I know what you're thinking. What does tapas have to do with Louis Armstrong? Was the bubble-cheeked jazz trumpeter as fond of a plate of patatas bravas as the rest of us? His drummer may have been called Danny Barcelona, but was sangria his tipple of choice?
But jazz and tapas go together like a jig and an Irish stew. A quick internet search reveals that Glasgow is not alone in having a tapas bar named after the Hello, Dolly! star. There is a Satchmo's tapas restaurant in Queensland, Australia, on a sun-soaked marina where the gentle strains of jazz float into the warmth of an antipodean day.
No such luck in Glasgow, where the newly opened Satchmo's on Bank Street has been gamely fighting scattered showers for most of the summer. This corner of the west end is busy, even when nearby Glasgow University is out for the summer and the locals have taken Satchmo's to heart, judging by the crowd that gathered on the pavement tables on the night I visited.
It was a little quieter inside, where Satchmo's has a job if it is to exorcise the ghosts of eateries past. The site, which Americans would call a "bono", a venue where restaurants rarely stick around for long, was previously home to a down-at-heel burger joint and the ill-fated west end branch of the Drovers Inn on Loch Lomond.
The menu is a good place to start. The bread and olives made a so-so first impression - the bread was shamelessly flirting with its best-before date - but the calamares was tender and crispy, while the potato and onion omelette was egged to perfection.
The chorizo sausage was a little too spicy, but well cooked, and the Spanish meatballs, which can make or break a tapas feast, were coated in a thick, toothsome tomato sauce that dissolved on the tongue. It was an honest but unspectacular effort. Satchmo's has a way to go to compete with the west end's thriving other tapas bar, Cafe Andaluz, where putting bums on seats, indoors or out, is never a problem.
Musically, the sweet sounds of Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone make a change from a frenzied flamenco beat. With a little tweaking and some fresh bread this could be music and food to love.
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