Scran.

Scran + Roadie

A roadie in New York is a slice you take away, and Chris Mears named his new room after it when he moved his cult brunch cafe across to Jocelyn Square and started cutting 20 inch pies to order.

Why go

Mears opened Scran on Alexandra Parade in Dennistoun in 2018 and moved it to London Road in 2022, where the queues outside got long enough that he took a building opposite Glasgow Green to fix the problem. Scran + Roadie opened on 21 June 2025, days before Trnsmt brought crowds onto the Green, with triple the capacity and a team grown from six to 15 (SLTN). The brunch cooking came with him, and so did the sourcing: Corrie Mains free range eggs, Stornoway black pudding, bread made to order by the Bavarian Bakehouse, coffee from the Roasting Project. Pizza starts at midday, sold as single slices off a 20 inch pie. Mears has worked in hospitality since he was 15 and ran his own fine dining restaurant in Lanarkshire before any of this, which is where the supplier discipline comes from. The expansion is backed by the Worq Group, a hospitality investment company whose portfolio runs to hotels and restaurants across Scotland, so this is a chef-owner with a partner rather than a chef-owner alone.

Order this / avoid

• Order: a Roadie, cut from the 20 inch pie after noon. Poached Corrie Mains eggs with Stornoway black pudding on Bavarian Bakehouse bread. Coffee from the Roasting Project, or the salt and pepper caramel latte. Barbecued pork shoulder or shawarma if you want the newer end of the menu.
• Avoid: turning up in Dennistoun or on London Road, which is where every old review will send you, and expecting pizza before midday.

What locals & experts say

• Chris Mears, owner-chef, to SLTN in June 2025, giving the whole history in one line: This is a new chapter for Scran which started originally on Alexandra Parade in Dennistoun in 2018, moving to London Road in 2022. On the name: The Roadie part of the new name is a tribute to New York culture, and the city's slang term for a slice of pizza to take away.1
• Jonathan Doherty of the Worq Group, which put money behind the move: Scran has already proved how popular its offering can be, with a dedicated following built up in a very short space of time. An investor talking about his own investment, so read it as a statement of the bet.1
• Sebastian Elder, The Skinny, on the original Dennistoun cafe and nowhere else: The eggs are perfectly poached and presented artfully, towered high atop toast, black pudding and spinach, and the flat white might be the best coffee that the Parade has to offer. That room closed in 2022, so this describes the cooking's ancestry rather than the current counter.3
• Nobody has reviewed the Saltmarket room. The Glasgow Times, The Skinny, The Glasgow Bell and Glasgowist were searched by name on 30 July 2026 and none carries an assessment of the current premises after a year of trading.

Good to know

• Where: 180 Saltmarket at Jocelyn Square, across from Glasgow Green and down from the High Court. The FSA register files the same building as 182.
• Timing: the venue's own banner says open seven days. Precise hours are not published on the new site, and the ones you will find on listings pages belong to the Dennistoun cafe.
• Booking: walk-in. There is outside seating.
• Drink: the venue was still working through its drinks licence when it opened in June 2025, and the outcome is not published.
• Its own supply chain: the bread comes from the Bavarian Bakehouse, which is a separate entry here, so the two make an obvious East End pairing.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 1 October 2025. Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and this inspection is of the current premises rather than an inherited one.5

Verdict

could-visit — Worth a stop if you are heading for Glasgow Green, and the pizza is the reason it moved. Chris Mears built a queue outside a small London Road room, then tripled his capacity at Jocelyn Square and added a 20 inch New York pie sold by the slice, which is what the Roadie in the name means. The brunch side keeps a supplier list that is specific enough to check: Corrie Mains eggs, Stornoway black pudding, bread from the Bavarian Bakehouse, coffee from the Roasting Project. Mears has cooked since he was 15 and ran a fine dining room in Lanarkshire before this, which shows in the sourcing rather than in the format. It stays mid-ladder because nobody independent has eaten in this room and written about it in the year it has been open. Every warm line you will find online was written about the Dennistoun cafe he left in 2022, and that is not evidence about a pizza counter across from Glasgow Green.