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The 5pm Dining blog is always delighted to see people try out previously unexplored niches when it comes to opening bars and restaurants.

Taking the niche concept to a whole new level is the Steampunk Cafe on Glasgow’s Drury Street.

Retro-technology

At the risk of infuriating Scotland’s steampunk community with my ill-informed witterings, steampunk aficionadoes seem to be a goth sub-culture which enjoys fantasising about a parallel universe where Victorian clothing meets retro-technology in some sort of post-apocalyptic yada yada yada…

TBH, I’m winging it here. The Wikipedia entry will probably be much more useful.

Anyway, moving back onto safer, more familiar territory, the Steampunk Cafe is having its launch party this Saturday.

American street food

Victorian/Edwardian decor; vintage pool tables and an American street food menu (dogs, wraps, burgers etc) appear to be the main attractions.

There is a suspicion that the bar staff may be in costume. This is a development which the 5pm Dining blog approves of heartily.

Who wants to see bar staff in a dull corporate uniform when they could be dressed as a Victorian explorer complete with a gas mask and a mechanical arm?

Magicians and dancers

Two weeks later, on Saturday 13th September, the bar’s events programme kicks off with an evening show which promises beautiful cabaret dancers, fortune tellers and a magician called Professor Cogsworth.

The music will be courtesy of DJ Loveless playing vintage beats and electro swing.

And no, I don’t know what either of them are.