Since it opened a year ago, Mono always sounded an interesting place to drop by.
An evolution of the old 13th Note Cafe, I'd often heard it name-checked as the venue for interesting bands and live acts.
So, I would have dropped in sooner had two things not put me off - its location across town and Mono's food and drink being, that most unlikely of words in connection with having a good time, vegan.
Nowadays, vegetarianism seems like a valid lifestyle choice, but veganism - that is, no animal products used whatsoever - suffers from a bit of an image crisis.
To associate it with New Age travellers would be to give it a glamorous makeover. Bhodruns and bobbly jumpers may reek of many things but they certainly do not speak of a whoopee-dee-doo Saturday night.
But no doubt the people at Mono would be just as horrified. First and foremost they want to provide a good, relaxed cafe bar and with their 13th Note credentials they don't have to prove they're cool and know all about a good Saturday night.
Their bar serves all the usual stuff, but most everything from cider to spiced rum also has an organic equivalent.
A door in the middle of Kings Court mall behind the Trongate opens to a space in which Mono also manages to house a music outlet and a vegan goods shop, without taking away the feeling of a spacious bar.
Under a domed skylight, rattan and scrubbed wood tables and chairs fill the middle space with shops and a bar off to the sides. The wall decor is constantly changing art exhibitions, this month it's a Pop Art show. Mono is not posh or shabby, too ultra-styled or too thrown together.
Monorail, the music outlet, sells an eclectic mix, some specialist stuff and some classic albums. You'll find anything from Laura Cantrell to The Clangers soundtrack.
The trade shop, Monomart, has just launched an improved range of 100 per cent vegan goods, mostly organic and with as much Fair Trade as possible.
Another little sideline is the library. An almost lost Scottish tradition, you can help yourself from a collection of all sorts of reading material - and it doesn't even have to be worthy.
Weekend nights you might prefer to just have a drink to the regular DJs. Rottenrow, with cutting edge electro tech, new wave and disco on Friday nights, is presented by Dirty Hospital with Cubist Pop playing modern and not-so-modern pop on Saturdays.
Random events, like Teenage Fanclub playing Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd and Glasgow's only Kurdish band pop up now and again, but it's Mono's sister bar in the west end, Stereo, that has a more full-on music programme.
So, on a weekend night, it's quite likely that you'll forget the fact you're in a vegan place - unless you notice the tanks along one side in which they brew their own lemonade and ginger beer.
Despite being renowned for quality vegetarian and vegan food and having just won a Vegan Society Award for Best Vegan Caterer, Mono's Craig Tannock says: "We don't make a big song and dance about it."
And that's what's really radical about Mono.
Open: Noon-midnight, Sunday to Thursday; noon-1am, Friday and Saturday
Food: Noon-10pm, seven days
Drinks: Pint of lager, £2.20; glass of wine, £2.40; Mono's own ginger beer, 90p
Rating: Four out of five
Details
0141 553 2400
But no doubt the people at Mono would be just as horrified. First and foremost they want to provide a good, relaxed cafe bar and with their 13th Note credentials they don't have to prove they're cool and know all about a good Saturday night.
Their bar serves all the usual stuff, but most everything from cider to spiced rum also has an organic equivalent.
A door in the middle of Kings Court mall behind the Trongate opens to a space in which Mono also manages to house a music outlet and a vegan goods shop, without taking away the feeling of a spacious bar.
Under a domed skylight, rattan and scrubbed wood tables and chairs fill the middle space with shops and a bar off to the sides. The wall decor is constantly changing art exhibitions, this month it's a Pop Art show. Mono is not posh or shabby, too ultra-styled or too thrown together.
Monorail, the music outlet, sells an eclectic mix, some specialist stuff and some classic albums. You'll find anything from Laura Cantrell to The Clangers soundtrack.
The trade shop, Monomart, has just launched an improved range of 100 per cent vegan goods, mostly organic and with as much Fair Trade as possible.
Another little sideline is the library. An almost lost Scottish tradition, you can help yourself from a collection of all sorts of reading material - and it doesn't even have to be worthy.
Weekend nights you might prefer to just have a drink to the regular DJs. Rottenrow, with cutting edge electro tech, new wave and disco on Friday nights, is presented by Dirty Hospital with Cubist Pop playing modern and not-so-modern pop on Saturdays.
Random events, like Teenage Fanclub playing Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd and Glasgow's only Kurdish band pop up now and again, but it's Mono's sister bar in the west end, Stereo, that has a more full-on music programme.
So, on a weekend night, it's quite likely that you'll forget the fact you're in a vegan place - unless you notice the tanks along one side in which they brew their own lemonade and ginger beer.
Despite being renowned for quality vegetarian and vegan food and having just won a Vegan Society Award for Best Vegan Caterer, Mono's Craig Tannock says: "We don't make a big song and dance about it."
And that's what's really radical about Mono.
Open: Noon-midnight, Sunday to Thursday; noon-1am, Friday and Saturday
