We visit the Ubiquitous Chip, one of Glasgow’s oldest restaurants to listen to some of the love stories ahead of Valentine’s Day.
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00:00I had a quarter bottle of Ehrlinger champagne in a plastic bottle, and I said, would you like some champagne?
00:06No expense there.
00:08And the rest they say is history.
00:10I'm Roddy and this is Marion.
00:12I'm Marion.
00:14Each of us was here on a Tuesday night.
00:16I was in with one friend and we were sitting at the bar and bemoaning something, whatever had happened.
00:22And then you came over and said, let me buy you a drink.
00:26So I was like, okay.
00:28And then I said to my friend, I can't buy him a drink of that, dammit.
00:32So I bought a pint and put it on the table.
00:35I think the reason the chip is so special is because of how long it's been here.
00:39So it's been here over 50 years.
00:42So people have come and met here and then got married,
00:45and then they come here for their children's graduations,
00:48and then their children meet people here.
00:50That's one version of it.
00:52She was with a friend whom I had worked with previously, so I knew somebody to say hello to.
00:56But I had said to my friend Davy that I was with an interesting looking girl up at the bar there.
01:00So he knew I was making my move.
01:02So that was smart.
01:04And I bought her a drink.
01:06People can come for a romantic meal at the chip.
01:08You can meet somebody in the bar at the chip on a Friday and Saturday night.
01:12People seem to find the wee pub particularly romantic
01:15because it's a small little warm place, you know,
01:18where you can snuggle up and have a whiskey together.
01:20Pretty much time to go.
01:22So I said, right, I'm just going to knit to the loo.
01:24So I went downstairs to the loo and came back up.
01:26It was closing time really, so we just all got up to go together.
01:29But, and I deny this for the rest of my life.
01:32Davy said to me when she came back up from the loo,
01:34he said, she didn't go down there for a wee.
01:36She went down to put on a face.
01:38Not true. Ever.
01:40And I still deny it 30 odd years down the line.
01:43You can't go an evening in here without somebody coming in for an anniversary
01:47or, you know, a date night or something.
01:50And I've known lots of members of staff I've worked with over the last decade
01:55and met each other whilst working at the restaurant.
01:57As we got to the corner of the lay,
01:59we just kind of walked around the same way.
02:01My friend and your friend just vanished.
02:04It was like the red arrows, they just disappeared and left us two.
02:07It was like, where have they gone?
02:08And we looked everywhere.
02:09That's really odd.
02:10One was a chef and one was a waitress
02:12and they went on to have two kids
02:14and open their own restaurant after meeting here.
02:16So it was quite nice.
02:17I was en route to where she lives
02:19so we walked round, we went up to my flat
02:21and I knew how to treat a girl well in those days
02:23because I had a quarter bottle of Aer Lingus champagne
02:26in a plastic bottle
02:28and I said, would you like some champagne?
02:30No expense there.
02:32And it happened that she did like champagne
02:34so she drank it all because it was only that much.
02:36And that was my first romantic gesture.
02:39A quarter plastic bottle of Aer Lingus champagne.
02:42And the rest they say is history.
02:44Well then I walked her round to where she lived
02:46Marion lived a bit further on.
02:48And we made a date to see each other again
02:50and that was it.
02:52And then three years later
02:54we were married on the anniversary of the day we met
02:56because we met on a Tuesday
02:58and three years later it was a Saturday
03:00so that was perfect.
03:01And so now every June 27th
03:03we celebrate too.