Category: New Town

Researching the history of Kay’s Bar in the New Town, I was surprised to find that this has only been a pub since the 1970s. Walking in, you’d probably have banked on it having looked the same a hundred years earlier but in fact John Kay & Sons was actually a wine and spirit merchant which traded from this quaint 1814-built cottage just off India Street for more than a century. Here you could get wine, sherry and whisky – it was little more than a backstreet off licence. Nowadays, there’s still plenty alcohol but it’s become a cosy local for this well-heeled area.

Before the Cumberland Bar was taken over by DM Stewart, owners of the excellent Guildford Arms, I was a big fan of the pub. Great ale was complemented by good but unfancy food, including their excellent curly fries. OK, so it really was pub fare –  a lot of deep frying and toasting going on – but it was cheap and generally what you wanted for lunch or with a pint after work. Things have changed in the New Town now though and while I may still be a fan of the pub, I feel it’s perhaps resting on its laurels a little. I don’t want to be overly critical but when the Edinburgh pub scene is so vibrant, no hostelry can afford to rely on its name alone.

I remember being in the Oxford Bar on Young Street a number of years ago, round about Six Nations time. Enjoying a pint with a mate in the back room, two Welsh guys were discussing Ian Rankin’s famous creation, Rebus, and his choice of pubs. Turning to us, one of them enquired: “Where’s the Rebus pub, mate, the one he drinks in?” Slightly confused, I replied, “This is it.” Glancing round the spartan room with a look of confusion, our Welsh drinking friend said simply: “Really? Bit sh*t innit?” While perhaps a little harsh, I know what he means.