Transferring from the football pitch to the podcasting business isn’t exactly a rarity these days, but former footballer-turned-podcaster Si Ferry has gone one better, adding yet another string to his bow with the opening of a new restaurant in Glasgow’s east end.
The Italian-inspired Grosso, on Duke Street, is a deeply personal project for Ferry, who played for Celtic just a short distance away at Parkhead.
He first set foot in the city at age 15 playing for the club’s under-19s team and he’s been a regular visitor to the Dennistoun area for years, having been a loyal customer at venues such as Mesa, East Coffee and The Loveable Rogue. He had his first bite of Italian food at the area’s Celinos, and when his son was born, he celebrated with a meal at Duke Street’s Dennistoun Bar-B-Q.
In recent years Ferry and co-hosts Paul Slane and Kevin Kyle have established the hugely successful Open Goal podcast, which has built a passionate following amongst Scottish football fans (it has 145,000 subscribers on YouTube alone).
In 2019, the team hosted live versions of the podcast over three sold-out nights at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro.
After that, a pivot into hospitality may not have been an obvious move, but Ferry told SLTN that food has always been a passion of his.
As the podcast began to take over, Ferry wanted another outlet for his creativity.
He said: “I just got to this stage in my life where I needed something else to take my mind away from it, and the only thing I knew outside of football was food.”
Teaming up with longtime friend Jordan Allan, Ferry identified the ideal location for his new restaurant.
The Duke Street unit was formerly a branch of TSB – the very same branch that Ferry used when he first moved down from Dundee as a teenager (Ferry’s mum worked in the Dundee branch).
Drawing inspiration from Glasgow venues Paesano and Sugo – a contained menu with great food, prepared fresh but quickly – Grosso opened its doors last month.
“Sugo and Paesano were a big eye-opener,” he said.
“I really like them. I think they’re really good. Their concept’s incredible. Around the time I was thinking of doing something else Sugo had just opened. I was sitting in Sugo, seeing how quickly the dishes were coming out, the modern take on Italian food, see how cool the building was. I was thinking ‘this is genius’. So simple as well, eight dishes with the sides.
“We’re not trying to copy them, but trying to replicate what they’re doing in the town in the east end.
“They were a big influence on what we were doing.”
Getting the food just right was essential, so Ferry and Allan put together a chef team that includes pizza chef Ally Beattie and pasta chef Chris Rowse.
The menu is tight: eight pasta dishes, eight pizza dishes, eight sides and four desserts.
The food is Italian in style but with a distinctly Scottish twist.
For example, in addition to classic margarita and pepperoni pizzas, the selection includes toppings such as black pudding, spianata and crowdie.
The drinks side is similarly slimmed down, with Menabrea on draught and a further three bottles in the fridge, as well as three whites, three reds, two rosé wines and a prosecco.
The name, Grosso, was inspired by Italian football player Fabio Grosso – cementing the restaurant’s Italian offer and football lineage.
When SLTN visited, around a week after the venue had opened, Ferry said customers had been an even split between locals and followers of his podcast.
He said: “I would probably say 50% are locals. I make a big point of asking folk where they come from, and the number of locals has been quite surprising, actually. Because obviously there’s staples here that people have known and loved for years. That was maybe a wee bit of a worry that it wouldn’t be locals that would come in, but there’s been so many locals coming in. And all different age varieties as well, which I love.
“We had a woman in last night on her own. She said she’s been going to Coia’s for 30 years and she said ‘this is a big test for you, because I’ve been going there for 30 years’. She got the three cheese pizza, which isn’t one of the most popular dishes. But she’s booked back in for Friday. She loved it. That means a lot to me.”
Moving forward, Ferry said he was keen that Grosso could become an established part of the Dennistoun community, as well as a draw for customers outside the area.
“We want to bring people to Dennistoun, because there’s so many great places around here. Maybe once they’ve been here they’ll go somewhere else for a coffee or a pint. That’s such an important thing for me, bringing people to the area. I feel like we’ve done that so far, but I genuinely think it can get even better.”
