IN FINE FEATHER
Pink Peacock offers up price promise
QUEER- FRIENDLY, Yiddish- speaking anarchist café aims to revolutionise Glasgow,” proclaimed the Times of Israel this week. The Jerusalem- based newspaper put the spotlight on an emerging business in Govanhill, the Pink Peacock. Run by Morgan Holleb and Joe Isaac, the project will see a kosher café open in Glasgow’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhood.
The founding principle is to provide “a Jewish space where you can be loudly queer and you’re welcome”. Customers at the café will be told the break- even price of the food when they order and can then “pay either side of that all the way down to zero” – a concept that say fits with the café’s anarchist outlook: “Sometimes it means smashing windows, but sometimes it means feeding people for free”.
The pair are negotiating a lease and hope to open some time before the end of the year. The Pink Peacock has already been hard at work during lockdown from a home kitchen, producing bagels and challah bread for weekly delivery to 40 to 50 Glasgow households in need from all different backgrounds.
When they officially open their doors, there will be vegan, kosher and halal dishes from the Ashkenazi cookbook. The café will also host revolutionary and social lectures. Even if you are not interested in a side- order of politics, you are welcome to enjoy the food.
It will also be a space for Yiddish learning, including reviving the Scots Yiddish dialect. Holleb told the Times of Israel: “It is important to us that the Yiddish we do isn’t just preservation — we want to use and speak Yiddish, and if it is used in Scotland, we will say Scottish words.”
The story of Glasgow cafes is written by people from all kinds of different places and perspectives. They make our city a more interesting place to live. Opening a new place right now is brave, even for anarchists.
Elsewhere on the South side, Fylkir of Copenhagen has just announced its closure on Newlands Road as the family that ran the popular neighbourhood hangout are moving home to Denmark. Other local stalwarts are stuck on pause or open with a dramatically reduced capacity.
New Opening
The Merchant City has a new eatery with Canteen 58 set to open its doors on Monday.
Glasgow architect Mark Brunjes, responsible for interiors at Paesano, The Anchor Line and the Skybar at Radisson Red Glasgow, has designed the dining room, adding in a six metre long neon sign alongside a custom- made gantry with hanging planters for added greenery. Suppliers include familyrun butchers C& C Meats and Bernard Corrigan fishmongers.
With coronavirus restrictions in mind, tables are placed at a one metre distance. Breakfast is served until 5pm each day alongside a separate lunch menu, with small plates, sharing boards and a cocktail list in the evening. There will be fresh salads, sandwiches and pastries to takeaway.
Tina added: “Our food will be made with care, love and attention, but served fast. People are busy, and we want to make sure they are satisfied as quickly as possible. We cater for everyone, no matter what their dietary requirements are. Kindness comes first.”
You will find Canteen 58 at 58 Ingram Street.
Facing up to September
I braved a Glasgow monsoon to go for lunch at Dahkin at Candleriggs, a place that can bring a bit of South Indian sunshine into your life, even when you are drookit.
We started with varutha attukari, slow roasted lamb fillet in a herb and coconut marinade with a welcome kick of spice. There was king prawns and peppers tossed together with a tangy tomato and garlic sauce for contrast as we tore strips from an oversized dosa. For main course, order meen chuttathu – chunks of slightly charred Scottish monkish enlivened by peppers for a rich culinary- crossover stew.
Can top local restaurants like this continue to draw back customers after the Eat Out to Help out initiative draws to a close? Navdeep Basi, owner of both North Indian The Dhabba and South Indian Dakhin restaurants tells me: “August saw customers returning to our restaurants following the creative initiative taken by the Chancellor.
“It’s always welcome to see our customers back after such a period of absence and I just hope that it has given people more confidence into being able to eat out again without fear. September will see us continuing with our service and we look forward to welcoming customers old and new. We will be preparing our food freshly, supporting others by sourcing locally as we always do and following any advice we are given to ensure people are comfortable.”