We visited Margo to speak to Jonathon MacDonald on the restaurant, dishes, and what customers can expect.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's the final preparations for Margaux, which is going to be a new exciting place in the city centre.
00:07Why did you decide to open this place here particularly?
00:11Why Glasgow City Centre for your next project?
00:14We've got two restaurants in the West End already.
00:17It's an incredible site, so much potential when we came to see it.
00:21Miller Street is obviously a real thriving street as well with Pizzano, Spanish Butcher, Spiritualist next door.
00:26It feels like a nice little hub of the city centre where there's nice, diverse, interesting food things going on.
00:33I think Merchant City along the road has really changed in the last few months as well
00:40with the opening of Social Hub and House of Gods and the Candle Rise development.
00:45Lots of exciting things happening there as well.
00:47There probably has been a wee period where Glasgow City Centre had a bit of a lull,
00:50but I think there's a real buzz and excitement about the city centre again and the things happening.
00:56People who know Ox & Finch and know Kapow,
01:00and if they're familiar with what your brand of hospitality is all about,
01:05what does Margaux bring to the table? Literally, what can we expect here?
01:09Literally, Ox & Finch is shinier city centre, bigger sister.
01:17Oh, I like that.
01:20The same ethos in terms of sourcing the best produce,
01:26cooking it in a simple, unfussy, but careful and thoughtful way.
01:32Driven by the seasons, driven by produce and makers.
01:37Regularly changing menus, keeping customers engaged and keeping the kitchen engaged.
01:43That's really important so that nobody gets fed up.
01:48We're constantly evolving things and we'll do that here as well.
01:52Where it differs from Ox & Finch is we've got a lot more space here.
01:56Space in terms of cupboards and the restaurant.
01:58Space in terms of kitchen and kitchen equipment.
02:00Ox & Finch was our first restaurant venture ten years ago.
02:05This is on a different scale in every way, physically.
02:12Also the investment in it as well.
02:14It's allowed us to do a lot more things.
02:17As well as the small plates that you'd be used to in Ox & Finch,
02:21we've bigger dishes cooked in the Mabras oven, which is like a big coal indoor barbecue.
02:27600 gram dry-aged sirloin steaks for sharing.
02:32Whole lamb soul cooked over coals, that kind of thing.
02:36Big plates as well.
02:39We're making our own bread in here, we're making our own filled pastas.
02:44Lots of exciting new things for the chefs.
02:47The wine list as well with the additional space is a bit bigger, a bit more ambitious, a bit more diverse.
02:54The guys in the cocktail side have been able to push that forward as well.
02:58I was just thinking about cocktails because I got offered a margarita instead of a tea when I first arrived.
03:02Presumably cocktails is front and centre.
03:05Yeah, cocktails will be a real feature.
03:07I saw lots of pictures of dishes and it looks like there's been a ferocious round of testing and tasting.
03:14What are you most excited for people to try in terms of the dishes that you think that you're personally most looking forward to seeing in the past?
03:24The half-Creedy Carver duck's pretty amazing.
03:29I had the idea for duck and orange, but toast and marmalade and toast and parfait in a way of using the whole duck.
03:37So it's the duck breast roasted, the duck leg confit, the duck neck which is actually meaty as well,
03:44and wings slow cooked and picked down and rolled into a sausage.
03:48The liver is made into a parfait and then we're serving it with a mustard fruit, orangy, zesty marmalade and toast.
03:57And a nice duck sauce as well using the roasted bones.
04:00So it's quite a cool thing, it's just duck all different ways but with toast and marmalade.
04:07So yeah, that's one of my favourites on the menu.