‘Glasgow has always has punched above its weight’ - Corner Shop co-owner on winning national award and new venue plans
Less than a year after it opened, a Spanish wine bar and small plates restaurant in Glasgow’s west end has added another award to the cabinet. Rosalind Erskine chatted to one of the owners and head chef about the win, plans for their first birthday and opening a new venue.
When Corner Shop opened in April 2025, co-owners Conor McGeady, Matthew Mustard and Gary Mckernan knew they’d tapped into a gap in the market but they couldn’t have known how well the small restaurant - formerly a coffee shop - would have been received from customers and critics. “The opening weekend, you couldn't get a booking here, we were chockablock,” said Conor when we sat down for a chat ahead of the restaurant’s first birthday.
Corner Shop is a small stylish space on Old Dumbarton Road, in Glasgow’s west end. Billed as a Basque and Catalan-inspired wine bar (though Mr McGeady wants it to be known as purely Spanish inspired) it is Mr McGeady’s first foray into his own venue having worked at some of Glasgow’s best restaurants over the years.
Not long after opening, Corner Shop garnered rave reviews and won new business of the year at the 2025 Scottish License Trade News (SLTN) awards. Now they’ve just picked up a Conde Nast Best Restaurants in the UK award for Scotland.
Of this head chef Alex Brady said: “It’s amazing for the team for all the hard work they do in such a small space. It’s good to be recognised as one of the best in the UK. It’s a good motivator for all the plans we have this summer. While Mr McGeady added: “It’s amazing to be recognised along with some of the best in UK hospitality. It’s such an honour as it’s a huge globally recognised publication and it came as such a shock to us but we couldn’t be more grateful or over the moon.”
When asked if a Michelin recommendation was the next step for Corner Shop, Alex said: “The majority of our kitchen team and front of house team have been involved with restaurants that have been included in the Michelin Guide. That’s where most of our training comes from. Having worked in those environments and learned from those environments it’s very much on our radar to be part of that. Ultimately we’re a 30 cover restaurant with a corridor as a kitchen doing what we do and we love this space. That’s why it’s so exciting as it’s a tiny place.”
Conor added: “It’s where we see ourselves wanting to be. It’s the standards we uphold here. It’s a globally recognised mark of quality and we’d like to sit alongside that. If that comes, it’ll come when it comes.”
As for the restaurant theme, the team were set on a Spanish/Basque inspired restaurant as they spotted a gap in the market for good quality, seasonal tapas style food in Glasgow with a menu that “can change from lunch to dinner.” It’s no coincidence that Dogstar, chef James Murray’s restaurant, opened in Leith not long after Corner Shop. San Sabastian inspired, it seems like a little slice of Spain is of the moment right now.
Alex agreed, saying: “Particularly in London, most things take time trickling up to the north of England and eventually get to Glasgow and Edinburgh but I think with certain restaurants in London, unless you knew Brat was Basque inspired you wouldn’t really know from going there, apart from the Basque cheesecake and now the people who own Barrafina (in London) have just opened a new Spanish restaurant and it’s been recognised by Michelin. I definitely think that Spanish food is the trend at the moment. French bistros will be the next thing that’s coming, and there’s a few places already inspired by them in Glasgow (such as The Clarence and Eleven Fifty Five).
Conor added: “Food goes through trends and since we’ve opened in Glasgow we’ve noticed other people doing similar menus to us. We’re just cooking food we love to eat and what we enjoy on holiday.”
For the year anniversary of Corner Shop the team will announce celebrations soon but are planning to put on different specials and dishes that have been popular since they first opened as well as a friends and family service. “We definitely want to have a big shout out to this being one year on,” said Mr McGeady. “We have achieved a lot in the first year but we’ve got aspirations to keep going this year.”
While London seems to set the trends for hospitality, does Glasgow hold its own? Alex said: “It definitely holds its own. One of our chefs was down in London at St Johns and one of the chefs had been to Corner Shop. We’ve hosted American chefs from last year’s Meatopia (which we’re taking part in again this year).
“There are people that, maybe a couple of years ago, weren't interested in coming up to see what was happening in Glasgow are now picking up on what we’re doing here. We’re doing it quietly and properly and I’d hope there's a good scene of support from other restaurants in Glasgow.”
While Conor was keen to highlight the community they find themselves part of: “We’ve got a good community from customers to other hospitality professionals that work in and run these places. There’s a strong network that supports each other that we’re happy and proud to be a part of.
“We’re getting a lot of guests from London coming through the doors. Glasgow always has punched above its weight and there’s this Glasgow mentality that we don’t have to try too hard to prove ourselves to anyone other than ourselves. In the past five to ten years you look around and people are doing some really cool things and we’re just happy to be a part of that.”
Not one to rest on his laurels, Conor is not only planning this year’s West End Beer Festival back at its original venue of Cafe Source Too at Hillhead Sports Club, but he’s also planning on opening a new bar in Glasgow’s southside. Located on Pollockshaws Road on the site of Marchtown wine bar, plans are still very loose just now but he said: “It’s not going to be a Corner Shop. It’ll still be a neighbourhood bar but completely different to what we do here.”
Alex said they still want to offer people the chance to have dinner “in whatever capacity that may be,” adding: “It won’t be picky bits and stuff like that. We want people to stay and eat as there’s a lack of that in that area. It definitely won’t be Spanish.”
While Conor explained the ever-evolving ideas they’ve had for the space: “It started with us wanting to open a dive bar but an elevated dive bar, which might now be in the basement as we want to open a basement bar.
“Corner Shop was going to be a wine bar that did plates of meat and cheese but now, 12 months later, we’ve won all these awards and we want to sit alongside the best restaurants in Glasgow. So as soon as we said we were going to open a dive bar, I knew as soon as we started talking about food we’d be like ‘well if we’re going to do food, we’re going to do it well.’ I think we can have that dive bar vibe with frozen cocktails and cool, fun stuff and still have elevated plates of food. There’s no reason we can’t do both.”