Set the Table for Glasgow's only Culinary Bookshop

Aim

Let's fund a fully accessible fit-out of Local Honey Books, a new culinary bookshop, pantry, and community food events space in Glasgow.

Welcome to Local Honey Books! I'm Abi, and this is my rescue greyhound Elgar. We're raising funds for an accessible bricks and mortar shop in the Southside. It'll be a feast: culinary books, food fiction, zines, a snazzy pantry, and community food events. Can we fix you a plate? 

(a wee whet of your appetite) 

Local Honey Books will be the place to celebrate the joy of hosting, and the art of the daily meal.  We are strictly anti-diet culture, and cheerfully pro-community. Swing by for some of that good pasta, and make your housemate very happy. Pop in for a last minute hostess gift (Yayai olive oil or Bret’s butter flavoured crisps, perhaps?). Come in after school for the kids to do some colouring in, while you have a cuppa. Saunter in on a Saturday for a browse of the titles, and  snaffle a new condiment. You can get skills or share them! Find love at our Speed Grating events! Every donation will support a space for culinary education, literacy, and joy.

(our ethos and aims) 

I want Local Honey to (literally) cater for our local communities. The Southside has an incredible range of folks from all over the world, with 88 languages spoken in Govanhill alone. Let's make Local Honey a place where everyone can bring their home cooking, home.

To that end, our stock will feature First Nations, queer, and global majority titles largely ignored by the big bookshops. Sliding scale places for each event will be funded by a “Pay it Fork-ward” fund, and I’ll work with brilliant arts and 3rd sector friends to embed the shop across the spectrum of folks in the city. I’m going to stock plenty of our excellent local producers, alongside some daily bits and treats from further afield. Through our stock, our pantry and our classes, we hope everyone feels welcome at our table. 

(what's in store) 

Raising this cash now means we can launch before Christmas, giving us the best chance of survival in the famously shonky first year, and you all the best shot at a Festivus feast to remember! 

The shop will sell cookbooks, food-themed fiction, magazines, zines and memoir. There will be a Kids’ Table for messy play, snacks, and reading. Hot filter coffee and mugs of Barry’s Tea. Local Honey will also hold a pantry with all the supper supplies you knew you needed, and even some you didn't. 

A few stock highlights: 

BOOKS 

• Scottish cooking and the Scottish larder, from F Marian McNeil to the Hebridean Baker.
• Sections devoted to Indigenous cultures in North America, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and the Pacific Islands.
• Back issues of Lucky Peach.
• The Pantry Droppers: 50 of the best modern classic cookbooks, as decided by me and a panel of greedy guts.
• Cooks Illustrated! Bon Appetit! Food and Wine! See also: Vittles, Eater, Sandweegie, and zines for days. 

NOT BOOKS 

• All your fave Scottish indies: Bare Bones, Condiment Man, Goat Rodeo, Juno, You+I, Slow Sauce, Brah, Big Jim’s, Sophy Louise, Blackthorn…
• Every flavour of Matty Matheson’s boxed mac n cheese (only UK stockist?!)
• Ethically sourced baseball caps, bearing slogans such as I CONTAIN MULTIPACKS, THE TOOCH, and MINCE AND TATTIES.
• Dog treats made from recycled brewery waste. 
• Candles in the shape of tiny pickles, black cherries, and asparagus spears.
• Bjorn Qorn, Samin Nosrat’s fave popcorn. 
• ....local honey. Obviously. 

PS We won’t be a resource for diet culture. Weight-loss books, aggressive paeons to protein, bizarre restriction manuals: none have a place at Local Honey. My aim for the stock is simple. When you come to Local Honey, you should be able to pick up instructions + ingredients  for nourishment of your lovely soul and body. If you fancy being lean in fifteen, and that’s grand if so, there’s always the Big Sains.

(a sampler of events) 

Food Zine Workshop – with the marvellous writer, poet and cook  Sean Wai Keung 

Speed Grating  – speed dating with a speed peeler. Find love through low-stakes kitchen labour. Plasters included.

Pasta Art — with the celestial artist and foodie Carla Smith 

Weans World – kiddie cooking classes with the brilliant community cafe and cooking school, Weans Scran n Kitchen

Pickling for Basic B*tches – an intro to fermentation and quick pickles without the botulism

Cooking for Everyone—  participation classes with members of the Glasgow Disability Alliance. 

(what's in place cash-wise) 

My Life Savings, such as they are, which are going towards the bookstock, non-book stock, and items like chairs and coffee. Anything I could make direct profit from, I will aim to cover.

Business Enterprise grant from Glasgow City Council, which will cover a chunk of the legal fees.

The dog’s College Fund (I’m not worried, I suspect he is a genius. If that fails, he can just marry up. He’s very good looking, and people mistake his dissociation for aloof sangfroid, reminding them of their distant fathers.) This will form a small contingency pot. 

Start Up Fund (British Business Bank) loan (pending).

Business Growth voucher for consultancy with marketing professionals.

By my current calculations, and with the power vested in me by the many successful crowd-funders for indie bookshops: I am looking to raise 15,000 GBP for the space. Refurb and property costs are high as heck, but obviously this is a huge sum, and I do not take a single penny for granted. I thank you for not closing the page in disgust. 

WHAT YOUR DONATION WILL FUND 

Securing and refitting the premises to make a comfortable, handsome space which will be fully accessible, including loos and changing facilities. Securing artists, experts and practitioners in advance for the events schedule, to ensure they are paid fairly in a world that often doesn’t reward this type of work.

WHAT YOUR DONATION WON’T FUND

Books, stock, consumables, or my (teeny) personal drawings: all of the crowd-funded cash will be used to make this a space for conviviality, skills-sharing and good eating.

(the serious stuff) 

Local Honey Books is a registered Ltd Co, and I have a business bank account and an accountant. I am working directly with Business Enterprise Glasgow (and my amazing network of charities and small business owners) to ensure I get access to all grants and incentives I can. They will also help me comply with all trading standards, have the right licences, pay the appropriate tax/utilities, and manage health and safety needs. I have a business plan which covers three years of P&L, start up costs, and contingency. I have meticulously planned lists/spreadsheets of book stock and non-book stock, carefully calibrated for generating joy, pleasure, and the necessary profit to stay afloat. I have 15 years+ working in project management + community engagement as an academic, a journo, and 3rd sector type.I know I am a bit jazz hands, but I take this seriously and I am committed to inclusion, kindness, and not wasting anyone’s time or cash.  

(rewards!)

I know most of you who give will not be expecting Anything In Return. But I am a hostess to the last! I couldn’t have you head home without pressing something into your hands, in a kraft paper box, with reheating instructions scrawled on the side. See the Rewards section for more. 

 (how to follow along!)

The shop’s Instagram and my soon-to-be launched, mildly unhinged Substack. There's also my Pinterest for the visually-inclined. 

Thanks so much for reading this. Please feel no pressure whatsoever to donate cash if that’s not available to you! But maybe a little pressure if it is :)   

And please do share broadly and widely! As my pal Guy said: “Maybe you don’t need a rich friend; maybe you just need lots and lots of broke ones?” Truer words,etc. Let’s eat. 

This spiel was generated by AI (Abi’s Intelligence) and may contain mistakes. Photos by the divine Olive Annand, and illustrations + logos by the celestial Liz Rowland.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 13th November 2026 at 8:13pm