The news that the popular neighbourhood Ziques cafe restaurant and its sister Bakery by Zique in Glasgow’s West End were being put up for sale after almost 10 years may have triggered a communal sigh of despair - alongside a post-pandemic, cost-of-living sense of inevitability - among devotees of their legendary breakfast patatas bravas with fried egg and sobrasada or evening Orkney Crab tagliatelle or buttermilk cod tacos. At the now-legendary Bakery Zique many of us still queue for the freshly baked sourdough and gorgeous handcrafted pastries.
But owner Mhairi Taylor is optimistic, for she sees the decision to put both businesses on the market as a positive one. “I’m selling both as going concerns, and hope it will end up better for the staff and customers,” she tells me. “They don’t get the support they need from me. I don’t have the time for it and I’m just not physically here.”
Mhairi currently lives in Balquidder, where she ran Mhor84 motel until her breakup with partner Dick Lewis, and now owns the nearby Old Pink Library, a successful Airbnb accommodating up to 12 people. In addition she has just bought a cottage with a barn at Lochgair, on the west coast of Loch Fyne in Argyll, with her new partner Robert Aiken. It comes with an acre of land, a forest and loch views, and they plan to develop the barn into an events space with guest chefs cooking. They will name it “Fyne-Ally”, as in “we’ve finally found a place to live”.
“The Airbnb at Balquidder is a nice business for me and I love it,” she says. “We do catering as well, either with us cooking or getting a private chef to come in.
“Putting Ziques and Bakery Zique on the market is more about my guilt than anything else. It’s not failing [Zique serves around 350 covers a week]. It’s just that I’m not here and especially in small independents people want to see your face.
“I hope that whoever buys the businesses will keep the staff on. Ryan, our Front of House manager, and head chef Stuart are fantastic and we’ve got the best KPs in Glasgow, lead by Raj who’s been with us for ten years. I’m very proud that our staff at Zique have stayed together as a team for so long. Harry, our head baker at Zique, left us and I feel I let him down because I wasn’t here for him.
“On top of that the pandemic took so much out of us, and so many others in hospitality.”
Mhairi has been in hospitality for 35 years and recently attended the closing party at the legendary Banner’s restaurant in London’s Crouch End where she started her career under the mentorship of owner Juliette Banner. She opened the hugely successful and pioneering Delizique deli (now Ziques) in 2001, selling fresh langoustines from Achiltibuie and seaweed-fed Islay lamb among many other local products with strong provenance.
The Glasgow eating-out scene has recently seen the closure of the long-established Brian Maule at Le Chardon d’Or, Monadh Kitchen in Bearsden and Tamburrini and Wishart at Cameron House Loch Lomond. Mhairi hints at further significant closures to come, but remains tight-lipped for now.
By contrast, both Zique businesses are being sold as going concerns. Mhairi had seven notes of interest within hours of their being put on the market.
“I hope this momentous decision ends up being better for our customers and for my fantastic staff,” she adds.