"It's about having fun": Chef Peter McKenna on the story behind Glasgow's most anticipated restaurant opening
What you can expect when Eleven Fifty Five opens in Finnieston as we pay a visit to the new restaurant.
The Gannet is gone. Glasgow now has Eleven Fifty Five to look forward in its place, carrying on a legacy of local hospitality in Finnieston. Chef-owner Peter McKenna will be in the kitchen while Kevin Dow runs the dining room. The doors open tomorrow.
It’s a change in style and emphasis. The 52 cover restaurant has undergone a significant renovation, drawing inspiration from cosy Irish snugs, years of travel and the style of Parisian bistrots. The furniture has been made by local carpenters and the space upholstered with forest green tones.
The back dining area has been completely stripped back and reworked to create a snug area. The mezzanine has been rebuilt as a private dining room for 12 guests.
I ask Peter and Kevin how the new restaurant will reflect their own personalities. “You get to a stage in your life where you've been to a lot of fine dining restaurants, you've been to some of the best restaurants in the world, and that's brilliant and there’s memories to cherish. We've done our own take on Scottish fine dining for a long, long time, over a decade, and it wasn't the restaurants that I was gravitating towards” Peter says.
“Yes, I still love fine dining, but it just wasn't fitting me in where I am at the moment, or Kevin, for that matter. So myself and Kevin would go down to London or we're going over to Paris, the type of places we were going to, yes, great food has to be great food as non-negotiable, but the atmosphere, the vibe, the service, the fun, because at the end of the day, it's a night out. It's a day out. You want to have fun.
“For me, if you're sitting over this beautifully crafted plate of food, but you're all very quiet and you're taking it all very serious, it's not really where we're at. We want to have fun. We want to go out and enjoy ourselves, and we want our food and our service to reflect that.”
Peter says the menu involves riffs on what you would classically association with a bistro: “I will do it differently because the way I look at food, I look at my experience to date, and when you're putting a plate of food together, it's like a prism. You take all your experience, what you're into, and then you feed it through and own what it is, the way that your mind works. Everything has been amped up to the eighth degree. It's going to be singing. There's a beef tartare on there. You expect to see that in a bistro, but I've done it differently. I'm doing a brûlée of bone marrow on the side, so a nice crisp exterior you put into it.
“You put that in with your beef tartare onto your sourdough crisps, delicious, popping in your mouth. Other dishes on there I'm really excited. I come from a town called Monaghan in Ireland. There's a farm there that Silver Hill ducks come from. I've got some for the menu, and my grandparents' house overlooked this farm, so that’s a great connection. We will be working with local producers and we will bring new ingredients that will be a little bit different for Glasgow and exciting for us as well.”
The bar area has been altered to accommodate space for dining at the bar, which adds another dimension. Kevin says the team is looking forward to the next chapter: “We’ve had a nice break preparing for opening but we are really looking forward to getting our customers back in again.”
Peter said: “To me this feels like a natural evolution - we have stripped back then built up the restaurant and food offering creating a space and menu that will draw you back time and time again. Good honest hospitality with no gimmicks, just great produce cooked with care and respect and a drinks list that is second to none. I can't wait to share Eleven Fifty Five with our guests.”
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