All Points East

WEST is a fantastic bar and restaurant located at the far side of Glasgow Green. It specialises in artisan lagers, wheat beers and traditional German food. Its beer hall’s dark wood-panelled walls, seats and floors also feel very German, but the German-style lager and beers, which are brewed on-site, have been given Glasgow-inspired names (King Tuts and St. Mungo feature).

Some of its German specialities include currywurst and weiner schnitzel.

One of the best things about WEST is their dog friendly policy. This means you are almost guaranteed to bump into a cute four legged friend on any visit there. West has a large beer garden with lots of benches which makes it the go to place for many people on a sunny day.

WEST is situated in the former Templeton Carpet Factory Building, a beautiful building which was modelled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice. The building was built as a carpet factory in 1892 for James Templeton and Son Carpet Makers. The design of the building was based on a palace as the wealthy people living around the area where it was to be built did not want to look out on to a factory.

Debs M on Yelp Glasgow gives a great review of the brewery side of WEST:

“The main thing about West is, of course, the brewery - I love that you can look down and see all the...brewing stuff (technical term) and I also like that they brew different seasonal beers throughout the year, it means you can't really get bored of their offerings! (As if I would anyway, pfft.) All West products adhere to the German Purity Law of 1516, or Reinheitsgebot (bless you) which means the only ingredients are hops, barley and water - no rubbish and tasty beer as a result. I went to their Day of Beer last year with some pals to learn a bit more about the brewing process and beers themselves, which was really interesting!”

Visit WEST brewery in the Templeton Building on Glasgow Green.

St Luke’s is a converted church turned music and arts venue. The former disused 19^th century church on Bain Square in Calton is thought to be one of the oldest churches in Glasgow. Originally built in 1837, the church has been restored and modernised to high standards. One wall of the church is even covered in a mural of Saint Luke with a record in hand and headphones around his neck. However, many of the original features have been left intact, including the beautiful stained glass windows.

The restaurant area – the Winged Ox – hosts an American diner-style menu, with ribs, steaks, burgers, sandwiches and pizzas making up most of the menu.

The venue hosts many events of all different types from comedy nights to theatre and music.

If you are interested in seeing the transformation of this beautiful building into the thriving, modern venue it has become, please click here to watch a video of the transformation.

Drygate, the UKs first ‘experiential craft brewery’ has been a welcome addition to the brewery quarter of Glasgow’s East End. The former box factory now holds a brewery, restaurant, beer hall, events area, sun deck and bottle shop.  

The Beer hall offers 24 different beers on tap, including three of Drygates own beers; Bearface Lager, Outtaspace Apple Ale and Gladeye IPA. One of the things which sets Drygate apart as ‘experiential’ is the floor to ceiling window from the restaurant through to the factory. Here you can see the beer you are drinking being brewed before you. You can also take a guided tour of the brewery on Sundays at 10am or 5pm. The tour will give you a history of brewing in Glasgow, a tour of the brewery and a tasting of the Drygate beers with one of their bottle masters.

Another unique feature of Drygate is that you can hire their studio brew kit and brew your own beer. This opens up the brewing process to the public and is a new market for Drygate.

The restaurant with 120 covers, serves food which focuses on fresh local Scottish produce. The restaurant is highly recommended on TripAdvisor with many praising its high quality ‘pub grub.’ The Drygate shop, which has beer bottles as walls, offers more than 200 different beer bottles to purchase and take home.

The brewery make full use of their events space with regular comedy nights, quiz nights and gigs. They also host the Urban Market on the 1^st and 3^rd Sunday of every month. The market has stalls from artisan food and drink producers, designers and artists.

The brewery is very easy to get to, a 20 minute walk from Glasgow city centre, with plenty of buses running past it throughout the day.

To find out more about Drygate click here.