Nice’n’Sleazy

Another bar more synonymous with Glasgow you will surely struggle to name. Steadfastly doing its thing at the Charing Cross end of Sauchiehall Street since 1991, in recent years the famous Nice’n’Sleazy has transcended its status as an indie dive-bar and musicians’ haunt to become many things to all kinds of people – a place for great food, drinks, DJs, live music, dancing and just general hanging out from noon until 3am seven days a week.

Dimly lit, with a stylish-yet-careworn vibe between its colourful murals, funky low-hanging lamps and beat-up leather booths and scuffed wooden tables, the ground-floor café-bar is a buzzing place where rarely a dull moment passes day or night. With new venues styled very much in Sleazy’s image opening up all the time – including Broadcast right next door – they do well to keep on their toes. Meathammer Ltd are in charge of the kitchen, doing a range of inventive and blockbusting burgers – including the award-winning Lucretia (with pulled pork, chorizo, burnt pineapple, chilli jam and hot buffalo sauce), one of several worthy successors to the much-missed Sleazy Burger (RIP). New beers and beer deals appear all the time and super-cheap white and black Russians remain a permanent fixture. And yes, they still sell Buckfast.

DJs frequently play in the bar, especially at weekends, but downstairs in the red interiored basement of Sleazy’s is where the real action is. Gigs are slightly less common here than they once were, and pillars and low ceilings mean sight lines aren’t great. Even so, it remains a uniquely cool and atmospheric place to see a band. The basement has come into its own as a club venue over the last half-decade or so, with packed club nights of all sorts happening every weekend, and some weeknights too. Residents on the decks at Sleazy’s include the garage, punk, psych and rockabilly-spinning Hot Club DJs, leftfield electro, indie and Italo-disco lovers Black Tent (featuring members of the band Errors), and acid house and techno selectors Haus Dimension.