Bar Tab: Fly South, Glasgow

Just before 10pm on a recent Saturday evening, a local couple ascends the staircase at the end of Lynedoch Street as a light rain smirs; she in a calf-length tan raincoat and custom-made Air Force 1s, he in a black tweed jacket and suede Chelsea boots. They push at the door of Fly South, Glasgow and walk slowly down the long avian portrait lined hall away from the bustle of the West End weekend. As the corridor ends in an archway opening to a space the size of the tenement living room they’d not long left, the maitre d’ holds them back while an impromptu photo shoot takes place on the table they’d reserved. Influencers in the wild. Even here. Once their seats are available, they perch in the window close enough to the bar to watch as new friends meet old friends, drams are dispensed and discussed and the post-dinner one-for-the-roaders sidle up to the marble-topped counter. Coasters are replaced on either side of the art deco bar lamps, cordial bottles refilled and shallow water glasses kept topped up with a startling efficiency. To the right, a table of patrons discuss the view of the Indian takeaway across the road and contemplate a mixed pakora (haggis non-optional) for the walk home. Over a round of drinks (Cherry Blossom Festival – Japanese whisky, Sakura, iced tea and soda; Krik? Krak! – Haitian white Agricole, camomile and tonic) our couple take in their surroundings: “Maybe we should have put in floor to ceiling spirits shelving and a bar when we renovated our living room,” he says. “With a library ladder”. “That might have been a bit much for when it’s just the two of us,” she replies. “Maybe. But we should definitely have added a cornice shelf overflowing with ferns”. (1 Lynedoch St. book here). Read more Bar Tabs here.