media pages for further announcements!
Instagram – @cakebar_uk and Facebook – @cakebar.uk
Anything else new with Three Sisters Bake? What’s next?
We are working on something exciting with the team at Platform which hopefully will be announced very soon!
Outside of work, we are looking forward to a new baby! My youngest sister, Linsey is due her first baby two weeks after we open Cake Bar so much excitement in our family at the moment.