Merchant City/Panther Milk Bar
I’ve just returned from a sojourn in New York, so you could say that Glasgow’s flaws and limitations have been brought sharply into focus.
I know that it’s pointless to compare the two cities – one a cultural powerhouse overflowing with life of all kinds, the other New York – but I couldn’t help it as I rode the number 57 into town, just days after taking the Q train over the Manhattan Bridge.
Its nightlife alone presents endless possibilities.
In Greenwich Village, where Bob Dylan and the beat poets lived in the early ‘60s, I drank until 4am in the 124 Rabbit Club: a shadowy basement bar that looks like a service door from the outside, selling imported craft beers.
It has a buzzer, to keep out students from the nearby New York University: an idea that some West End boozers might like to adopt with haste.
In Brooklyn, I spent the night surrounded by fascinatingly pretentious punters in The Four Horsemen, the wine bar owned by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.
I expected a dive bar, but it’s a bright, airy, Scandinavian-inspired space that took me by surprise. Spuytin Duyvil, just round the corner in Williamsburg, was next but I struggle to remember it.
It was one of those nights.
Still hampered by jetlag, my first night out when I got back was a tour of the Merchant City’s finest: Blackfriar’s, O’Neill’s, Home, finishing up in the 13th Note.
I was also delighted to discover the Panther Milk Bar, a low-key City Centre back room dispensing only the delicious concoction known as Lecha de Pantera.
I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, so seek it out yourself.
But for a taste of New York’s bar scene, a night here, or in the Old Hairdresser’s, is as close as it gets.
Merchant City
What's your most hated sport?
1. Chris El Paso, 25, Shettleston, “Men's netball”
Alisdair "McPhee" MacPherson, 29, Merchant City, “Greyhound racing”
2. Jen Dickson, 29, Yorkhill, “Boxing”
Steve Nicolson, 30, West End, “Any sport that’s American”
3. Cassi Scott, 30, West End, “Golf”
Ali Scott, 29, West End, “Synchronised swimming”
4. Stephen Elliott, 31, West Lothian, “Football (although it’s also my favourite)”
Catriona Elliott, 33, West Lothian, “Whatever Stephen’s favourite sport is”
5. Jonathan Holvey, 20, Glasgow, “Cricket”
Craig Muir, 20, Lanarkshire, “Golf”
Annie Smith, 23, Dunlop, “All of them”
6. Zoe Mullaney, 23, City Centre, “Snooker, darts, bridge… I could go on”
Jairo lugo, 32, Caracas, “Rugby”
7. Stu Cooleniz, 30, Glasgow
Favourite Club? The beat in Stirling
Favourite Bar? Boteco do Brasil
Favourite DJ? Myself
Favourite band? The Saturdays
First Club? Jiggies, in Dunfermline
What You Drinking? Vodka, soda water and lime
Describe Your Dancing? Pure excelsior
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