Food&Drink News&Reviews
Not-so-daft punks BrewDog has added to its real ale empire with a new Edinburgh bar. David Pollock salutes their punk spirit and takes a trip to the Cowgate venue
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L ove or hate the aggressive branding aesthetic of young Fraserburgh-based brewery BrewDog, it’s impossible to deny that their brash signature beers like Trashy Blonde, Punk IPA and 5AM Saint have blown a whole nest of cobwebs from the national real ale scene. Since 2007 many purists and more reserved drinkers have balked at BrewDog’s own description of their beers as ‘hardcore’ and of their company as ‘a beacon of non-conformity in an increasingly monotone corporate desert’, but it’s this rhetoric which is capturing the imagination of a nation of young drinkers who might be more used to asking for ‘whatever you’ve got on draught.’
It’s this demographic the company are appealing to with the latest outlet of a concerted expansion into pub-running. Opened in March of this year, this branded bar venture is BrewDog’s second after the original branch in Aberdeen (a third is imminent on Glasgow’s Argyle Street), and already it’s revived an unpopular premises in the heart of Edinburgh’s clubbing and student locales. It looks great – a long, thin, fashionably distressed urban gallery consisting of cracked white tiles behind the bar, bare ceiling ventilation pipes, stripped-back brick walls and designer pendant lights – although whether its position at the epicentre of weekend stag and hen territory might alienate the full range of potential customers remains to be seen. 20 THE LIST 28 Apr–26 May 2011
One of the capital’s most exciting new bars Can it upgrade the Cowgate on its own?
Youthful pre-clubbers should and probably will turn it into a late night hotspot for months to come, but unashamed beer connoisseurs will also be mesmerised by a range of five BrewDog draughts, with at least as many guest ales from their own brewery and around the world. Almost eighty imported bottled beers pack out the fridge, including pale ales, porters and stouts, and Belgian-style brews, many of which are served in large sharing bottles for double-figure prices. For those wishing to make a night or even a day of it, ballast in the form of cheese and meat boards (£6–12) or pizzas (£8) is also served until closing time.
This is a pub with character and a real desire to share its love of beer with substance, which might well come to raise the tone of the surrounding area. Yet more than that, it’s a bold new opening in troubled times, and a flag-bearer for a new generation of independent brewers and publicans alike.
BREWDOG EDINBURGH
143-145 Cowgate, Edinburgh, 0131 220 6517, brewdog.com
Mon–Wed noon–midnight; Thu-Sat noon–1am; Sun 12.30pm–midnight.
SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
THE TWO L'ESCARGOT restaurants in Edinburgh will be hotbeds of Breton cooking
on 13 and 14 May when their kitchens are taken over by students from the chef's school at Dinard in Brittany, who are over on a week-long trip supported by the Institut Francais d'Ecosse to meet local producers and chefs.
ON FRI 20 MAY the doors open at Hopetoun Farm Shop just off A904 between
South Queensferry and Linlithgow. Drawing on small, local, artisan businesses, they aim to source 80 per cent of their product range from a 50- mile radius, including meat from the estate. hopetoun.co.uk/farmshop
NEW OPENINGS include a second branch of Porto & Fi on the Mound in
Edinburgh, The Peacock Inn at Newhaven, which is reopening under new management, while through in Glasgow Browns have opened up a bar and brasserie on George Square. Martin Wishart has announced that his new brasserie on North Castle Street in Edinburgh will be called The Honours, with opening expected in June.
BAR CRAWLER
MANSION HOUSE 20 Glassford Street, Glasgow Tiger Tiger burned bright in the Merchant City before morphing into new blinged-up superclub Mansion House. Within, a choice of bars: Merchants, the straight guy, for a beer or bar meal; Jewel for modern cocktails, shooters and bubbly; Kanaloa for tiki-themed tropical vibes; and Lucky Voice karaoke bar with nifty hi-tech ‘pods’ for private groups.