][1]If you are reading this, particularly if you live in Glasgow, then you are due some congratulations.
According to the Record, a deadly combo of Cameron’s cuts, the weather and the clocks going back meant that yesterday was the most miserable day of the year. Apparently, the misery was compounded if you live in Glasgow which topped the winter blues index of cities.
Well, congratulations, you survived and here’s some new restaurants and bars to cheer you up.
A few days back, we told you about Alan Tomkins opening a new place called Balthassar. It is now up and running in the former Ad Lib on Glasgow’s Ingram Street.
Jim Kerr is the main man in the kitchens and they’ve gone for a classy European style brasserie feel. Writing in the Sunday Herald, Joanna Blythman was uncharacteristically pleased and she even compared it London’s Wolseley.
In Edinburgh, they are priming the beer pumps at Shebeen, a new South African bar which is opening in Leith tomorrow. It’s named after the illegal drinking dens that existed in the townships under apartheid.
South African beer and wines are very much to the fore as are the many sporting events that Shebeen will be showing on the screens. Masochistic Scottish rugby fans can watch the Springboks maul their side whenever they meet.
Shebeen will be linked to the adjacent Mithas, the latest venture from the family behind the Khushi’s restaurants. An upmarket Indian restaurant scheduled to open in mid-December, Mithas won’t serve alcohol but customers will be able to order drinks from Shebeen next door.