Why Go To New York When You Can Go To Glasgow?

It’s brunch in TriBeCa Café. We’re tucking into buttermilk pancakes, piled high and drenched in maple syrup. Outside, an NYPD cop car is parked up and busy city folk scuttle past, looking as if they've somewhere important to be. The day’s itinerary is shaping up nicely – a healthy dose of modern art, shopping, cocktails in Art Deco splendour, perhaps a show, maybe a speakeasy with moody musicians and an edgy crowd to round it off.

I’m with my friend Isabel on our annual girls’ weekend away, this year we’ve plumped for a Sex and the City-style break. We wanted somewhere fun, cultured, a little bit gritty, with 24-hour energy, cool architecture and great bars. ‘New York?!’ she’d suggested. ‘Hmmm...not a bad idea,’ I replied.

And so here we are, sipping our flat whites and wondering whether we’ve space for the Williamsburg, a smoked salmon and scrambled eggs combo.

But here’s the thing; we’re not in New York, We’re in Glasgow! Yep, Glasgow – on a mission to have an NYC experience without leaving the UK. ‘Why fly across the Atlantic when we could jump on a train?’ I’d reasoned. ‘We’d save money and have just as good a time...wouldn’t we?’ As doubt begins to creep in, I’m relieved that TriBeCa’s owner David Macdonald, a half-Glaswegian, half-American thirty something who spent years in the Big Apple, doesn’t laugh at our plans. ‘This place is like the cafés on Ninth Avenue,’ he says, ‘And the people have a lot in common – there’s a misconception that Glaswegians head butt people for a living...but like New Yorkers we’re just a bit tough on the surface, with a soft centre.’

Brunch complete, it’s time to do what any self-respecting visitor to New York would do (well, any female visitor, at least) – hit the shops. Glasgow may not have the favourable exchange rate, but when it comes to shopping it’s a sport the Scots take seriously.

For a bird’s-eye view of the city, we head to The Lighthouse, the centre for architecture and design. You can climb the helical staircase to the top of the tower – it may not reach the heights of the Empire State Building, but for a 360 degree panorama it’s not at all bad.

Art Deco splashes its face across town. The architectural movement that most influenced New York – informing everything from the Empire State and Chrysler Building to subway stations – also glammed up Glasgow. So much so that Glasgow doubled as NYC’s dark alter-ego, Gotham City, in The Dark Knight Rises.

The Beresford, once a hotel but now apartments, is a red and white Art Deco stunner that looks as if it could have been swiped from New York and dropped on Sauchiehall Street. One of the finest Art Deco buildings in town, though, is the late 1930s Rogano Restaurant and Oyster Bar. Kitted out in the same style as the great Cunard liner Queen Mary, built on the Clyde in 1934, it drips elegance and old-style sophistication. We happily sip Manhattans perched on velvet stools.

Around the corner is the Corinthian Club – an elaborate Victorian hulk of a building that was once the Glasgow Ship Bank and a must-visit for chic cocktails. It’s a definite match for the SATC girls’ favourite hangouts and I feel obliged to order a Cosmopolitan, which I’d wager was as good as any Carrie would have tasted.

Making plans for the evening, we’re almost overwhelmed with choice. Glasgow is a Unesco City of Music with an average of 130 music events each week, from rock to classical and jazz in venues from converted churches to pubs. Broadway fans won’t be disappointed by the theatre at places such as King’s Theatre or Tramway.

The next day we’re up early and putting Glasgow’s cultural offerings to the test once more. To New York’s MoMA, Glasgow raises GoMA, housed in an iconic building in the heart of the city, with fab temporary and permanent exhibits.

We hop on the metro (nicknamed the Clockwork Orange) – with 15 stations, opened in 1896, it’s the third-oldest underground system in the world – and make our way to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (The Metropolitan Museum of Art equivalent? I wonder).

There’s something a little familiar about the dramatic central foyer – it doubled as New York’s Grand Central Station for the movie The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson, and has the same grandeur of scale. It’s huge collection boasts Dali’s Christ of St John Cross, works by everyone from Titian to Van Gogh, and great exhibits on the Glasgow Boys and Mackintosh.

We head back east, to Merchant City the fast-changing quarter full of artists and galleries – like New York’s Meatpacking District, where converted warehouses became galleries and empty factories were turned into living spaces.

You feel the city’s diversity at every turn – not least in the food. Glasgow doesn’t genuflect to anyone when it comes to fine dining. It may be the curry capital of Scotland but the Chinese influence is strong and, just as New York is famous for its Italian heritage, here too the large immigrant Italian population ensures top-notch restaurants. We check out Piccolo Mondo and it doesn’t disappoint, with authentic Tuscan dishes.

At the Butcher shop Bar and Grill in the West End, owner James Rusk, who learnt his craft at the famous SoHo-based bistro Balthazar, serves up the best steaks in the city. It’s all leather banquettes, staff in slick uniforms offering US-style service and great cocktails. Kosher Jewish delis such as Katz Deli (the one made famous by that scene in When Harry met Sally) can be found here too – try Hello In Giffnock.

New York may have the Hudson, but Glasgow has the Clyde and on our last morning we climb onboard the ferry. We’re not heading to Staten Island (although Glasgow does, in fact, have its own Statue of Liberty – a mini sculpture outside the City Chambers), but to a temple of modern architecture, Zaha Hadid’s £74m Riverside Museum.

Though the shipbuilding industry has long since vanished, the former docklands are being transformed into the city’s gleaming business centre, with property developers building upmarket high-rises along the river. We pass the striking Clyde arch, and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre where The Hydro, a 12,000 capacity music venue, is located.

Hadid’s creation sums up the creative energy and fun, can-do attitude I’ve felt all weekend. Then head back to the hotel. It’s time again to slip on our Manolos, grab a Cosmo and hit the town.

More Things To Do In Glasgow

If you're looking for more inspiration for a short city break, take a look at our guide of what to do in Glasgow where you'll find details of more things to do, great shopping, eating and drinking, culture and nightlife, plus details of all Best Western Glasgow hotels.