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the wee pub
...after a painstaking gestation courtesy of a perfectionist Iranian joiner, a fully matured bar and the Chip's mini-me, capacity 28, was born. Seventy per cent reclaimed wood gives the feeling that it has been there for ages, and suggests it should be called "A Chip Off The Old Block". Other pithy proposals have included "Diminuitive Chip", "Frite Petite" and "Pokey Chips", but today it is just "The Wee Bar" and "The Big Bar". Proposr of world domination is the bar upstairs, a natural extension of the restaurant operation created in 1971 as an alternative to restaurants failing to offer an alternative to fried or boiled nothing much. Now approaching a second decade itself, the Chip Bar is notable for many things, two main ones being the food and drink, and the people who eat and drink, but mostly drink it. the clientele... ...18 to 80, is arty and literary, with plenty of Beeb staff and look-who-it-is guests. The crack ranges from great to grating, theories are loudly expounded or plots hatched in conspirational huddles and it would all make for better Saturday night drama than what ends up being commissioned. The food is a result of supplying what the owner, Ronnie Clydesdale, considers to be the best in Scotland, and Michelin, Macallan, Taste of Scotland have agreed - it is in his award-winning restaurant downstairs that your bar food is produced. An annexe to the traditional but airy and snug is an informal dining room with a balcony overlooking the cobbled, skylit restaurant courtyard. Bar food is available in all these places at varying times from noon onwards - you may find yourself seated in the courtyard surrounded by a small tropical jungle, with full-on but informal table service. Lunch and evening menus are changed every day, Scottish-based dishes with flair and an experienced hand. From a typical lunch menu: tongue and cider bridie with apple butter; baked Orkney organic salmon marinaded in honey, tamari and ginger with mashed potatoes and spinach. It also does liver, mashed potatoes and onions which would make your granny fall on her vegetable knife. an always reliable wine selection... ...is displayed on a board in the bar and you also have Scotland's largest wine cellar and 150 malts at your disposal. The staff either have a formal wine qualification or have been made aware by tastings and a behind-the-scenes culture that an unspecifed but terrifying doom is sure to befall them should theyt fail to know what they are talking about. Product knowledge is usually high. The Chip has always had a policy of selling only unpasteurised Furstenburg lager on tap. Notoriously strong, a full session is something many lager drinkers only try once. The bar has relented slightly and now sells bottled Budvar. None the less, the Chip is usually buzzing, even if there are only four people in the bar, and always busy on a weekend night. It was never going to be hard, but now a new generation is packing out the Wee Bar too, with the thirtysomething crowd in the majority. Which inspired their elders upstairs to another suggestion for a name: Tottie. (...this article first appeared in Business a.m. 8/11/01) The Ubiquitous Chip Restaurant 12 Ashton Lane Tel: 0141 334 5007 Email: Here |