Cutler, Lobster & Steaks
1 Fenwick Road
Giffnock
Husband and wife team Anthony and Fallon Cowley of the Meraki Restaurant Group have debuted Cutler, Lobster & Steaks in Giffnock following an extensive refurbishment of the former Tribeca unit. They also own Cocktails and Steak in Uddingston, Netherlee’s Mr MacGregor’s, which opened in August 2020, and are in the middle of rebranding Ciao Bella in Burnside as Luciano’s which they’ll also unveil this month. Three new restaurants during a pandemic. Not bad going for this relatively new business.
Fallon left her role as operations director of the Manorview Hotels & Leisure Group in 2018 after 10 years to have a child, while Anthony, former property development director for the group departed his role a few months ago following handover of the Redhurst Hotel refurbishment.
Said Fallon, “Design and development is Anthony’s passion. He handed the Redhurst Hotel over to the Manorview Operations Team and then immediately went on to complete Cutler Lobster & Steaks, working closely with the designer, Space I.D. We also added a conservatory that has given us around 16 new covers and really opened up the space and made it lighter. The works began in January but were slightly delayed because of the pandemic and Frank Adams Contracts was the main contractor on the job.
“The feedback from customers has been amazing. They love having such a high-quality venue on their doorstep.”
As well as the high-end finish, the interior is also incredibly detailed.
Explained Anthony, “The unit was completely ripped out and redesigned along a seafood line because the menu is 50 per cent shellfish and 50 per cent steak and there’s so much going on everywhere you look – there is so much detail.
“The exterior and the fixed seating is lobster blue (the colour before it’s cooked). There are fish on the ceiling, buoys, lobster crails, a hand-painted lobster, half a lobster and cow door handles, boat-oar door handles, porthole windows. The conservatory has a string of lights and lots of hanging planters too so there’s variation too.”
They have also installed a brand new kitchen that has been opened up so that customers can see the chefs working away, plus among all that shiny new equipment is a Mibrassa charcoal grill that barbeques the meat at 350 degrees.
Other design highlights for us are the nautical ropes neatly arranged on mounts hanging from the ceiling, the wooden Jenga-style frontage on the bar and white marble with dark fleck bar top, the exposed brick, the polished wooden floors, the lovely light blue pained distressed wood tables with metal surrounds, the white tiles, compass and the bar itself with its cool blue tiles that are a kind of overlapping circles that resemble fish scales them that are also about the fixed booth seating. The wicker/bamboo lampshades are also pretty standout as is the nautical ropework looping at the bottom of the windows. There really is so much to drink in here.
If the last few months are anything to go by coupled with their pedigree in hospitality and the magic they’ve weaved at Cutler, we’re super-excited to see both their rebranding of Ciao Bella in Burnside with a full refurbishment planned soon, as well as with anything they may have planned for the future whether that’s a refurbishment or something brand new. Watch this space.
