Hospitality businesses swept the board at this year’s Incorporation of Gardeners of Glasgow ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’ awards. Di Maggio’s scooped the top award – The Robertson Silver Spade – for their floral displays and they also received a gold certificate, while other restaurants in The DRG Group – Amarone and The Citizen – won silver and Café Andaluz won bronze.
23 local businesses attended the event at Trades House. Other attendees included The Lord Provost, The Deacon Convener of Trades House, Deacons – who presented the awards – and Ex-Deacons of some of the 14 Trades and members of the Incorporation of Gardeners of Glasgow.
The awards were launched in 1983 by The Incorporation of Gardeners of Glasgow and the Robertson Silver Spade was first awarded in 1992 and are presented to organisations within the city which create and maintain an arboreal or floral display of a high standard for the benefit of the public. Members of the Master Court explored businesses in Glasgow during the first two weeks in August 2022, while the flowers were in full bloom, and awarded points for each display they found, culminating in a list of finalists. This year they expanded the areas judged from G1 and G2 to include G3 and G4 and it is hoped to expand the areas again this year to include most of Glasgow. The overall prize is The Robertson Silver Spade.
Other gold winners this year included Ardnamurchan Scottish Restaurant & Bar, The State Bar, Merchant City businesses Mharsanta Restaurant & Bar, and The Steps Bar and Pavement. The Piper Whisky Bar, The Corinthian Club; Amore Ristorante & Pizzeria won silver.
Businesses based in Glasgow’s West End received several awards – Bar Gallus received silver and their sister bar, Islay Inn, received bronze. Bronze certificates were also awarded to Westbourne Medical Studios, Websters Theatre and the Machair Bar.
City Centre businesses – Amarone, The Counting House, Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel, Malones and Virgin Money were awarded silver. Blythswood Square Gardens, The Sir John Moore, Hengler’s Circus, The Argyll Hotel and engineering firm, Woolgar Hunter received bronze.
The 2019 winners, The Gurdwara Guru Granth Sahib, were there to collect a Silver Salver – their permanent reminder of winning The Robertson Silver Spade.
Commenting on their success, Mario Gizzi, Owner, DRG Group commented, “We’re delighted to have won these fantastic accolades today. We’re really proud of our floral displays outside our venues and want to make the city a bright, colourful and welcoming place for locals and visitors.”
Paul Carnan, Deacon of Incorporation of Gardeners, said, “We’re thrilled to present this year’s Let Glasgow Flourish awards. Our judges were able to cover a bigger area of the city and we would like to extend our congratulations to all the winners. Huge thanks to all of them for helping to making our city a blooming and welcoming place for visitors and locals to enjoy.”
LET GLASGOW FLOURISH AWARDS – WINNERS
Overall winner of The Robertson Silver Spade
Di Maggio’s
Gold Certficafte Winners
Ardnamurchan Scottish Restaurant & Bar
Di Maggio’s
Mharsanta Restaurant & Bar
The Steps Bar
Pavement
The State Bar
Silver Certificate Winners
Amarone
Amore Ristorante e Pizzeria
Ball Gallus
The Citizen Glasgow
The Corinthian Club
The Counting House
The Hengler’s Circus
Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel
Malones Glasgow
The Piper Whisky Bar
Virgin Money
Bronze Certificate Winners
The Argyll Hotel
Blythswood Square Gardens
Café Andaluz, City Centre
The Islay Inn
Machair Bar
The Sir John Moore
Websters Theatre
Westbourne Medical Studios
WoolgarHunter
