Photo of
November 10, 2014
Ollie's is open for all day grazing in the Southside.
Ollie’s is open for all day grazing in the Southside.

As always, Glasgow restaurateur Alan Tomkins has been busy.

Well known in the city’s restaurant sector, he operates a stable of notable Glasgow restaurants and bars. Urban Bar & Brasserie in St Vincent Place; Vroni’s Wine Bar in West Nile Street, Ashton Lane’s Vodka Wodka and Blue Dog, on West George Street, are all his.

Southside hangout

Recently, two new venues have been added to the portfolio. In the Southside, Ollie’s has opened on Nithsdale Road.

A relaxed, all day, neighbourhood hangout, the menus range from breakfast rolls and French toast to evening choices like the seafood linguine and sirloin steaks from the butcher J. Gilmour and Co.

You can browse the menus here.

City centre restaurant

More recently, The Western Club Restaurant is the latest venue to join the Tomkins’ empire.

The sleek interior at The Western Club Restaurant.
The sleek interior at The Western Club Restaurant.

It’s at 32 Royal Exchange Square. While it is part of the same building as The Western Club, a private member’s club, it is open to everyone.

The Western Club Restaurant is billed as ‘a contemporary yet classic restaurant’ and the menus are very modern British.

Dishes on the current menu include the boudin of quail with Stornoway black pudding, apple and horseradish and the salmon fillet with langoustine risotto, leeks and Noilly Prat.

Oldest Glasgow members’ club

Founded as a private club for businessmen, MPs and merchants in the 19th century, The Western Club is Glasgow’s oldest, residential members’ club.

You can read all about its history here.

We confess that the 5pm Dining blog had never heard of the club until last week. However, it seems that at various points in its history, its members wielded considerable influence and gaining membership to the club was far from easy.

The club’s potted history contains a line from the Glasgow Evening News of 20th October 1924 which sniffed that ‘from all accounts it’s easier to manoeuvre an O.B.E. for yourself than to gain entry as a member of the Western Club’.