Festival FOOD & DRINK SUPPORTED BY
MAKING A SCENE
With the start of the Festival season, food & drink editor Donald Reid rounds up Edinburgh’s most notable eating and drinking newcomers
E very year there are a handful of places that open up in slightly unseemly haste in the latter weeks of July. Being open for August is just too important for profile and the bottom line to miss out. In that category this year are Victor & Carina Contini’s new three-storey Caffè right at the top of the Royal Mile in the 16th-century Cannonball House; a sizeable new branch of the Mussel & Steak Bar on Jeffrey Street; and Enzo, an Italian-style bar and restaurant in the heart of the sleek Quartermile development beside the Meadows. If you’re keeping an eye out for the places that are new since this time last year, then top of the pile are probably Aizle, the excellent ‘neo-bistro’ situated between the Pleasance and Pollock Halls that serves intriguing dishes of locally sourced food; Ting Thai Caravan, a dynamic and frequently packed pitstop for Thai street food; and Mark Greenaway’s second restaurant, Bistro Moderne, bringing a more accessible taste of the chef’s imaginative and enjoyable interpretation of modern British cooking to the New Town / Stockbridge (pictured).
Life above street level is only ever half the story in Edinburgh, and voyages underground are the more exciting this year thanks to the arrival of cocktail speakeasy Panda & Sons on Queen Street and Heads & Tales, the subterranean West End bar
housing two stills making Edinburgh Gin. Another hidden gem is Devil’s Advocate, a sassy bar on Advocate’s Close. Also in the centre you can find Laila’s, an eastern Mediterranean bistro from the folk behind Hanam’s and Pomegranate, plus an upgrade to the daytime and early evening dining options on the ground floor of the Festival Theatre that’s called th’eatery. There’s a first Edinburgh sighting of impressive Glasgow burger joint Burger Meats Bun on Forth Street, while Leith Walk has its own bona fide pinchos bar in the form of Serrano Manchego.
Over by Tollcross-Bruntsfield way, Harajuku Kitchen has quickly become a popular neighbourhood spot for a broad range of Japanese food, while just up the road the Osteria del Tempo Perso reminds us that good Italian food is a fine way to lose a few hours of the day. Not too far away, on Dalry Road, at the relocated Locanda di Gusti, chef Rosario Sartore is cooking a compact menu of dishes derived from his Neapolitan roots. It’s one of the more prevailing themes of the contemporary food scene that the best of the new ways are a reinvigorated presentation of the best of the old ways.
A rundown of other longer-standing favourite List eating spots can be found on page 95.
D O O F L A V I T S E F
S P U - P O P
POMMERY CHAMPAGNE CAFÉ BAR Bubbles, lobster and some tasty events in the ultra- rei ned environs of the Signet Library
APEROL SPRITZ GARDEN Pop-up orange groves, water features, live music and prosecco cocktails in St Andrew Square BACKYARD AT THE ROXY Serves of sauvingon blanc and l at whites at a New Zealand- themed garden bar at Assembly Roxy
HENDRICKS CARNIVAL OF KNOWLEDGE An eccentrically eclectic four- day (7–10 Aug) residency for the Ayrshire-based gin at 1 Royal Circus BOXSMALL Festival Square hosts a food and craft market with its own picnic zone and Airpuddle bouncy art installation
RECOMMENDS . . .
THE HILL GLASGOW
The Hill is a stylish bar in the west end of Glasgow on the vibrant Byres Road, a place in which to eat, drink and be happy.
thehillbyresroad.com
24 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014