The Christmas burger is back on the menu at The Butchershop Bar & Grill as the festive season begins across Glasgow.

Double 30 Day dry-aged steakhouse beef burgers are layered with a sage and onion stuffing, doused in Ayrshire bacon jam, port and cranberry onion with melted Mull cheddar and sprout shavings.

It sits with hand-cut chips and a small pot of turkey gravy. A monument to the building blocks of a classic Christmas dinner. There’s a wee sausage wrapped in bacon that's placed on top.

The Butchershop is a neighbourhood spot, somewhere people have at the top of their list for a steak dinner and a date night favourite. General manager Jason Allan says: “We get a lot of families and couples that celebrate their Christmas here, it’s less about parties and more about people that want a bit of an atmosphere and personal service.”

The Christmas burger is an annual feature of their festive dining. “We try to stay true to what we are as a restaurant so everything begins with great Scottish produce. It’s fun and a really amazing showstopper of a dish.”

“This will be our first real Christmas since 2019 and we know that people are really looking forward to it. We had folk calling up at the beginning of June asking about Christmas bookings. People want to dress up and have that sense of occasion and enjoy the social aspect of the season. We’re looking forward to seeing people having that real-life sense of connection.”

butchershopglasgow.com

Glasgow Times:

Glasgow Times:

Sylvan

Colin Campbell and Jake Martell worked together at The Hug and Pint pub and then introduced Hen of the Woods menus at Glad Cafe before joining forces as business partners for Sylvan, bringing a constantly rotating selection of vegetarian and vegan to Glasgow’s West End.

The daily menu can be enjoyed with a selection of 80 natural or low-intervention wines. It’s proven to be a winning combination.

Colin says there’s an existing openness to restaurants that don’t serve meat allowing Sylvan to establish a reputation based on the quality of the food, “the feedback we get is quite often people saying this is their favourite place but they are not vegetarian. I think it is great to have this opportunity to show Jake’s talent in the kitchen to everyone.”

Popular dishes include the simple fresh flavours of a chopped salad.

Coin adds: “It’s one of our greatest hits. Smoked tomatoes with chilli brown butter and yoghurt is another staple. It’s Glasgow, so any dish with potatoes will prove to be popular. We are bringing in more winter dishes with Jerusalem artichoke and other seasonal ingredients. Look out for baked pears on fried bread with a luxurious stilton custard.”

sylvanglasgow.com

 

The Pastels

Stephen McRobbie and Katrina Mitchell of The Pastels established Geographic in 2000, an imprint record label attached to Domino, based in Glasgow with a global outlook.

Their eclectic taste and keen ears for new sounds were echoed in the label’s diverse roster.

“We lavished our time and love on every project,” Stephen reflects, “releasing a run of myriad records that on reflection were slightly wayward but optimistic and warm.”

Three rare releases will be reissued tomorrow: Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s experimental Blues du Jour, The Pastels’ The Last Great Wilderness – the score to director David Mackenzie’s film of the same name – and Lightships’ debut, Electric Cables.

Japanese improvisation ensemble group Maher Shalal Hash Baz, led by Tori Kudo, became one of the first signings to Geographic.

McRobbie comments: “It was exactly the kind of music we wanted to release. It was kind of wild but totally melodic too – a mixture of original brass, outsider pop oddness and Tori Kudo’s brilliant cutting Syd Barrett-influenced guitar.” The Last Great Wilderness was engineered by John McEntire at Glasgows’ CaVa studio and included a performance with Jarvis Cocker.

Lightships’ album was led by Gerard Love, enigmatic bassist and founding member of Teenage Fanclub.

“Gerard spent a long time on it trying to find a sound that was different from Teenage Fanclub,” Stephen explains.

“It’s a glorious record, quite introspective in places but bold and timeless too. Everything on it seems to fit in place. I remember it took a long time to make and it was really great at the time. I knew it was a record that we had to put back into print, we kept getting asked for it.”

Stephen founded Monorail a record store on King Street as a showcase for independent labels, especially local ones like Optimo, Soma and Chemikal Underground.

“When we started Geographic there were only a couple of shops you could buy those types of records in Glasgow.

“It’s really important for a record shop to reflect your own city, that was integral for that. We needed to be really good at Glasgow music first. If you can’t be good at Glasgow how can you be good at anything? There’s still a sense of community around Monorail that passed on from Teenage Fan Club and The Pastels to the next generation. The record store is part of that”.

geographic.ffm.to/reissues