Halloumi is opening a second location in Glasgow's Southside while the team behind Brel are getting their cheese on at Jacques. Meanwhile Lidl are about to raise the curtain on their second Scottish Gin Festival.
Having launched in the city centre in 2016, Halloumi is opening a second branch on Pollokshaws Road in November.
Inhabiting a former bank, the new restaurant from Toni Carbajosa and Kevin Campbell of The Rotunda Group will boast a private dining room, event space, bespoke bar and large open plan 80-cover restaurant.
Modern Greek cuisine is the name of the game and the new Halloumi will stick with the ‘small plates, big flavours’ formula which has proved so successful at the original Halloumi on Hope Street.
Visitors can look forward to traditional slow-cooked stews; delicately marinated meat skewers and tasty Greek flatbread kebabs or gyros.
As well as an impressive selection of Scottish drinks, Halloumi will be serving Hellenic craft beer, Mediterranean wine and artisan Greek gin.
Mythological mixology
While some of their cocktails are named after Greek mythology, other crowd-pleasing creations are inspired by the breath-taking scenery of Athens.
As is increasingly the case, both varieties of cocktail have been designed with Instagram feeds in mind.
Sustainability is at the heart of the build, with reclaimed wood, furnishings and energy efficient fittings all being put in place.
Toni Carbajosa, co-owner of Halloumi, explains:
'We’ve been searching for a second Halloumi location for a number of months and when we saw this venue we immediately fell in love with the building. It’s a beautiful setting for a restaurant and our team are being very careful to restore and repurpose.
'We hope that everyone will love the location as much as we do, and enjoy relaxing, having a drink or sharing our modern Greek with family and friends at our Southside taverna.'
Halloumi in the Southside will be open seven days from noon until late.
Meanwhile, in Finnieston, Jacques has pencilled in a 10th November launch at 1146 Argyle Street, formerly home to Finn Market and Chelsea Market.
Billed as the little brother to the West End's Brel, Jacques promises 'all-you-can-eat raclette and fondue (with Glasgow’s first vegan fondue!), toasted s’more Martinis, Belgian classics, a roaring fire, and a giant fairy-lit oak tree'.
Lidl Scottish Gin Festival
Pulling back from Glasgow to look at the rest of the country, we note that Lidl is launching a second Scottish Gin Festival.
When the supermarket did a similar promotion in the spring, they were selling more than a 130 bottles of Scottish gin per hour in the first week of sales.
From tomorrow, Thursday 1st November, eight of Scotland's artisan producers will bring more than nine different gins to Lidl’s 96 Scottish stores.
A massive seven of the gins are exclusive to Lidl for the Scottish Gin Festival including two fashionable pink gins: Kinrara Rose & Cardamom Gin and Square Peg Pink Gin.
After a successful debut at the inaugural festival, the promotion will also see two artisan producers from Scottish northern isles return to the shelves: Shetland Reel Simmer Gin from the Saxa Vord Distillery and Kirkjuvagr Aurora Spiced Gin from the Orkney Distillery.
Slainte!