Ubiquitous Chip interview about multi million pound renovation

GlasgowWorld

The Ubiquitous Chip, one of Glasgow West End’s oldest restaurants and bars, is to undergo multi-million pound restoration work at the Ashton Lane venue. The works, which will see the much-loved West End establishment close for around 60 days from late evening on Saturday, 5 July, will preserve the building’s legacy, while refreshing and restoring the spaces that have hosted countless first dates, wedding celebrations, family gatherings and graduation dinners over the last 53 years.  The doors will reopen to the public in mid-September with fresh menus, extended opening hours and an enhanced appearance. The restoration will include a full refurbishment of the restaurant’s main dining areas, as well as the careful preservation of features, including the intricate murals by Alasdair Gray and the tranquil Koi Carp pond. New lighting will be installed in the courtyard.

Transcript

00:00good morning from the ubiquitous chip i'm here with will allen the manager

00:06and good morning good morning well it's lovely light in here yeah it's a little bit gray today

00:12but doing all right this is a room this is a building that means quite a lot to people in

00:18glasgow and in your time here have you you know like the conversations that you have when people

00:24come in here you must hear a lot of stories and about people who've had a long-term connection

00:28yeah absolutely i mean you hear sort of generational stories people coming in on the first date they

00:36met here they got married here had their kids the kids have had their first date here um so yeah i

00:42mean loads and loads of stories people whose faces are still on the wall who come in and tell you

00:48that you know malcolm's over there and we've got brian finney at the back who still comes in every

00:52day for a pint yeah so yeah yeah it's uh it's an important place in glasgow uh lots of lots of

01:00people have come through these walls everyone seems to have worked here at some point yeah i always

01:05had a story to tell and so next stage there's some exciting things happening here um what what's

01:13happening over the summer yeah so uh big refurb um you know i think the the important thing is that

01:20we're sort of keeping the essence of the place um a lot of the stuff that's going on is just sort of

01:25setting ourselves up um sort of move into the next sort of 10 20 years um but yeah exciting time it's

01:33what we've been waiting for for you know a year or so now um and we've known it's been coming now that

01:38we've got the sort of green light it's just uh very exciting so uh a lot of work being done in the

01:45kitchens a lot of work being done on the roof and um you know touch-ups here and there in the bars

01:50and that kind of stuff new furniture um and yeah just exciting time for us really if you can hear

01:58the slight trickle calming trickle of water in the background that's because we're actually sitting

02:03right beside the cart pond which is a feature of the evictus chip from here you can see murals that are

02:10throughout the building that were um that were produced by alistair gray that are um increasingly

02:16an important part of the heritage of the west end it's not often you do a renovation of a restaurant

02:21where you've got to think about ponds and artworks of that no no i mean it's been it's been a little

02:26bit of a headache in terms of uh trying to figure out how we're going to navigate around that but

02:30the most important thing is that we're keeping the pond and we're keeping the murals and everything's

02:34going to be really looked after um but yeah it's it's a bit of a unique place i think it's uh caused

02:41a few headaches for the people having to design things but it also is for the better when you

02:47have to work around these things i think it makes people think about things definitely and you know

02:52it'll be great to see it back as it should be um so in terms of new stuff this room will have a bit of

03:00a makeover yes this will stay the statement but uh the wee bar uh which is one of my favorite parts

03:05of this building gonna be a not so wee bar right so the wee bars get that an up an upgrade in terms

03:10of it's going to get a little bit of an extension right yeah so i think if you look at it from the

03:14outside it's probably not going to look too different um so again very much keeping the sort

03:19of essence of the place um but we're knocking through into the bookies that were acquired about a year

03:24or so ago now um and that's going to be split up into bits so we've got um a little bit of a sort

03:30of snug area going through the back um a little bit of the kitchens going through into there as well

03:36um just to give the guys a little bit more space for prep and storage and that kind of thing

03:41um but yeah i think if you if you were to walk past it it wouldn't really look too different you

03:45might just see a little doorway that goes into a nice little hidden bit at the back yeah and again very

03:50much in keeping with uh everything that's been there and making sure that we're still on the

03:56forefront of all the whiskey stuff that's going on there's as there's a little bit of a pause

04:01uh you know hospitality it's a fairly full throttle existence as you have a little bit of a pause

04:07and you have the opportunity to look around glasgow this summer um what kind of places are your

04:12favorite parts of town yeah i mean it's hard to say i mean i think a lot of the stuff that's going on

04:17and south side at the moment's great um you know in terms of restaurants i love the stuff that the

04:22guys at big counter are doing um there's some great new places the um you know margot and um

04:30sets underneath that are both fantastic i've only been a couple of times to serve once to margot um

04:37yeah i mean to be honest with you and when i get days off i just kind of do what i do for my job which

04:43is go and eat food and drink nice wine so good hobby yeah uh so the kitchen uh you know is chef

04:51happy about uh you know having a chance to kind of you know really get to get i think the big the big

04:56change is going to be upstairs i think it's going to really set us up to be able to do a little bit

05:01more high volume um a little bit faster paced obviously still keeping uh the sort of essence of all

05:09that sort of scottish produce um but you know i've had a look at some of the ideas for menus i'm

05:15not going to give too much away just yet but it's going to be a little bit different um and the

05:20kitchen itself will be set up for us to kind of do that and you know be able to cater to a few more

05:26people slightly higher volume all those kind of things which has been quite difficult to do over the

05:30past few years with the sort of space that's available to us um so yeah yeah exciting up there cool

05:37well i'm looking forward to coming back and seeing what it's like when all the work's

05:40finished best of luck and have a great summer thank you very much thank you

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