Keek’s, located on Fordneuk Street in Bridgeton, opened in February of this year, serving sandwiches and coffee.
Explaining how the takeaway came to be, owner Heather Son told the Glasgow Times: “This year we were just supposed to get a prep kitchen, but one of our friends who owns Peacock’s Ice Cream told us to open a shop because, in her words, my food was good enough to sell and have a shop.
“So me and my partner basically went ‘f**k it, let’s open a shop’.”
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Heather Son. (Image: Robert Perry)
Heather, who used to live in Tollcross, says she chose to open the shop in the East End because she felt the area has a shortage of food spots.
She said: “I’ve always liked the East End, but it’s an area that needs to be developed in Glasgow.
“The West End is a foodie haven, and it’s very saturated with restaurants with good food.
“The Southside as well has always been its own ecosystem as well, but it’s about time for the East End to have something like that.
“You have a few coffee shops and restaurants on Duke Street but nothing really towards Bridgeton or Tollcross.”
L to R: Fergus Newton-Grant, Heather Son, Lewis Mackie-Duncan and Kieran Mcaskill (Image: Robert Perry)
Heather, 34, says the response was initially a “bit slow” for Keek’s, but business has since “snowballed”, with the business having a lot of support from creatives based in the area.
She said: “If you walk around Bridgeton, there’s nothing like Keek’s.
“It’s a very West End kind of thing if you were to describe it.
“Bringing that into the East End was quite difficult at first, as people were always commenting on the prices, but we explained we work with local suppliers.”
She continued: “There’s a lot of creative spaces around Bridgeton, so they’ve supported us.
“It’s been really overwhelming, and there’ve been times I was teary-eyed because I never expected that much support around the area.
“It’s snowballed, and it’s really heartwarming.”
Heather, who is a trained chef, says she would like to see more food businesses open in the East End.
She said: “It would be nice to have good neighbours who do good food.
“It’s time for the East End to shine.”
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Kieran Mcaskill and Heather Son. (Image: Robert Perry)
In the new year, it’s planned that the business will have seating, with a Saturday brunch club set to be introduced.
Keek’s is named after Heather’s partner Keiran Mcaskill, who is called Uncle Keek by their nieces and nephews.
Heather added: “It’s named after him because he built the shop from scratch with the help of friends and family.”
The business has an evolving menu, which changes with the seasons, with a new one expected on October 20.
Heather and Kieran also run a catering company called Fetch Catering Group Limited, which was launched in 2023, and attend markets and festivals with different street food, as well as currently having Sugba Filipino BBQ at Dockyard Social.
Their business Far Out Bao came in second place in the Scottish Street Food Awards People’s Choice Award and they also run DurtyDogs and Pasta Baby.
