This week has seen me in Glasgow on business and staying again at the ABode hotel, one of the group of boutique hotels operated by Andrew Brownsword and the two Michelin starred chef, Michael Caines.
I first stayed at the Abode, Glasgow in 2007 and was there every week for 5 weeks whilst working out my employer’s Glasgow city centre office. In the 5 weeks I was there I stayed in a different room each week and I loved the slight quirkiness of this small hotel, formerly an Arthouse. Located in the city's art district on Bath Street in an historic Edwardian building, ABode Glasgow is a unique boutique hotel that combines listed features such as the preservation of its white glazed bricks with contemporary style and design. The hotel has 59 bedrooms, rated Comfortable, Desirable, Enviable and Fabulous! There are three upper floors housing the bedrooms, ground floor reception and main Michael Caines modern cuisine restaurant. The basement houses the BarMC & Grill for more informal bistro style atmosphere and menu featuring many char grilled items. The lounge bar serves a good selection of wines and cocktails as well.
The bedrooms are off a galleried landing on each floor with a wonderful old-fashioned gated lift running through the central atrium of the building. This lift is the type that has a wooden access door to the hallway but on opening this, the lift then has one of those concertina type metal gates which needs to be closed before the lift will ascend or descend. The interior is lovely old wood panelling, oak I would guess. Needless to say people regularly get out of the lift and neglect to close the inner metal gate behind them which means if you are on another floor waiting for it you may have to give up and walk the stairs! However this isn’t as bad as it might be as the staircase also runs through the central atrium and is a lovely sweeping circular affair and there aren’t many floors!
On one occasion the room I was allocated featured an entire wall (of some considerable height) of stained glass leaded lights in oak panelling and was quite breathtaking. The rooms often have little baskets of Scottish tablet (like fudge), or hand made chocolates available to purchase but my room this time didn’t unfortunately – huge shame as I became almost addicted to the tablet when I stayed there longer term back in 2007!
I have never actually eaten in the main Michael Caines restaurant at the Abode as I don’t think my employers would be very supportive of me expensing “fine dining” meals every night through the company! Whilst I could obviously pay for a meal there personally, I have never been a fan of eating alone and it would seem a dreadful shame to eat somewhere so good, looking like “Billy No Mates!!”
The basement BarMC & Grill is atmospheric and quite trendy looking with its low lighting. It is more casual and better suited, in my opinion, for people having to eat alone whilst travelling on business. The menu changes regularly it seems and there are also daily specials and “meal deals.” Often these meal deals are linked into overnight stays but are also available to “walk-in” diners. When I was there this past week the deal seemed to be a double room for 2 occupants with breakfast and evening meal for £99 providing the evening meal was off the special menu rather than a la carte or in the main restaurant. This seems a cracking deal to me as the hotel is 4* rated and really quite nice if you like the boutique style rather than the big, somewhat impersonal, all rooms look the same corporate chains. The food has always been very nice indeed, as you would expect with Michael Caines and his team of Executive chefs managing and running the kitchens.
Although I stayed three nights last week I only ate at the hotel once this time as had other commitments. I had the chicken liver parfait with caramelised walnuts and pear chutney as a starter followed by some succulent and tasty lamb cutlets and a quatre épices crème brûlée. All delicious and cooked perfectly. I am due back to Glasgow the week after next so am already looking forward to my stay at the Abode again and see what is new on the menu to try. The good food is my compensation for having to be away from home – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
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