Club Noir's Valetines masked ball

So its Valentines time again. The one day of the year when doing something romantic for your loved one loses a lot of its sheen by societies expectation that it should happen, somewhat negating the point of the whole day.

As we pointed out previously Glasgow claims to have good reason to celebrate the death of a Christian Martyr with part of his remains residing in the Gorbals so how should we all mark the day.

Lots of restaurants are putting on special meal deals all weekend and if you feel like braving the North the GFT is showing Casablanca on the 14th which is fantastic on the big screen.

But what if you don't want to go with the normal flow, what if you want to try something a little bit different this Valetines? Then how about Club Noir at the O2 this Saturday night? Its one of the oldest modern Burlesque groups in the UK and their website claims, the biggest in the world.

As they say:

"An unrivalled Valentine's dream world at our lavish Masked Ball.Two burlesque shows of romance and love, in its many and twisted forms. Reliving erotic and flirtatious acts from our passionate past. Plus 6 new acts orchestrated for this night."

I don't really know the burlesque world, only once having seen a show when in New York but from the line up and videos on the Club Noir website it looks like it will be a really unusual, energy packed and memerable night. The evening will involve DJs, burlesque shows, live music, a chill out love bar and the acts will include Gold Digger, Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West, Dear Mr Gable, In Love Again, Lou Hickey and the Phantom of the Burlesque Club.

Club Noir

O2 Academy,
121 Eglinton Street Glasgow,
G5 9NT
Please note Club Noir is on Saturday the12th not the 14th. Don't want peopel turning up on the Monady night ready for some burlesque to find the Kerrang! Relentless Energy Drink Tour show which is prob as far away from a traditional Valentine's Evening as you can get.
PS - Dress Code is strickly dress up only, no jeans of trainers.

Nur Restaurant

Just before Christmas I went along to the new Egyptian restaurant on Bridge Street. I'd passed it quite a few times but hadn't had a chance to get along. A few friends and I were going along to see Tron Legacy at the Imax (Looked amazing, so so story) and we wanted to find somewhere to eat on the way. We weren't really sure what Egyptian food would actually be like, possibly everything would be in wraps? (sorry) As it turned out its actually quite similar to Greek food with lots of kebabs, mousaka, flat bread and houmous. Interestingly they serve Pasta which according to the waitress was originally an Egyptian invention, though there seems to quite a few places claiming pasta as their own on Wikipedia.

Our first impressions on walking in were very positive, the inside is really lovely and the lady that greeted us at the door and served us was super friendly, talking us through the menu, offering us some dish suggestions and giving us a glass of deliciously warm Egyptian style festive wine. It was amazingly tasty and really warmed us up on what was a pretty miserable grey day outside. Actually the whole restaurant was ideal for a day like that, its all dark wood, cushioned seats and warm flickering lamps. It makes you feel toasty and warm and far away from the rain and cold.

It was early evening and it was reasonably quiet so we were allowed our choice of seats. We chose the mezzanine  level where large cushioned chairs and a long low table allowed a comfy and social eating space. Our waitress explained that they don't have an alcohol licence but that you can bring your own, or purchase from the Spar across the street with corkage £3.95 for wine and 75p for beer. We decided to opt out of any more alcohol and gave their selection of fruit drinks a go and I can vouch for the Mango juice being very tasty.

After a bit of guidance we decided to get the following items and have a little share around:

Foul Sausage (A lot tastier than its sounds.), Falafel, Charcoal Grilled Kofta, Grilled Chicken and Chicken ; Spinach Tagine. My dish was the tagine served with a pyramid of rice and it was pretty tasty but when the food  arrived I wished I'd gone for some of the grilled meat, I managed to pinch a bit of both the chicken and the lamb and they were really juicy and nice crispy on the outside. We were running a bit tight for time so we had to forgo the deserts and get ice-cream at the Science Centre but will try and give them a go next time.

All in all a good addition to the Southside restaurant scene. Egyptian food is rich, hearty and full of flavour but I don't think its going to knock Italian and Indian from the top of the Glasgow Food Culture list. While I'm not sure I'd go every night, for a evening trying a few new tastes or if your on your way to the nearby Citizen's theatre its worth a visit. If you really want to get into the spirit of things you can take part in some belly dancing classes on a Saturday morning at 11:30am - see their website for details.

Nur
22 Bridge Street,
Glasgow, G5 9HR
Phone: 0141 418 0990

http://www.nur-restaurant.co.uk/

Whats in a name?

The area around Bridge Street underground has gone through a lot of changes. At one point it was the centre of all Glasgow trade with Central station sited there prior to its moving across the river (more on that another day). After WWII and the motorway plans were drawn up, the final link of the system was to head down highstreet across the river, passing through the gorbals straight over Bridge Street and ending at the Kingston Bridge. Though this was never completed the whole area was left in Limbo while the threat of the new road hung over it.

The road never came but ,partly as a result of the limbo status, while a lot of the area was knocked down the two large public buildings were left alone. The Colisseum Theatre which became a cinema and then a bingo before ending up empty and the Eglinton Street United Secession Church which became the Bedford then the New Bedford cinema, then "Glasgow's most successful bingo club" before in 2003 becoming the Carling Academy. This is how most people these days will know it, but that too has just changes and now as the result of a new deal it has become the O2 Academy.

Not sure that this is really news or not but I always find the stories that buidlings go through very interseting and I lioe to wonder what the original Church goers would make of the fact that someone with the name Ghostface Killah is performing where their alter used to sit?

I've never actually been to the Carl . . . O2 Academy but my friends who go to gigs a lot say that its not that great a venue and that the sound isn't too hot?

Anyone else had problems there? Where is the best Southside place for gigs?

O2 name change

Images of the Bedford and Coliseum

History of Bedford Cinema