Glasgow food stories: La Bodega, a Venezuelan coffee shop in Dennistoun

National World - LocalTV

We visit La Bodega in Dennistoun, the only cafe to serve Venezuelan coffee in Glasgow.

Transcript

00:00My name is Francie and we're at 98 Belgrove Street in La Bodega.

00:04We're a Venezuelan coffee shop and kitchen.

00:07We sell some pine tree items as well.

00:10We sell the iconic Venezuelan arepas and empanadas amongst all the items,

00:16but those are our most popular ones.

00:18I'm Venezuelan and my husband is Scottish and together we decided to open La Bodega.

00:24I was a bit afraid of how people would react to like Venezuelan food

00:29because obviously it's not something you hear about a lot on the daily.

00:32But we never thought of like introducing food,

00:37but a few weeks before opening we decided to just go for it and put empanadas on the menu.

00:42So empanadas are like fried like corn dough, sort of like a pasty shape

00:47and we decided to go for it and just introduce empanadas

00:50because no one else was doing a Venezuelan style empanadas.

00:53Shortly after we got the locals hooked on it, so that was very good.

00:57The community has been very welcome and very supportive

01:00as well as other businesses in the neighbourhood as well.

01:03Is there something about Deniston that made you want to do that here

01:06or did this just kind of come naturally?

01:09Sort of a little bit of everything, sort of like a bit of luck as well

01:13because when we were looking this is one of the places that popped up for lease

01:17and when David came and saw it, he thought it would be perfect, perfect place

01:23and I've also lived in Deniston before,

01:26so I thought it'd be a good wee community to start Labadeca in.

01:31We have a lot of like regulars around the area that come in to grab coffee,

01:37to grab an empanada quickly in the morning

01:39and we also do get like people coming in, sitting in, having a chat.

01:42We get the beans from Venezuelan.

01:44We get it from Andy's Coffee Project.

01:46They're fairly new roasters.

01:49They're based down in England

01:51but they import the coffee beans and roast it themselves.

01:54Since like day one we had like a lot of like regulars coming back

01:58and keep coming back for the food.

02:00They say the food is great, like different flavours and they like it.

02:06Is there anybody else that you like around?

02:07Can I just speak in the air here?

02:08Yeah, we do.

02:09We do have our wee favourites as well.

02:11Obviously, shout out to the bakers next door.

02:14They're brilliant and always like supplying us with some food.

02:18A bit of bakery pretty much every day actually.

02:21Daily's Coffee, they're great.

02:23Our daughter goes to the nursery close by

02:27so we pop in for coffee sometimes when we get a chance and pastries.

02:32Studio Pylon is great for gifts as well.

02:36Been in and amazing art selection.

02:39Zenner, I had my coffee from Zenner there this morning.

02:43Redmond's, I like Mesa as well.

02:46Yeah.

02:48Pretty much everything on the street.

02:50Pretty much everything, like everything is good

02:52and you get like a variety so you'd go to like different places

02:56for different things.

02:59And, so yeah.

Category

Transcript

Recommended