I am fussy about pubs. I grew up in them as my parents were publicans. They need to be cared for, offer well kept ales and I prefer them if they are not hell bent on serving food at the expense of local drinkers. No matter how beautiful they may be, if the landlords are not welcoming then it is a Crap Pub. My parents had a pub in the village where I live for 15 years until they retired. It was then the absolute hub of village life. My dad had the knack of remembering everyone's name and favourite drink after just one visit. My mum looked after everyone like they were family. Since they left in a period of not much more than 7 years there have been no fewer than six different sets of landlords come and go; four of them just awful; why the hell people who do not appear to like other people wind up running a pub is one of the mysteries of my life. Two of them were good but had to leave because as soon as they started to get successful the brewery who owns the pub got greedy and priced them out with outrageous rent demands. Whilst the four awful landlords were there it was a Crap Pub, and during the reign of the other two it was a Great Pub. We are fairly hopeful the latest arrival will be a success. He does at least smile when one goes in the place which is nice but apparently more difficult to accomplish than one might suppose.
Anyway, stop waffling on Jane. Thing is, when I go anywhere new I like to do a bit of research first on my favourite subject - good pubs - and I went to Edinburgh armed with a list of pubs I would really like to visit, and the Girl Jane Done Good, with the able and willing assistance of Reidski, and managed to get to the following pubs in the space of three days (actually two as the first day there was taken up with pre-planned social events).
If you only click on one link make it the one for the beautiful Cafe Royal, but none of the pubs visited disappointed. Many more reasons to love Edinburgh!
The Cafe Royal.
The Guildford Arms.
The Abbotsford
Bannermansbar.
Bow Bar.
Doric Bar.
Halfway House.
The Jolly Judge.
The Mitre.
Kay's Bar.
The Oxford (Failed to spot Rebus but I am sure every bloke round the bar was a policeman.)
Dawn
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8 comments:
The 'Jolly Judge' (in James Court) was literally our local. We stayed at the 'Castle Apartments' the first couple of years there (cheap & low key at the time), in whose courtyard, that pub was situated. Now if we hadn't had to crawl up those sixty stairs to the third floor afterward....
See you didnt stray far from Princes Street and the Bridges! But nice bars they are too. Sorry missed you guys. Next time tho.
NB How about this for a story...
Stevensons Favourite Pub To Become A Gay Bar
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1031422007
No more of this then...
http://tinyurl.com/23ord5
Marc, that courtyard is wonderful! Lucky you.
Kev, someone musthave read that post of yours and thought 'I know what that bar needs to liven things up!'
And we definitely need much longer to explore your city properly - we didn't even have time to get down to Leith, although I suppose there is an arguement to suggest that had we not spent quite so much time in pubs we could have seen a bit more...
So many pubs in just three days! Houston we have a problem! I remember The Mitre well - a great pub with lovely mirrors I recall.
How many days were you there? And how many pubs did you visit? When did you have time to see the rest of the city? No wonder you liked it there so much.
Yes, I could recommend you a few good pubs in Plymouth too! x
YP - we didn't do too badly did we? And yes, the Mitre was great.
Joe, see next post inspired by your comment here. And yes - the great pubs certainly helped us fall in love with the place.
Moo, I bet you could!
As you will have noticed, there are plenty more good pubs in Edinburgh. What lucky folk we are.
I too am sorry to have missed you. Ah weel.
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