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SIDE DISHES News to nibble on

Also opening its doors in a busy autumn around the capital is Field Grill House, a second venue for the likeable West Nicolson Street operation, in the space previously operated by Buffalo Grill on Raeburn Place, Stockbridge. Up in the Old Town, Checkpoint, once a Fringe pop-up, is now permanently open as a daytime café, evening bistro and late-night bar. The new Bar á Vin is open on the street level below L’escargot Blanc, Ben Reade and Sashana Souza Zanella’s Edinburgh Food Studio got underway in late October while the former location of Blue Bar above the Traverse is set to be brought to life before Christmas by erstwhile Forth Floor executive chef Stuart Muir in a venture called Dine with Stuart Muir (pictured right). The BBC Good Food Show Scotland arrives at the SECC in Glasgow from 6 to 8 November with its array of producer stalls, celebrity appearances, masterclasses and restaurant pop-ups from The Gannet, Porter

& Rye and Red Onion. Meanwhile Section 33, a memorable pop- up in 2014, is back with another guerilla dining event later in November check section-33.com for the latest. Glasgow openings include a Scottish branch of CAU, a specialist in Argentinian steaks, and a Silverburn location for Thaikhun, wee sister to Chaophraya and a follow-on to their first Scottish branch in Aberdeen. There will be a Bavarian Brau Haus open at 30 Bothwell Street in the Merchant City by the middle of November, while those who like a bit of a Twitter tease can follow the imminent arrival of the publicity-ripe 20poundsandwich.

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The restaurant scene on George Street has thrust itself to prominence with the high-profile opening of The Printing Press Bar & Kitchen, a first Edinburgh venture for Des MacDonald, once head chef at the Ivy and a director of the Caprice Group, and now operator of various London venues including Vintage Salt. The 180-seat restaurant and bar adjacent to the George Hotel has Fifer Colin Fleming in the kitchen, serving signature dishes including game, in-house smoked salmon and Josper Grill-seared Buccleuch steaks. Immediately next door is upmarket coffee and sandwich stop Burr & Co.

YOUR OTHER NATIONAL T

Ceylon, Assam, Xinyang . . . Angus. Does Scotland have what it take to join the world’s great tea- producing areas? Courtney Hyde Peyton finds out

F amily traditions can have fascinating origins. Almost 180 years ago, Charles Alexander Bruce brought assamica tea to the British market, driving the expansion of tea production in Assam. Today, his great-great-great granddaughter Susie Walker-Munro has produced her own single estate tea, Kinnettles Gold. The twist is that, this time, the tea itself is Scottish.

Grown and hand-rolled on Kinnettles Farm in Angus, it has taken eight years of hard work, research, learning, growing and absorbing expert guidance for Walker-Munro to deliver the i rst limited edition Kinnettles Gold to market. The tea was specially developed for the Scottish climate with the help of tea consultant Beverly-Claire Wainwright of  Teacraft. Wainwright’s philosophy is to match processing methods to suit the terroir, rather than copying methods from other countries. She was also responsible for introducing Kinnettles to Jon Cooper, owner of PekoeTea in Edinburgh. For Cooper, the tea was unique. ‘I’ve never seen or tasted a tea like this before,’ he says. ‘From my point of view as a tea trader, this tea should fall into the category of a semi-oxidised tea or oolong. But from the colour of the liquor, taste and the new production methods it is very difi cult to categorise this tea within any of the main tea types.’

Retailing at an eyebrow-raising £50 for a 20g tin, or £15 for a cup in PekoeTea Stockbridge, one of Cooper’s two specialist tea shops in Edinburgh, Kinnettles has ambitiously positioned itself at the top end of the market and is hoping to lead the way in Scottish artisan tea production. Plans for the future include establishing tea plants in the favourable microclimate of the estate’s walled garden, as part of a scheme looking at the potential for up to 11 other Scottish tea growers transforming their walled gardens into tea gardens. Find out more at pekoetea.co.uk