The Citizen Glasgow

The man who opened it said so himself at the launch: "This bar is more about the liquid than the food."

Why go

The liquid is Tennent's, poured brewery-fresh from giant copper tanks behind the bar. When DRG opened here in September 2017 it was "the very first bar in Scotland to serve Tennent's Tank Lager", bringing back a serve last seen in the 1980s (DRAM). Tennent's is Glasgow's lager and Wellpark is its home, so a room pouring it unpasteurised out of tank is doing something specific rather than decorative. The building helps. It is the Grade A listed former offices of the Evening Citizen, 218 seats across a bar and dining rooms, and the walls were not bought as decor: the team spent months in the Mitchell Library archives choosing headlines and photographs, then an appeal on Lost Glasgow reached Stewart Fair, a retired Citizen photographer who started at the paper in 1953 as a lift boy and was handed a camera in 1958, and who donated his own images, including Margot Fonteyn rehearsing at the King's Theatre (Glasgowist). The kitchen is bistro cooking across a wide range, and the operator's own framing is "very high class pub grub".

Order this / avoid

• Order: the tank Tennent's first. Then the hefty end of the menu, haggis, neeps and tatties or fish and chips, which Paul Trainer set against "lighter Asian salads or familiar brunch items like eggs Benedict" ref. Lunch is where the value sits.
• Avoid: treating it as a dinner destination. Avoid the back of the dining room if you want the room itself.

What locals & experts say

• Paul Trainer, Glasgowist, June 2018, and this is the critical line: "At first it might feel a bit fancy but generic, a bright, shiny recreation of a drinking salon from another undefined time and place, but there are clear signs that Glasgow is shining through, both in the room and on the menu." His seating advice: "Sit at a booth at the front for the best view of the bar and a more casual feel than the tables at the back of dining room." ref
• Mario Gizzi, DRG director, to the trade press at launch: "This bar is more about the liquid than the food. Although you will be able to enjoy very high class pub grub here, we hope people will enjoy a drink without feeling the necessity to order food." ref
• Tony Conetta, DRG director, on what the room is for: it "not only pays tribute to the glory days of the Evening Citizen newspaper but also celebrates the citizens of Glasgow." ref
• No critic has reviewed it. The Herald, the Glasgow Times food desk, The List and The Skinny were searched on 30 July 2026 and none carries a scored review.
• Local rec: none. Jeff's row carries no note of his own.

Good to know

• Where: 24 St Vincent Place, G1 2EU, in the unit that was The Trading House.
• Timing: the venue's own hours are noon to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and noon to midnight Friday and Saturday.
• The Editor's Lounge: a separate plush room off the main floor, described at launch as serving afternoon tea and offering customers and spirits companies safe boxes for special whisky bottles. Glasgowist's advice is to ask whether it is open when you arrive.
• Who runs it: the Di Maggio Restaurant Group, which also has The Anchor Line and The Atlantic nearby. A group operation rather than a chef-owner's room, and it is worth knowing that going in.
• The beer claim: first in Scotland for tank lager in 2017 is documented. The line repeated by listings that it is the only bar outside the brewery pouring unpasteurised Tennent's has no source and is likely out of date.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 28 January 2026 (FHRSID 1750178, Glasgow City Council). Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and this is a recent inspection. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing of his own. The master row carries no Description text from him and Glasgow has no raw saved-places export, so no opinion is attributed to him. He filed it as a grand bar in a newspaper building, which is an accurate description of the draw.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — A 218-seat room in the Grade A listed offices of the Evening Citizen, opened by the Di Maggio Restaurant Group in September 2017, and the operator told the trade press exactly what it is for: 'This bar is more about the liquid than the food.' The liquid is the point. It was the first bar in Scotland to pour Tennent's Tank Lager, brewery-fresh from copper tanks behind the bar, the first time that delivery had been used here since the 1980s, and Tennent's is Glasgow's own lager. The room earns its keep too, with walls built out of months in the Mitchell Library archives and a retired Citizen photographer's donated pictures, including Margot Fonteyn rehearsing at the King's Theatre. The food is bistro cooking across a wide range, which Paul Trainer found suited a lot of moods, at lunch prices that were good value in 2018. Weighing the glass and the plate ahead of the room, this is a stop for a very fresh pint in a handsome hall rather than a place to plan an evening around, and its group operator carries the burden of proof on culinary edge that nothing here discharges.