The owners of Glasgow's iconic Rotunda building in Finnieston have revealed plans for the city's "biggest beer garden" as soon as lockdown restrictions allow.
The Cranside Kitchen will be a new free-to-enter outdoor venue, open seven days a week with a food market and beer garden.
Under the new plans, the areas currently used for parking and private patios, will be used as an outside space to offer meals, alcohol and other hot and cold beverages.
The centrepiece of the new Cranside Kitchen will be two "pergola" style marquees to cover customers, new trees and greenery, industrial walls, bespoke picnic tables and outdoor furnishings.
READ MORE: Glasgow bar Ardnamurchan reveals social distancing revamp with private pods
The current Rotunda parking area would be altered into the outside venue, which would also be a serving space for food, while the proposed beer garden would be to the rear corner of the premises. The venue would have a capacity for over 200 guests.
Cranside Kitchen is proposed to open as soon as Scotland enters phase two of the route map out of lockdown. Although details are yet to be finalised by the Scottish Government, it is hoped that Cranside Kitchen will open sometime this month.
The company said strict social distancing guidelines will be in place, and there will be limits on numbers at any one time to avoid crowding.
The Rotunda buildings bathroom facilities will be open for customers and safe toilet management will be maintained at all times.
READ MORE: Glass house plans to rescue Finnieston pubs and restaurants
Hygiene measures are also being prepared to make the venue safe for all customers. Staff will be wearing facemasks, gloves and a very strict two metre distancing rule will be in place across the site.
The free-to-enter venue will be open seven days a week with a food market offering menus from five of Glasgow's most renowned restaurants - Rioja, Halloumi, Pickled Ginger, Kilmurry & Co and La Rotunda with a single drinks and desserts menu.
Dishes on the menu include some of the most loved dishes from across the five restaurants including Greek Pork Gyros, Stone Baked Parma Pizza, Sushi Platters and Spanish Grilled Octopus.
It will operate on a first come, first serve basis,
Landscaper John Henderson has been commissioned alongside the team to design the site that is hoped to help kick-start the restaurant economy in the city.
The venture is being spearheaded by the team behind popular Glasgow restaurants Halloumi, Bibimbap, La Rotunda and Rioja.
In opening Cranside Kitchen, business partners Kevin Campbell and Toni Carbajosa have saved jobs within their company and hope to offer a new outdoor dining experience in the city.
Restaurateur Mr Carbajosa said: "We believe that a beer garden will be a great addition for the iconic site. If the First Minister stands up on Thursday and makes the announcement we’ll be ready to go – hopefully within 24 hours.
"We’ve been working with the local authorities and with the licensing board and are adapting our operations in line with Government guidelines. Our teams are excited to get back to work and customers can be assured that all the necessary safety measures will be in place before we open the public."
Mr Henderson said: "The design proposals aim to create an attractive and usable outdoor restaurant and beer garden area. Cranside Kitchen is located just a hop, skip and a jump away from the River Clyde walks and cycle tracks and the area will continue to offer on site parking for customers."
A planning application has been submitted to Glasgow City Council.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article