University Café, Glasgow

The University Café is located  in the ‘trendy’ West End of Glasgow, and as you might expect near to the University. This is mainly student / tourist / young professional land, with the more traditional working class areas not too far away. Increasingly, the area is being taken over by coffee shops and more upmarket eateries. You get a sense that the University Cafe is hanging on in there.  

Perhaps the elderly working class cliental and the younger hippier types are sharing the same space and eating the same food, but experiencing very different cultural messages in the process: a venue that is both traditional and retro cool at the same time.

Established in in 1918 by the Verrecchia family, the business still reflects (like many city cafes) the Italian origin of its founders.  A modern mix of the old: long thin booths in the 'Sitting Room’, lots of mirrors and dark wood, flock wallpaper (Indian restaurant style circa 1975). On the walls are numerous paintings and photographs. Many of these are of the University Cafe itself. A great exercise in self referencing.

The food includes home made soups and ice cream, traditional Scottish fried food, with the odd flourish. For example Oak Smoked Haddock, Rice Peas, Sweet Corn and Béchamel Sauce. Also they serve the apparently common Cheese Beano, which I must admit was new to me. Not a place for the healthy option though.

The University Café  has allusions to a grander past but it is just sort of cheap but not really that cheerful. To be fair, to some people it is a Glasgow institution. Byers Road would be a lesser place without it.

There are a range of reviews on Tripadvisor. My favourite  review sums it up: 

Take a trip back in time for this quirky cafe. Try the Mac and cheese you can almost feel your arteries harden with it but it sorts out a hangover, love this place very nostalgic feeling and great service

Food Aid Reform

Breakfast and Cafes

Breakfast; always a good idea. It's been a photo trope of note ever since Stephen Shore went on his American Surfaces road trip. There are lots of motifs to play with here: plates of food, the arrangement of condiments, cafe art, clientele and so on. We are going to start exploring breakfasts and the their associate, cafes. To get this going we are going to explore a range of local cafes in Glasgow, sometimes with the breakfast option, sometimes not.

Stephen Shore - American breakfast

Psychogeography, the study of how our environment and culture affect behaviour and feeling and one of our research methods, is also interested in breakfast with several web sites exploring the nature of a 'good' breakfast. In the UK part of this is nostalgia for the old greasy spoon cafe and a past that is being replaced by multinational fast food outlets. 

There are people who spend their weekends seeking out new breakfast places, in the same way foodies seek out Michelin Star restaurants. One of the recent trends is for up-market reinventions of the traditional caff. In London the S & M chain fit the bill for those who want the bacon and egg in posh bread with a quiet ambiance, gingham tablecloths and Woolworth retro art - of course at a price. You can have much the same at Morrisons supermarket for a quarter of the price, but then it isn't the same in important (non food) ways.

S & M London

The Mission

Mission Street

The Mission in San Francisco illustrates the themes covered by this site. Originally the lands of the Ohlone people, it was settled by the Spanish in the late 18^th century as the Mission San Francisco de Asis. By the late 19^th century German, Irish, Italian and later Polish immigrants had settled here. From the 1940’s the Mission became home to Mexican migration, which resulted in many of the European residents eventually moving out. Nearby are areas with thriving Lesbian and Gay communities.

The local identities are reflected in a range of cultural expression. For example the murals on the Woman’s Building and several neighbourhood alleyways, street fairs, food fairs, Cesar Chavez Holiday Parade and Transgender and Dyke marches.    This cultural manifestation of course extends to the nature of the food available: Mexican plus a range of Central American and a range of other minority cultures

In recent years the areas surrounding the Mission have gentrified. Silicon valley in particular (for example the routing of the Google buses) has given this a significant boost. Alongside the new largely white wealth are the new associated food outlet concentrated on and around Valencia Street. These include a Ham and Oyster bar, an artisanal cheese and Belgian beer café, the Tartine bakery (with its $9 loaf of bread and $13 sandwiches), Bi-Rite Creamery (hand crafted ice cream) and Delfina Pizzeria. 

Running parallel is Mission Street that is still  Mexican / Central American. However, money talks and there is slow shift towards the more affluent outlets, with hipster coffee shops as the advanced guard.

As the people change, so does the cultural activity and provision of different foods. As income rises the nature of food changes as well from cheap wholesome basic provision to the more esoteric. If we explore the food on offer as a cultural signifier we can see a range of social and economic processes underway. Competition over retail sites are a metaphor for the underlying process of social change and the resistance to it as a way of defending an existing way of life.

On the street

Street art and the rural past

Cafe society

And just opposite the new competition

New cafe style; MacBooks and a coding textbook