Cottonrake Bakery

Stefan Spicknell opened Cottonrake on Hyndland Road in 2010 and moved the operation to a larger Great Western Road unit — the former Auld's bakery — a few years later, running it since as an owner-baker: pastries, cakes and proper bread over the counter, tables for the West End's freelance economy, and event space out the back. The West End takes its coffee-and-cake circuit seriously enough to sustain a dozen contenders; Cottonrake has held its corner for fifteen years by the simple method of the baking being good. No awards on the wall worth citing — just a queue that reforms every morning, which is the more reliable metric.