Yesterday, we blogged about baum+whiteman’s predictions for restaurants without seats and seats without restaurants.

Also included in the restaurant consultants’ 2017 food trend report was an interesting idea entitled ‘Artisan butchers strike back’.

Apparently, as a reaction to many chefs turning vegetables into the stars of their dishes and relegating meat to a supporting role, some high end butchers have started a fight back.

In the States, a growing number of butchers are opening on-site restaurants. Never mind field to table eating, this is butcher’s block to table dining.

Open flames

The 5pm Dining blog is unaware of any restaurants in the UK that offer this. Or at least not yet.

However, recently opened places like Temper in London and The Spanish Butcher in Glasgow offer a halfway house.

They may not have a butcher’s counter but, at Temper, diners can sit at the bar and watch the joints of meat being cooked on open fires in front of them.

At The Spanish Butcher, windows give a glimpse of the chefs cooking the finest Galician beef over open flames. There is an even better view through the open pass en route to the loos.

The wine bar is back

We also seem to be seeing a resurgence of the wine bar.

Earlier this year, The Good Brothers wine bar opened in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge, just a five minute walk from Smith and Gertrude, a cheese and wine bar which launched a few months before.

Meanwhile, on Queensferry Street, Chef Fred Berkmiller’s Bar à vin is flourishing after opening at the end of 2015.

They join well established Edinburgh ventures such as Divino Enoteca and Whighams.

In Glasgow, Vroni’s and Boudoir are perhaps the best known wine bars.

We expect to see more wine bars enter the market in the next few months.

Non-alocoholic drinks get smart

Sticking with drinks, we are on the brink of enjoying a new wave of sophisticated, non-alcoholic drinks.

With millennials said to be drinking less than previous generations, and changes in the drink driving laws altering behaviour, there is a growing market for interesting soft drinks which pair well with food.

Recently, we blogged about eteaket and their blend of tea which uses the same botanicals as the Isle of Harris Gin.

They recommend cold brew Silver Needle tea as an excellent accompaniment to food.

Staying in Edinburgh, Dishoom and Epicurean, the new bar at the G&V Royal Mile Hotel, both offer non-alcoholic drinks and mocktails which show real innovation and careful preparation.

Handy if you want to wake up on New Year’s Day with a clear head.

On that note, we hope you have an enjoyable Hogmanay and a well-fed 2017. We’ll be back in action on Wednesday 4th January.