La Bonne Auberge in Glasgow is celebrating its 40th birthday today. When many restaurants don’t survive long enough to see five candles on their cake, hitting the big four zero is really quite some achievement.

It’s hard to imagine but, in 1975, when Maurice Taylor first launched La Bonne Auberge, the Americans were evacuating Saigon; North Sea oil had only started flowing and a certain Mr Bill Gates had just founded Microsoft.

Revolution or evolution?

Fittingly for Glasgow’s longest running French and Mediterranean restaurant, its birthday falls on Bastille Day when the French celebrate their 1789 revolution.

While La Bonne Auberge has not inspired anyone to man the barricades, it has, in its own way, been revolutionary.

At the very outset of La Bonne Auberge, Maurice Taylor was determined that it should offer casual rather than formal dining.

‘I’d trained in very formal, fine dining restaurants and in those days you wouldn’t get into these restaurants without a tie,’ he said, ‘but I decided to make La Bonne Auberge a brasserie, where you could come and enjoy good food served in casual surroundings – and you don’t need to wear a tie! That was the whole ethos: that you could relax!’

Who loves ya, baby?

The original La Bonne Auberge attracted a string of celebrities, including Telly Savalas of Kojak fame, while regular diners included various Archbishops of Glasgow, due to the fact that the Casa d’Italia, the location of the archdiocese of Glasgow’s offices, was situated just around the corner.

Naturally, over the last four decades, Maurice has introduced various changes to keep La Bonne Auberge in line with contemporary tastes.

‘The perpetual dilemma with a popular restaurant is that, while you might like to change the menu and the décor, you can risk losing its appeal because your regular customers like it the way it is,’ he said.

‘If you’re fortunate enough to have regular customers… then you need to be careful not to bore them with the same menu year in year out. You also have to be not to make too great a change to the menu so that their favourite dishes disappear.’

Fresh and seasonal

While some very popular dishes have remained on La Bonne Auberge’s menu over many years – including the rich chicken liver pâté, French onion soup and steak au poivre – a fresh seasonal menu is introduced four times a year while its extensive wine list is refreshed twice a year.

For 20 of its 40 years, the man in charge of La Bonne Auberge’s menu is the multi award-winning Executive Head Chef Gerry Sharkey.

Together with Maurice, Gerry frequently visits Paris, touring established institutions such as La Tour D’Argent, La Coupole, and Fouquet’s while also seeking out new locations and trends.

Commenting on how his approach to cooking has evolved over the years, Gerry says: ‘I continue to use many of the classical French cooking techniques in the kitchen, but with a more modern approach and using local, fresh, seasonal produce wherever possible.’

Three generations

It is an approach which Nicola Taylor, daughter of Maurice, approves of wholeheartedly.

‘It’s all about keeping loyal to our French and Mediterranean roots, while evolving our offering in line with changing tastes… We have no intention of revolutionising La Bonne Auberge, but, as tastes change, we have every intention of evolving.

‘It has been our ability to do just that over the years that has enabled La Bonne Auberge to play host to three generations of the same family. This is most noticeable during our popular graduation dinners, when we often receive bookings from customers who have been frequenting the restaurant regularly since 1975.’

La Bonne Auberge has always been popular with 5pm diners. Currently, you could buy a Big Deal private dining experience for ten guests.

Or, for £45, you could book a table for two and enjoy three courses each from the prix fixe menu with a bottle of wine to share.

‘Bon appetit!’ as they have been saying at La Bonne Auberge for the last 40 years.