{"id":170413,"date":"2025-06-09T14:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170413\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:07:15","slug":"ex-scots-footballer-reveals-plans-to-open-italian-restaurant-in-glasgow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/170413\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Scots footballer reveals plans to open Italian restaurant in Glasgow"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ex-Scots footballer is kicking off a new career in the restaurant business, launching his first venture in Glasgow\u2019s East End<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Si Ferry, assistant manager at East Kilbride FC and presenter of the Open Goal podcast, is set to open an Italian restaurant called Grosso at 424 Duke Street in Dennistoun.<\/p>\n

The venue, expected to open in August, will occupy a unit that formerly housed a Lloyds TSB bank.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Foodies hail new Glasgow restaurant as ‘fantastic addition’ to busy area<\/a><\/p>\n

Glasgow World<\/a> has revealed early plans for the restaurant, which include striking tiled interiors, an open kitchen with a pizza oven, and seating for up to 50 guests.<\/p>\n

Construction is currently underway, led by a team of builders working to a design created by Glasgow-based Lucid Interiors \u2014 the award-winning studio behind projects such as The Gleneagles Hotel, The Fingal in Leith, and Seamill Hydro.<\/p>\n

Si told Glasgow World: \u201cWhen I lived in Dennistoun, this is the type of place I was looking for, somewhere everyone can come, really affordable, good food that folk will love.<\/p>\n

“I want this to be for local people and I want people to come to Dennistoun for breakfast, lunch or dinner and go to some of the other bars as well.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong>\u00a0Glasgow shopping centre welcomes exciting new food spot<\/a><\/p>\n

Ferry, originally from Dundee, began his football career as a youth player at Celtic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As host of the Open Goal podcast, he has interviewed many leading figures in Scottish football and taken the show live to venues including The Hydro and SWG3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now focused on bringing his dream restaurant to life, Ferry is curating a menu inspired by his favourite dishes, developed with the help of two talented chefs \u2014 pizza specialist Ally Beattie and award-winning pasta chef Chris Rouse.<\/p>\n

The menu will feature a blend of comforting and elevated Italian favourites. Early dishes include prawn and crab linguine, 12-hour longhorn beef shin rag\u00f9, crispy roast chicken penne, and spaghetti rigate with vodka sauce.<\/p>\n

Pizzas will range from classics like margherita and pepperoni to sausage and pepper, with room for more adventurous toppings.<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: New Colombian food spot opens up at the Barras<\/a><\/p>\n

Ferry revealed that the collaboration with his chefs came about through a chance conversation with former footballer Aiden McGeady: \u201cI met Aiden McGeady, just by chance, and said I was thinking about the restaurant.<\/p>\n

“When I said it would be Italian, he said Chris Rouse is your guy. Chris actually played at Celtic<\/a> with me when he was a young kid.<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t remember that, but I did remember him from when he was at Celino\u2019s. I tried a couple of his pasta dishes and I just fell in love with his food.<\/p>\n

“The three of us have got together and we\u2019ve come up with this concept of Grosso.\u201d<\/p>\n

Si\u2019s passion for food is deep-rooted and, by his own admission, played a role in his football journey.<\/p>\n

He shared: \u201cFood was a big part of what happened in my football career. I was always overweight when I played football. I was told to stay on a strict diet but we had an Italian restaurant at the bottom of the road when I was at Swindon, Fratellis.<\/p>\n

“I ended up being really good pals with the owner, I still speak to him now, they had a chicken and asparagus risotto that would blow your mind – full of cream and butter, I was eating that about four times a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably the reason my football career went the way it did – fantastic Italian food.<\/p>\n

“So I may as well make a new career out of that. I think, for footballers, you live such a rigid life with food Monday to Friday, maybe on a weekend, you get some pizza or pasta and it\u2019s something to look forward to.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriends, I have in football like Scott Arfield and Charlie Mulgrew, they are excited about the restaurant.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve asked Slaney to talk to Kieran Tierney about visiting. I\u2019ve invited Lewis Capaldi to come in as well.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m actually doing a bit of training now to help out front of house. It will be nice to have people I\u2019ve known for years coming in with their families and enjoying the food.<\/p>\n

“Most of all, I\u2019m looking forward to the people who live here in Dennistoun seeing what we are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grosso will join a strong lineup of local food and drink favourites along Duke Street, including Tibo, Redmond\u2019s, Zennor, Coia\u2019s, La Bodega, and Mesa \u2014 further cementing Dennistoun\u2019s growing reputation as a vibrant destination for dining and hospitality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ex-Scots footballer is kicking off a new career in the restaurant business, launching his first venture in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,71012,71013,71015,918,4884,71011,4152,712,71014,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-170413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chris-rouse","10":"tag-dennistoun","11":"tag-football-career","12":"tag-glasgow","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-italian-restaurant","15":"tag-kieran-tierney","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-si-ferry","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114653799577657001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}