IT was 1957, the era of such well-known Glasgow restaurants as Rogano, Ferrari’s, The Royal, The Whitehall, the Grant Arms. City diners flocked to restaurants specialising in French, Italian, Indian, Chinese or Greek cuisine. Customers were looking for novelty and exciting dishes, said the head chef at Guy’s restaurant.

At Freddie’s Nosh Bar, the most popular offering was Italian minestrone soup with grated cheese. “The ‘Nosh’ name,” explained manageress Bertha Gallagher, “is from ‘naschen’ – to nibble tasty bits”. (A few years later, Glasgow would see the launch of a cheese bar, named The Mousetrap, where the produce could be accompanied by wine or port).

In March 1957 the Evening Times was surveying elements of the nightlife in Scotland’s largest city. At the Copacabana (above), writer Tom Hamilton and his wife asked the head waiter, Costa Polydoron, to guide them through dinner.

After a dry Martini came the hors d’oeuvre: a vine leaf stuffed with mincemeat and rice and spices, cooked in chicken saute, all of it impaled on a cocktail stick. “These are new in Glasgow”, said manager John Joakim.

Next came scampi, then the main course: slices of spiced lean pork soaked for 48 hours in dry red wine and cooked at the table on a spirit stove, and washed down with white wine.

This was followed by Crêpes Suzette, flambéed in Grand Marnier. “Most impressive ... and tasty”, wrote Hamilton. The meal was rounded off by Turkish coffee, Turkish Delight, and a glass of Drambuie. “Magnificent”, sighed our man, utterly full.

The owner of another restaurant, Canasta, said that Scots liked Italian food, including pizza and tagliatelle. Hamilton wrote that pizza was egg, tomato and chopped ham cooked in a bread cake; tagliatelle was inch-broad strips of spaghetti.

If there was a fly in the ointment, or the soup, it was that all the restaurants had to close down at 11pm. “Still”, Hamilton noted, “we are progressing”.

Read more: Herald Diary