Scene Radio News

• Entertainment: Dick Leitsch, whose 'sip-in' was a gay rights milestone, dies at 83 Pulse A close friend, Paul Havern, said the cause was liver cancer, which had spread. Leitsch, who lived in Manhattan, learned he had terminal cancer in February. A gentle, soft-spoken Kentuckian, Leitsch (pronounced LIGHTSH) was one of the first leaders of the …
• Glasgow to trial 5G mobile network Herald Scotland Glasgow has been named as one of seven cities to become trial areas for a 5G roll-out. Vodafone UK will introduce the fifth generation wireless systems between October and December this year. The mobile operator says it will form part of its investment in …
• Checklist: 11 things to do across Scotland this weekend Herald Scotland The world’s longest, continually-running film festival will, this year, screen around 121 new features, including 21 world premieres, from 48 countries across the globe. Highlights include the long-anticipated Disney-Pixar animation Incredibles 2, Q&A …
• Ron Mackenna dines at new Glasgow Indian restaurant Madha Herald Scotland ONCE upon a 1990s lunchtime this was the place to eat, at least if you were a reporter for either The Herald or the Evening Times, which were just up the road. Decent expenses, long tables, booths at the side also packed with shoppers and legal aid …
• Joanna Blythman's restaurant review: Baba, Edinburgh Herald Scotland 0131 527 4999 Lunch/Dinner: £10-£24 Food rating 7½/10 A FICTIONAL Mr Baba lolls on an Ottoman carpet on the back of the menu at Baba, the new restaurant on Edinburgh’s premier artery, George Street. He embodies those cultural representations of …
• A Danish cafe in Glasgow? Ron Mackenna reviews Fylkir of Copenhagen Herald Scotland AND now for something completely different – OK, just slightly different – and in a good way, if you like Nordic chic. We’re at the fag-end of Newlands on the south side of Glasgow, down by the old Weir Pumps factory, across the road in what looks like a …
• Special brunch: Joanna Blythman reviews Avo Avo, Glasgow Herald Scotland 0141 248 1741 Brunch/lunch: £6.50-£24 Food rating: 5/10 YOU won’t find me in the queue to give millennials a kicking. "Hipsters", "Generation Rent", "snowflakes", they’re criticised for being vacuous, mollycoddled …
• Taco Bell arrives in Glasgow ... Ron Mackenna investigates what the fuss is all about Herald Scotland What’s interesting about the Big Bell Box Fajita Burrito at Taco Bell is that it doesn’t come in a box at all. And that the food looks nothing, and I mean nothing, like the glorious, backlit and slightly appetising photo of burrito and taco and churro …
• Joanna Blythman review Taxidi, Edinburgh Herald Scotland 0131 228 1030 Lunch/Dinner: £9-22 Food rating: 7/10 IF you cook or eat out a lot, your global food intelligence slowly but surely sharpens. You might, for instance, start using pomegranate molasses instead of HP sauce, or ditch generic chorizo for …
• Joanna Blythman reviews La Petite Mort, Edinburgh Herald Scotland 0131 229 3693 Lunch/Dinner: £11.95-££32 Food rating: 3/10 I OFTEN feel sorry for tourists when I see them trailing around in Edinburgh. Shoot me down in flames if you like, but it’s hard to find decent food at an affordable price in the city …
• Glasgow Mediterranean restaurant Mezzidakia reviewed: 'a culinary version of The Generation Game' Herald Scotland OK, so they had me at Greece’s No1 soft drink – Epsa. Leaping straight out of the menu and shouting "Order me." At the very same time Moving on Up by M People is leaping right out of the sound system. Let’s just say there’s a cheery, breezy, …
• Authentic taste of Italy: Joanna Blythman reviews Polentoni, Edinburgh Herald Scotland 0131 661 6182 Lunch/Dinner: £10-£24 Food rating 8½/10 A LIKEABLE little Italian food concern on Edinburgh’s Easter Road has established a loyal following. With one cook from Naples, the other from Padua, it’s not exactly either northern or …
• 'Julie’s auntie would surely cluck with pride': Joanna Blythman reviews Julie’s Kopitiam, Glasgow Herald Scotland 07835 108102 Dinner: £12-£20 Food rating 8½/10 JULIE'S Kopitiam gives off a crackle of energy and excitement typical of Generation Y, the so-called millennials, young people who, having declared the old order of their parents dead or deficient, …
• Scotland's best pizza? Ron Mackenna reviews Basta Pizza Bar, Dumbarton Road, Glasgow Herald Scotland A FRIEND emailed out of the blue recently to say he was thinking of opening a pizza restaurant in Edinburgh and what did I think? I thought he was mad, completely mad. The world doesn’t need any more pizza. But I didn’t say that. What I did said was this: …
• 'This hake is so perfectly moist that I am taken aback' – Ron Mackenna reviews Ondine, Edinburgh Herald Scotland IT’S 10 minutes past 1pm exactly as I am leaning over the smart reception desk asking the young woman if she can promise I will have two courses of lunch and be out by 10 minutes to 2pm. Yes, she says, and minutes later I’m swinging my legs on a high …
• 'I’d be delighted to find a restaurant this good in India': Joanna Blythman reviews Madha, Glasgow Herald Scotland 0141 552 6000 Lunch/Dinner: £6-£25 Food rating 10/10 I TOOK note of Madha because it claims to be authentic and undoubtedly Indian, but by the time we’ve struggled through a deserted Merchant City in the midst of an undoubtedly authentic blizzard, …
• 'Strange place, and not in a good way' - Ron Mackenna reviews Vapiano, Glasgow Herald Scotland TO Buchanan Street, on a damp and chill Glasgow evening, where there’s a mini-queue at a reception desk at the bottom of stairs leading up and up. This is the entrance to Vapiano which sits a lofty two flights above the characterless office-like welcome …
• A Scottish-Italian treat: review of Valvona & Crolla Caffè Bar, Edinburgh Herald Scotland WHILE I was sorry to learn that Valvona & Crolla was closing its Vincaffè in Multrees Walk, I wasn’t entirely surprised. I always thought that V&C was too genuine, too good, for this soulless corporate windsock of a thoroughfare conceived of by …
• Not the wurst option: Ron Mackenna reviews Doner Haus, Glasgow Herald Scotland ACHTUNG baby, somebody famously once said, and they could easily have been speaking about German food. You’re talking to a person who, on the long drive home from Italy in recent summers, has made Germany the main stopover before the Amsterdam-Newcastle …
• Fishy business: Ron Mackenna reviews Two Fat Ladies In The City, Glasgow Herald Scotland A CURIOUS thing will happen at the end of this meal. After the dessert plates are cleared, the drinks finished, the bill hovering about to be presented. Instead of getting up and leaving we’ll order more drinks. Not actually because anyone particularly …