Are you a bit like us and get annoyed at arbitrary artificial things like "National Coffee Day"? Don't get us wrong - we love coffee. LOVE IT. But we're not really fans of forced participation and following others. Yes, we love deals like everyone else and yes, of course, we want people to purchase our products. But not in an overly-commercialised hurried manner. We want LAKE&LOCH to be a place where you can drop by, check out our items and maybe even read about a new place to get coffee in your bit. Or maybe just send us an email with a question or suggestion. We like engaging with people, which is why you'll often find us at markets (probably talking...
After we launched our "Ma Bit" beanies back in June, one of the most requested areas we were asked to do was Dennistoun. It's true: our initial run had overlooked the East end but we're hoping to make up for it with our latest run of beanies. Taking inspiration from the longest street in the UK - Duke Street - our Dennistoun beanie has a crown effect that wraps round it. Duke Street runs through the heart of Dennistoun with lots of independent shops and cafes scattered across and around it. Like a lot of Southsiders (or Westenders even), we haven't spent a lot of time in Dennistoun. Our own fault, admittedly. But wow! There's a lot of great places and...
Lake and Loch? Lake & Loch? LAKE&LOCH? We are LAKE&LOCH. When we were setting up, we wanted a name that would evoke not only where we're from but who we are. Although I am Canadian, I have lived in Scotland for almost 12 years (!) and consider myself an honorary Glaswegian (hope that's ok). Initially, I came to Glasgow in 1999 as an exchange student at the University of Glasgow and like most people, fell almost immediately in love with the city and people. After completing my degree in Canada, I would often come back to visit and finally decided in 2006, to make the leap across the water. It was scary, sometimes isolating but often exhilarating. 10 years later...
We love Shawlands. Everyone loves Shawlands, don't they? How could you not?! It's a bustling wee bit of Glasgow with plenty to offer: decent shopping, amazing cafes, lovely old tenements and definitely a community vibe amongst it. The Sunday Times even named Shawlands as one of the 12 best places to live in Scotland. One of the reasons why Shawlands is so great is because Queen's Park is right on your doorstep. After eating at any number of great restaurants, it's nice to grab a coffee and stroll around the park. As for shopping, we've mentioned before our love of bargain shopping and the ensuing buzz. Well another one of our loves is junk food which, of course, Scotland and the...
Did you know that Canadians eat more doughnuts than any other country? Or that there are more doughnut shops per capita in Canada than anywhere else? Maybe it has something to do with Canadians ranking third in the world when it comes to coffee consumption? And so, if there is anything we Canadians are semi-pro at, it's eating doughnuts, drinking coffee, and scoffing at what other nations consider to be "winter". So, we decided to put our innate doughnut-judging skills to the test and sample some of Glasgow's finest. Just a word of warning though: we opted to sample freshly-made doughnuts from independent shops rather than multinational chains. Yes, the Canadian institution that is Tim Hortons is now in Glasgow...
