Mary’s Milk Bar is a cosy space for you to enjoy the best quality gelato and chocolate. There aren’t truffles with a shelf life of 6 months – everything uses fresh ingredients with no preservatives. This means everything is just that little bit more delicious! Mary’s truffles pride themselves on their soft centres and unusual tasty flavours. The gelato is soft and creamy – every week there’s new flavours and new ways to enjoy them. You can take a scoop away with you, enjoy a ‘gelato oyster’ in a chocolate shell or one of the weekly seasonal sundaes. In short, everything you want from an ice cream and chocolate is here. Mary also hosts little parties, workshops and tasting evenings for you to taste, learn about and enjoy gelato and truffles. Mary has worked as a chocolatier for the last five years. She trained in Bologna, Italy at the prestigious Carpigiani Gelato University, not everyone can say they’re a Gelato graduate! She’s from that lovely republic of Yorkshire, and has fond memories of holidays in Scarborough, Whitby and Morecambe – all of which still have original milk bars. Milk Bars were incredibly popular in Britain between the 20s and 60s – promoting wholesome milky products and an alternative to a stuffy tearooms or smoky pubs. There were National Milk Bars supported by the government to nourish the population after the world wars. They sold milkshakes, ice cream and some expanded into savoury products – all prepared with fresh milk. They pioneered the style of bar service which we take for granted today – novel in the 1920s to pay for your coffee first before receiving it at your table. Today many have either fallen on hard times or morphed into ice cream parlours or greasy spoon cafes. Glasgow still has a few of its own Milk Bars like Jaconelli’s in Maryhill and University Cafe on Byre’s Road. Mary’s Milk Bar evokes the initial glamour of the deco parlours. Bathe in the formica glow, quaff an espresso, nibble a caramel and chit chat to Mary as she prepares her latest concoction.
