G G Brothers

Ah, the humble off-​sales place. One of those slightly scary stores with a big grill between you and the booze (and the poor person selling it) just in case you can’t control yourself.
G G Brothers has been on Argyle Street for as long as I can remember and it’s always been a good place to pick up a bargain. If all your after is a cheap four pack of beer, or a bog-​standard bottle of vodka, this place has got you covered.
If you want something a little fancier, keep an eye on the offers they have advertised in their window, or look elsewhere. If it’s basic it’s cheap; if it’s fancy and on offer it’s cheap; if it’s fancy but not on offer, you’ll pay over the odds for it. Keep that rule of thumb in mind and you won’t go far wrong.

This place looks like a ropey old offie, but it is absolutely brilliant. OK, they keep all their stock behind a cage so customers can’t paw it/​steal it/​drop it, but what an awesome range of stock they have.
We nipped in here the other day to get a miniature bottle of Tia Maria to add to a chocolate mousse. They didn’t have one, which is understandable really given that no-​one has drank Tia Maria since c1987, but it’s probably the only thing they didn’t have. We bought a tiny bottle of Kraken instead which, as well as making our mousse delicious, gave me the excuse to jump about the flat going ‘yo ho ho, I’m a tiny pirate’, while clutching my tiny bottle of Kraken.
The thing that we were most gobsmacked by was their range of gins. Think of a gin. GG Brothers have it. Think of another gin. They have that too. You can buy gins here that you can’t buy in the posh spirit shops in town. Gins I’ve only ever heard of but have never seen in a shop. It was like a dream, a dream of magical caged gin, waiting to be set free.
The prices? I’m not sure. I think they’re pretty good! They have lots of those neon jaggy cardboard price tickets, which I’m fairly certain is always a good indicator of a bargain. I was so overwhelmed by the gins that I didn’t really take the prices in, but I know I’ll be giving the posh shops a body swerve from now on and getting my booze on at GG Brothers.

They do Strawberry and Lime Kopparberg and Strawberry and the other Swedish one (you know what I’m on about) for £1.99.
It’s hard to find this stuff anywhere except massive Tescos.
Delighed, I am.

Personal thanks goes to off license G G Brothers for keeping me in cheap booze over the years!
Every summer, G G Brothers is the first port of call when me and my pals go boozin’ in Kelvingrove Park. I’ve got fond, fuzzy memories of falling through the door and grabbing on to the counter’s caging while I stocked up on 80p cans of beer. In fact, I went in here once with my last pound in the whole world and still managed to come out with something!
Because there are vast quantities of bottles, the owners serve you from behind bars, but the imposing exterior is broken down by their friendly manner (they must be patient to serve the stociously drunk comunity). For a standard offy it’s got a huge amount of choice, including some really nice gins and whiskys! But they also do your lower budget stuff for when, like me, you are very poor and are looking for something cheap n cheerful. Me and my mates used to leg it down to G G’s before closing time to stock up on Cherry Lambrini when I stayed close by and it’s nice to know this shop will be there to service my park booze marathons should the weather ever decide to pick up!
Interestingly, G G Brothers have a new sign up in the window requesting you look them up on Facebook — if you do you apparently get discount deals! Handy for when you next get a carry out!

Now, this place is pretty much legendary among students in the West End area. The only thing is that none of them will call it «G G Brothers». Instead, it’s known just as «The Cage.»
Does this sound a little cryptic to you?! Well, I’m afraid it’s not really. This place is known as The Cage because inside all the alcohol and other stock, as well as the cashiers, are kept behind a giant cage. I really hope that this is because of the owner’s paranoia and not because they’re robbed on a regular basis. But who knows?
There’s not really much else to say about this place apart from the whole cage thing. Let me see, they have a great range of alcohol — ranging from godawful stuff such as Buckfast all the way up to decent bottles of wine.
They also always seem to have quite a few charity collection buckets. I must therefore assume that they have good Karma.

Ever wanted to know what its like to be a Hamster in a cage? No? Just me then… ok fine. Well, if you want to find out what if feels like then a good start would be to visit this fine Liquor distributing establishment situated on Argyle Street.
Now i know the reason behind these caged stores. I’m aware that its, i assume, firstly to stop any thieving of stock and secondly to protect the staff from any aggressive dafties who may frequent this type of establishment. But you know what? i just cant shake the feeling of immediate guilt as soon as i walk into one of these hamster pens. Its the same feeling whenever your talking to the police, you instantly start panicking that you’ve unwittingly robbed a bank and are about to be rumbled, nicked, hooked, lifted, or other term for being arrested.
But anyway, enough of this rambling i hear thee cry. What about the bloody shop? Well, its a good place. Nothing classy, but good if your on the hunt for a good booze bargain. Will you find an exquisite bottle of honky le château Le french gaff at a tantalisingly tempting under £20 bracket? No, no you wont, but a good deal on a single malt and and special on Millers may just offer you some solace.
G.G Brothers, a good place to stuff your metaphorical hamster cheeks with some equally metaphorical reasonably priced alcohol… god i should be in advertising.

Nothing says customer service quite like containing your clientele in a wire cage, seriously though GG’s has been lying the popilance of Argyle street with cheap booze for decades and while the mesh cage containing the customer space looks very eastern block the staff are friendly and the special offers on beer great value.