THE Glasgow Coffee Festival returns to the Briggait on May 7 and 8 for the first time in two years. Organiser and Dear Green founder Lisa Lawson is excited to bring together the local roastery and cafe scene to showcase the skills and passion you will find in the city and across Scotland.
Coffee and cake kept us all going during lockdown. “With people stuck at home they were buying more coffee online and upgrading their equipment. We couldn’t roast coffee fast enough in our East End base to keep up!” Lisa says.
“Then you saw that coffee shops had queues down the street. In areas of Glasgow, people stayed with their local cafe through it all and they’ve built up more business. I think people have got into the habit of it now, going out for a coffee, to meet friends or as part of a walk.
“I think as the cost of living goes up, you will find that these little daily treats will become quick fixes that just make you happy.”
Hospitality has been through a period of introspection, and this has led to more cafes and restaurants considering what kind of coffee they want to serve. More people are gravitating towards the industry.
There’s a boom in demand: “You can see definitely that a lot of folk are changing their coffee habits, becoming more engaged and more discerning and starting to try different roasteries, and drink single origin coffees, understand more about the product and where it’s from. It’s become something to really engage with. There’s definitely been a shift to support local,” Lisa says.
This will be the seventh Glasgow Coffee Festival, which will also involve a two-week element which will chart out a tour of local coffee shops, taking the event out across the city. Across the weekend at the Briggait you can meet Gordon St Coffee, Bare Bones Chocolate, Andina Coffee, Thomsons, Us V Them and Broken Clock Cafe, alongside visitors like Cairngorm Coffee, Steampunk from North Berwick and Mossgiel Organic Farm. There will be talks and demonstrations and latte artists.
Lisa says the wait will be worth it: “There’s loads of people that bought tickets in 2020 for the festival that we had to cancel because of the pandemic and they didn’t ask for refunds. They had faith in us to do a festival again when maybe we didn’t have faith in ourselves.
“We have the full festival now and it is predominately local roasters. It just shows you how things have changed in Glasgow. When we started, there were about two roasteries, now we can create a map of over 50 amazing specialty coffee businesses.”
Dear Green is part of a new Glasgow food and drink collective, working together this spring to celebrate the best of the city and make some noise about everything it has to offer. Businesses include Stravaigin, The Finnieston, The Gannet, Mharsanta, Platform, Gamba, Eighty Eight, Hooligans and Red Onion.
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Ajay Kumar, chef director of Swadish, the Indian fine dining restaurant on Ingram Street, has joined Made in Glasgow because he believes in the quality of local hospitality.
“This is a chef-led restaurant and I know there are businesses that put their heart and soul into the food scene in Glasgow. It’s a brilliant idea to bring more attention to this as we come into the summer,” Ajay says.
Swadish has benefited from the work Ajay put in creating cooking videos and sharing recipes over the last few years. The connection to their regular customers has been maintained and they are making new friends.
Ajay says: “I’m Indian but I’m grounded in Glasgow. It’s my home city now. It excites me to have the feedback and know people are trying the recipes at home and then coming in for the full Swadish experience.”
Ajay is looking at sharing Indian barbecue recipes for summer and this spring he has been experimenting with his seasonal menu. “My approach is Scottish produce led. I play with the flavours. I have game birds – you can have Indian tandoori wood pigeon – langoustines, lobster from Skye, roe deer. The whole menu is looking fantastic and when people visit the restaurant they can enjoy the theatrical side of food.”
Park Lane Market on the Southside takes place on the first and last Sunday of the month and is also part of the campaign. Co-founder Harry Olorunda says there is a wealth of new and existing small craft businesses and street food traders ready to show what they can do.
“We’ve built something here that’s a creative space and we have added the market as a hub for creating a connection,” he says.
There’s a group of around 600 traders that are in the mix for future markets. The line-up changes and is added to. A collaboration with Ramen Dayo on Ashton Lane will soon be added to the mix.
Harry says: “If someone has an idea, we can give them a platform. Deanston Bakery started off here and East Coffee in the East End began at the market. There are around 15 businesses that have grown from the market. I feel like there’s a great vibe on the Southside and that’s what we are connected to. For me it’s about that community and the people.”
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