We speak to the Chamber of Commerce to learn more about Taste the Plate, a campaign to encourage Glaswegians to explore independent food and drink across the city.
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00:00Okay, so Taste of Place will be an opportunity to kind of remind people that live here what's on their doorsteps
00:06I think that we get very cosy in Glasgow. We tend to
00:10You know, we have our own neighbourhoods
00:12so we stick to them and you know trying to convince someone from the south side to go across to the West End can be
00:16a bit of a, you have to do some convincing and stuff
00:19But you know, there's a lot of thought, it's great that people are very comfortable in their neighbourhoods
00:22But this is a great reminder that there's lots out there to explore. I mean, I've been writing about Glasgow
00:28non-stop for the last 10 years and I'm still finding out the things every day.
00:32Yep, absolutely and guilty as charged
00:34I'm a West Ender, I have been for 40 years and I do find myself a natural choice and actually one of the things I've
00:42found really
00:43interesting as we've developed up Taste of Place is the south side. Honestly
00:49You could get me across to the tramway now and again and it depends what you call the south side
00:53But I would have to be honest and say I'm not there that often
00:58This is something that will make me go and explore it in a more determined way
01:03Taste of Place, it gives me a reason to go and explore and find out what's going on there
01:09The council leader is a south sider. So she tells me all the things that I really should be going to explore
01:17So I will, that will be one of the challenges I'll take up for this particular project that we've set out for 8.50
01:24This is a message that's gone beyond Glasgow to other places, that Glasgow is an interesting place
01:30Time Out magazine said that this is one of the great food and drink cities in the UK. So
01:36What are you hearing? Because you know, the other thing that's really fascinating is that last year despite all the challenges
01:42The openings of independent food and drink was up by 30%. I mean, that's a remarkable thing
01:49Are we just all off our heeds and just going to do it anyway, you know. Bit of that
01:53I think there is a bit of that. It's like a challenge in a city, don't we. It's not, I suppose
01:59Going into hospitality. It's not a huge barrier to entry
02:03sector. If you've got an idea you can get it going. Yeah, you can get it going relatively cheaply
02:08But as a consequence, the risk levels are quite high because it's so competitive
02:13But it's so much more competitive now
02:15I can go back 40 years and I'll tell you I was involved in hospitality to a certain extent
02:21Over the years and when you opened a new place back in the 90s
02:25You were thinking, oh, maybe there's two or three places nearby that are competition that we need to think about
02:29And now it'll be two or three times that. So it is a much much more competitive world
02:34It's a tough gig being in the hospitality
02:36Costs have been going up quite substantially. Energy costs that you can't control
02:42The costs involved in hiring staff have gone up
02:46Minimum wage. Can't argue against the importance of the minimum wage
02:50But it does make it more difficult for particularly for smaller independent
02:53Organisations to succeed in hospitality
02:57And particularly for independents who can't really control your purchasing costs
03:02They don't have the same buying leverage that the big players do