Bread Meats Bread is a new burger and sandwich specialist in St Vincent Street, Glasgow.
As you walk in through the double glass doors, an impressive, large scale wooden art feature, with the silhouette of a cow, grabs your attention, offset by the white painted exposed brick wall. To the right, the bustling kitchen is a hive of activity, with scintillating smells and sizzling sounds instantly grabbing the attention of customers.
Kosovon owner, Luli Avdyli, told Dram, “It all started about a year and a half ago. A few years before, we nearly opened a diner similar to the Route 66 style cafes. It’s a good idea and I might still look into it. Bread Meats Bread came about from looking at what was going on in places like America and Canada, and we thought it could work in Glasgow.
“We visited places in London and elsewhere that were doing a similar thing and really liked the idea of bringing something like that here. There is definitely a market here, but unfortunately we didn’t open a year and a half ago as we would have liked. We wanted to be the first in Glasgow, but obviously there are now others doing a similar thing.”
With floor to ceiling glass walls and spacious, wall length seating areas, the restaurant is warm and comfortable, with views into the open kitchen reinforcing the fresh nature of the food produced.
The open-plan space was designed by Arka who are the creative minds behind Glasgow’s SECC and Science Centre. With wooden clad walls, dark wooden tables, and a dark wooden countertop, the booths and tables at the windows offer views onto the busy St
Vincent Street and Renfield Street, where you can watch the world go by.
Most of the wood has been salvaged from old scaffolding boards supplied by Glasgow Wood Recycling, with the tables, flooring and seats made using old furniture crates.
The room is naturally split into two halves, with smart finished, long wooden tables dividing it and the feature artwork continuing down into a bench. Small, square tables, adorned by the necessary condaments to enjoy Americana style food, have metal stools to perch on.
The high ceilinged room is lit with a tube light feature, high spot lights and four low hanging lights, hovering above the centre tables. As the night draws in and the Glasgow streets become darker, neon tube lights provide funky mood lighting.
Three exposed, natural brickwork columns run to the ceiling and are but small interruptions to the impressive glass front finish. You really do feel as if you are in a New York diner here, with the public and busy traffic rushing by.
Nice touches, offering a nod to the style of food provided, include miniature farmyard animals with strands of hay encased in perspex boxes under the wooden benches, which are finished with leather cushions for comfort.
There is also cute artwork to the right of the feature wall, which breaks up the otherwise white painted brickwork, accompanied by a neon Bread Meats Bread sign.
Burgers are certainly all the rage at the moment and the city centre has several heirs to the throne. Bread Meats Bread will definitely benefit from being as central and prominent as it is, and the quality of the food could be just enough to make it the success Luli hopes for.