It has been about a year since we came up with the concept for Cookie. We were on a family holiday to see our friends at cooking club in Vienna. www.kochklub.at We had magical weekend with the Austrian sculptor Walter Pichler and drove on to Italy. We brain stormed ideas in the car, the name…why Cookie? The Southside, the premises, an empty street, a Thomson building in distress.

The ideas behind Cookie were and are personal and professional interests of ours. Its approach to food comes from our family experiences and  our European connections. Our professional interest in community building, public health, design, art, ecology are all part of our other jobs.

We recognised Nithsdale Road had been a little forgotten and neglected as a commercial road but it had this fantastic double sided property. It is a road of great potential and we hope that in opening a commercial activity like ours we could become a impetuous for regeneration. The back backbone of our idea is a simple one, to create a restaurant with interest which we would be happy to eat in with our kids and our friends.

Cookie has come a long way since then. With lots of ideas under the bridge, some things worked, some things didn’t and some things need time to mature, developing understanding and trust.

Some of our ideas are just getting going, like educational programs, the film club, and the use of bartering for locally produced fruit & veg.

We have been working hard to get things right at Cookie, bring in professional front of house staff to ensure service at Cookie improves. We have been listening to our customers and been taking action to make sure things are tweaked and improved.

Our initial Cooking Club idea needed time to mature, and it is currently hiding under the surface in our popular Chef Wars events. This gives amateur cooks a chance to cook for fellow members of the public, trying out family recipes and their best dishes.

We hope that in time on Monday and Sunday nights the restaurant can be used in a more collective way.For the second half of this year we have an interesting Calandar of events and ideas:

Collective Jam making on the 15th and 22nd of August with NVA

Harvest Glasgow on the 28th at Tramway

Pasta Making in Clarkston library in September and Apple day in Rouken Glen park on Saturday the 11th of September

We hope to open a Farmers market stall in East  Renfrewshire

Stand up comedy will make an appearance in the restaurant after the Edinburgh Festival

On the 21st of September we have a wine education evening with Dr Pamela Clayton and invitation to form the Cookie wine Club.

As October roles in we hope to have the Film club up and going with a junior after schools version linked to Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousin’s 8 1/2 foundation

As always we can be booked for your party or event and our outside catering is growing to popular demand.

On Sundays we hope to introduce a regular Hog Roast when it doesn’t rain and free range roast chickens too available take away or have Sunday lunch with us.