New restaurant openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh? Of course, step this way…
First up, The Dirty Duchess opened at the weekend on Argyle Street.
The Finnieston bar was formerly The Duchess of Argyle Street. How the Duchess became dirty remains a mystery.
What we can tell you is that it was previously a Kained Holdings bar. As you know, among other places, Kained Holdings run The Crafty Pig, The Drugstore Social, Porter and Rye, The Finnieston, The Kelbourne Saint and both Lebowskis Finnieston and Southside.
The Dirty Duchess is run by Badaboom Bars which, until now, seems to have mostly specialised in running bars for events.
They have had some high-end clients and have put on events for brands such as Lamborghini, Maserati and Rox.
The Duchess describes herself as ‘a classic boozer serving wines, beers, spirits and cocktails’.
On the food front, they will be offering a carousel kitchen with a rotating line-up of Scotland’s finest street food vendors.
Babu’s Bombay Street Kitchen will be firing up the stoves in the kitchen from Friday.
If you can’t wait until Friday, or aren’t at that end of town, you can always book into Babu’s via 5pm Dining.
New restaurant openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh
We should also mention the planned launch date for the Glasgow branch of Vapiano.
The Buchanan Street restaurant will open to the public on the 30th of January. You can read all about the Vapiano concept from this blog about the Edinburgh branch.
The curried mince and peas are divine.
Hawksmoor coming to Edinburgh
On the other side of the M8, the big news is that the Hawksmoor group of restaurants has confirmed that they will open in Edinburgh this summer.
Can you guess where?
No prizes if you said St Andrew Square.
The company launched in London in 2006 and rapidly earned a stellar reputation for their British-bred steaks and seafood.
The company has pencilled in a July launch for its Edinburgh steakhouse. It will open in the former Royal Bank of Scotland hall.
This will be the group’s first restaurant outside of England. They have several restaurants and a bar in London plus a restaurant in Manchester.
Looking once more into our crystal ball, the social media accounts for Newhaven Fishmarket in Edinburgh have been crackling recently.
You may recall that we said Ondine chef patron Roy Brett was teaming up with fishmonger Gary Welch to open a new restaurant.
It looks as though it will be in The Fishmarket on Pier Place in Newhaven.
The Twitter account promises seafood, an oyster bar and fish ‘n’ chips.
Tune in tomorrow for more new restaurant openings in Glasgow and Edinburgh. And possibly beyond.