Gordon Street Coffee

The roaster is a red Diedrich drum the staff call Deirdre, it sits on the mezzanine over the counter at Glasgow Central's front door, and nobody has been able to reach it since the building next door burned down on 8 March 2026.

Why go

Gordon Street opened its roastery and shop in 2014 and roasts the house blend, the Glasgow Roast, in the room where it sells it (venue). The method is deliberately analog: staff watch the colour of the beans in the drum and listen for the crack rather than following a profile on a screen. Glendola Leisure, the multi-site group that owns it, says the first roast ran in May 2014 and claims this was the first city-centre shop in Glasgow to roast its own, which is the operator's line rather than an independent finding (Glendola). The Skinny's listing places the machine precisely: "a big red Diedrich roaster which sits on the mezzanine" ref. Set against that, the specialist guide has never picked it up. The sixth edition of the Independent Coffee Guide Scotland selected twelve Glasgow venues and this was not among them (Glasgowist).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Glasgow Roast as a cortado, and a bag of beans off the drum to take away. A filled breakfast roll if you have a train.
• Avoid: turning up at 79 Gordon Street. The room has been shut since March and the only coffee under this name in Glasgow comes off a Barras Market stall at the weekend.

What locals & experts say

• The Skinny, Glasgow listing (unbylined): "Occupying the long, empty space at the front entrance to Central Station, Gordon St Coffee is perfectly placed to catch the morning commuters." The same page warns that the loose leaf tea arrives in copper pots that are "lovely to look at, but impossible to pour." ref
• Glasgowist (Paul Trainer, February 2021), 16th of 20 in the city's best coffee places: "Popular with travellers on the go at Central Station, they'll also organise you a breakfast roll in the morning." A compiled roundup line, not his review of the coffee. ref
• The venue itself, 29 June 2026, on why the shutters are still down: the team is trading "out from our temporarily closed roastery (yes we've still not gained access to the building)." ref
• No industry vote and no scored review. The Glasgow Wrap's industry guide, the Independent Coffee Guide Scotland and the approved Glasgow press carry nothing evaluative on this coffee, and the entry says so rather than dressing up a listing as praise.

Good to know

• Status: temporarily closed. A vape shop fire on 8 March 2026 destroyed Union Corner at the Union Street and Gordon Street junction, attached to Central Station, and the shop has not reopened. Check before you route anyone here.
• Where the coffee is now: a pop-up at the Barras Market, Saturdays and Sundays, plus mail order from the Edinburgh roastery.
• Sites: two roasteries, Glasgow at 79 Gordon Street and Edinburgh at 8 Market Street, plus a London pop-up at the Well & Boot by Waterloo. This row is the Glasgow premises.
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, Glasgow City Council, rating date 30 October 2023 (FHRSID 1150247). The Edinburgh shop holds Improvement Required from 27 May 2026, which belongs to that premises and not to this one. ref
• Booking: walk-in only, whenever it comes back.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. Glasgow has no saved-places export to check a note against, so nothing is put in his mouth here. The row is on his list and the write-up above is virtual voice with its sources attached.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — A station coffee shop that bought a drum roaster and used it. Gordon Street has hand-roasted its own blend on a red Diedrich sitting on the mezzanine since May 2014, which in the Glasgow city centre of that year was early, and the operator's claim to being the first to do it downtown is at least plausible. That is craft investment you can see from the queue. What it is not is a specialty destination: the Independent Coffee Guide Scotland picked twelve Glasgow venues for its sixth edition and this was not one of them, and Glasgowist ranked it sixteenth of twenty on the strength of a breakfast roll. It sits where a good station coffee belongs, which is on your way. Right now it is not even that, because the Union Street fire of 8 March 2026 shut the building and the team still cannot get in, so the only Gordon Street coffee being poured is at a Barras Market stall on weekends.