While this area is not really in the Merchant City of Glasgow, it no doubt could be called Merchant City South. In addition, I’ve seen a quite a few things about it recently in the local press (Glasgow Live, etc) and the many new food outlets that have opened here.
Aat the same time it’s just so close to Glasgow Green. What’s interesting, 20 or 30 years ago, I always thought there was so much potential here, but seemed to me to be a Glasgow from a very long time ago.
I’d often go jogging through here to go to Glasgow Green, whilst at Strathclyde University. Going there it was all downhill, coming back, all uphill. What was interesting is I’d always see some old fashioned window curtains in the windows of the tenement flats here. You could just tell the person who lived there was probably on the north side of eighty!
But now this has changed. It appears there are plenty of new flats, student flats, Chinese students and Airbnbs here.
We decided to go to one or two of the new places here.
Sister Midnight – 61 King Street, Glasgow
The first, Sister Midnight, was on a rather large corner, overlooking the late great 13th North Cafe. It’s another one of these cafe / Sandwich places, which also have a bookshop attached (Editor: “Deli and Provisions”!), and appears to be slightly aimed at the gay community.
The sandwiches are gigantic. I had the the the hummus one which was basically like a hummus salad, inside a small loaf of Italian bread! It was absolutely delicious and completely filling.
Each side was the size of a small brick, so I only had half and had the other half when I arrived back at my bit. Combined with two hot drinks, a dessert for the other half, came to only £15. Incredible value & quality.
There’s also the de rigueur trendy type of condiments, chips, sauces, etc. on the shelves here. Things you can buy, all at a reasonable price considering that they’re quite high quality.
The clientele would seem to be the people in this area who are either residents, or are passing through to their work.
The second place, Choco Cartel, was something that I had remembered from a Glasgow Live article, and was yet another coffee place, but this time featured ice cream and desserts.
The dessert I had was some sort of cheesecake with a burnt caramel on it, that I haven’t tasted before. It was superb. Combine that with the two teas, it again was reasonably priced.
We could have also had ice cream, but chose to give it a miss, as I was still suffering from Sister Midnight!
They also do some sort of small paper box, where they can put the ice cream on top of a cake base. I think they call it something like cake fries on a cake base. It looked decadent and I know that I’ll try it at the very latest, when I compete in the half marathon later this year in Glasgow, that finishes nearby in Glasgow Green.
Both places need to be checked out to be believed.
CB
Curious Bystander 