Commerce St is in every way pleasing to the passing PMiaV. Well worth a shufti. Interesting establishments selling food and kitchen hardware from around the world proliferate, van keys can be duplicated cheaply, laptop chargers bought at a reasonable price, vapes purchased in bulk and the attitude of the local drivers to Glasgow’s parking laws is creative. Highly creative. It’s also not in the LEZ but is almost on your way whilst cutting around Glasgow between the M8, M74 etc.
Thus I was intrigued to find a new inhabitant in arch 35-7 at the Clyde end of Commerce Street. With its subtle signage and a huge glass window that was steamed up, in fact opaque and beaded with moisture, I had presumed it was yet another Cross-Fit dungeon or similar. Fortunately the smells that assailed one’s nostrils on entering were not those of sweat, cold steel bars, damp rubber mats and frustration but the joyful combination of bread proofing, sugar, custards and coffee.
My nose and nosiness had led me to the full-on-supervillain-lair-headquarters of the Cottonrake Bakery. Inside this enormous arch an industrial behemoth lurks, with a huge open area and counter for walk-in customers. The scraped floor still bears the outlines of the previous owner’s carpet showroom racks. Green panelling and a corrugated cream ceiling has been chucked up over most of the old stonework arch but this is unashamedly a factory under the railway lines. Hard tables and benches line the walls to not obstruct the comings and goings of Cottonrake van delivery drivers. But you can sit in a VIP (Very Irritable Posterior) area stage-right, with a cushion on your utilitarian bench if you really must.
I was going to say the vibe is Industrial, but it’s not a vibe, it just IS Industrial and a pleasure to be in. Behind a counter displaying their generous buns, the charming staff dish out your coffee in a stylish but practical mug and your cake on a metal tray. Cottonrake Commerce St is not a café, it’s a throbbing bread mothership where one can hang around, ogle skilled bakers, eat very fresh baked goods and not have to work. Deeper into the bowels (clean, gleaming infact) of the arch more staff, a delightfully curated assortment of the nice young men and women who make up Scotland in 2026, are labouring away attired in traditional striped blue-and-white bakers’ aprons. They were working hard, so hard that many had been forced to remove their Carhartt beanies.
The customers are a cross-section of those in walking distance; Barclays staff in suits, new-Gorbals flat-dwellers in down jackets, mums in hijabs and Cross-Fit dudes in shorts and tats.
For £9.60 I collected my coffee and huge cheese roll remoulade, oh la la, and returned to my bench to observe the minions scurrying about this yeasty space station. The coffee was fine, not enormously distinctive but the roll, well. Huge, splendidly packed with grated cheese and assorted salad bits in a tangy sauce, sprinkled with seeds and straight out of the oven. Sublime. Like you had just made it yourself from scratch, but much, much better. Or could be bothered to. Loaves are on sale; easy on the eye, fantastic quality and around a fiver. 250g’s of the house beans blend (Bread-and-Butter, naturally) are £9.50.
Cottonrake Bakery. It just smells so good. Superb baking. Nice people. £1.20 for 15 minutes parking right outside. 8am to 3pm.
But live a little. Triple-park your faithful steel retainer with the old hazards on. Indulge yourself here. Have another bun.
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