There are two types of people.
Those who still think of Dundee as the poor relation – and those who have been here in the last five years.
And even that first camp have heard the news. Dundee is brilliant.
Yes, I know, I’ve said this before – many times.
It’s the exception I make to repeating columns – for the story is ongoing and it’s one we like to hear.
Like most of us, I’m a cheerleader for our city. I feel slighted when it’s knocked and pride when it shines.
But now, there is no debate over how well or not we are doing because the news has landed that, finally…wait for it…a Wagamama restaurant is coming to town.
It’s opening beside Tony Macaroni, which is also brilliant.
I was there twice this week, once with the kids and once with some mums – Hawaiian pizza both times – before the Sarah Millican concert at the Caird Hall.
She was very funny – and a lot ruder than I’d imagined.
‘Bigger picture for Dundee’
Returning to Wagamama…I am a fan of the British chain specialising in Asian and particularly Japanese cuisine – but with a more universal and generally delicious theme.
As soon as I hear I’ve got work in Glasgow, I’m calculating if I can make it to the city centre branch for steamed chicken gyoza and slurpy noodles or a Katzu curry.
If you’ve not been before and it doesn’t sound like it will blow your hair back, trust me, give it a go.
Between the chilli squid, curries, fruit smoothies, dumplings and ice creams, it’s hard not to find something you’ll think about incessantly until your next Wagamama visit.
And while it’s not as cheap as, say, a McDonald’s, you can have a main, drink and side for around £20.
Its imminent arrival shows the bigger picture for Dundee.
A Facebook campaign was started seven or so years ago to bring one to the city, pointing out our billion-pound waterfront redevelopment.
Such an establishment was, however, seen as the domain of our sleeker, more salubrious cousins Edinburgh and Glasgow.
But in those intervening years, we’ve chipped away steadily.
‘We’re in better shape than most cities’
V&A Dundee and Malmaison have arrived, as have award-winning restaurants and cookery schools (see last week’s column) and something less definable – a feeling, a movement, an energy.
We have bucked the downward trend of high streets by landing a wealthy, experienced buyer in Frasers Group – led by Mike Ashley – to regenerate the Overgate.
Wandering city centres as I often do for work on Homes Under the Hammer, I see the gaping, empty spaces left by the likes of Debenhams on almost every high street the length and breadth of the UK.
While we are not immune to the problems of empty shops or needless planning department obstacles, we are in better shape than most cities.
That we may be able to sample a perfume and feel the fabrics of clothes on rails – things taken for granted until recent years – feels strangely giddy.
Closer to home, Aberdeen’s city centre looks heartbreakingly sad in parts and Perth (hurray for its new museum, an inspired opening which seems to be boosting local businesses) at times seems on its knees.
Against the odds
But Dundee, our Dundee – with a setting like no other on the Silvery Tay – is not just having its moment.
It keeps having many moments. It is sustaining its success.
If all the cities were invited to a wedding and each personified as a guest, Glasgow would be head to toe in Versace, Edinburgh old school in fascinator and flowing frock.
And as Dundee came in, breaths would be held as we sashayed to our pew.
For that wee cousin, always slightly overlooked and the butt of many jokes, has flourished and is doing its own thing.
Against the odds, it has become the coolest kid in town.
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