Photo of
May 7, 2012
[][1]
Ian Meldrum is shaking things up at the Scotch Whisky Experience

After a quiet few months, the Edinburgh bar scene has perked up of late with a little bit of shuffling around and a couple of new, sort of, ventures.

Last weekend marked the first official openings of The Last Word Saloon and Pepper. The Last Word Saloon has replaced The Saint on St Stephen Street in Stockbridge. If The Saint was a bar with a rather tasty kitchen, then the Last Word is more of a straight down the line cocktail joint.

Pepper has popped up under Steak at 14 Picardy Place. The latest addition to the No 12 Picardy Place complex, it offers ‘molecular cocktails’, DJs and a late night menu supplied by the kitchen upstairs.

Up at The Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile, mixologist Iain Meldrum has introduced a cocktail menu.

The new menu features 10 distinctive cocktails created just for The Scotch Whisky Experience. Classic cocktails have been given a Gaelic twist, including The MacHatten, which replaces the usual Canadian whiskey with a Highland single malt and teams it with Bitter Truth Elixier and Crème de Cerise.

The menu also includes entirely new concoctions, such as the Made-Over Mac, which mixes blended Scotch whisky with grapefruit bitters, ginger liqueur and lime marmalade.

Iain’s next move is to work with the centre’s Amber restaurant to create new cocktails with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients.

Apologies for being a bit behind the times with this one but I’ve only just noticed that Le Monde has opened a live music venue. The Dirty Martini is big on jazz.

Sticking with Le Monde, they are running a 5pm deal on their a la carte menu. Book in here for a 20% discount.

We’ve also learned that The Cabaret Voltaire is scheduled to re-open on Thursday and we’ll blog about it more then.

We have already mentioned One Square bar and restaurant opening at the Sheraton but we’ve now got some pics to show you what all the fuss was about.

If you like gin, then you will love the funky new bar and its dozens of diferent gins. The restaurant is none too shabby either, although its pricing is pretty enthusiastic.

I ate there recently and thought it was fairly good, especially the slow braised beef cheeks.

[][9]
One Square bar at the Sheraton