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November 27, 2013
[Knowing you way around vinyl has always helped at Bar Kohl][1]
Knowing your way around some vinyl has always helped at Bar Kohl

Edinburgh’s Bar Kohl celebrated its twentieth birthday recently by unveiling fresh new food and cocktail menus at a lively party.

‘We always keep the menus updated,’ explains the bar’s Adam Montgomery, ‘ but for the twentieth birthday we went all out. We did a research trip down to London to see what was happening in their cocktail bars and we also went through lots of old cocktail books to see if there were classics which we could twist.’

Proving popular among the new cocktails is El Presidente – a rum-based cocktail which is barrel-aged in a Kentucky oak cask for a week before being served.

[Mixing it at the Bar Kohl birthday bash][3]
Mixing it at the Bar Kohl birthday bash

All gone pear-shaped

Also a hit is the Pear Shaped. Another rum-based cocktail, it also features freshly pressed apple juice from the nearby Hula Juice Bar.

On the food front, the menu focuses on a huge variety of burgers but not to the exclusion of all else. Among the most popular non-burger dishes are the pulled pork bagels and buns which are surfing the dude food wave and selling like, um, hot cakes?

Burgertastic

Probably appealing to a similar demographic is the Meat Lover burger. Comprising chicken breast, BBQ pulled pork, pastrami, bacon, chorizo, Jack cheese and the house mayo, its menu description proudly describes it as a veg-free zone.

Regrettably, the 5pm Dining blog is so long in the tooth that it remembers Bar Kohl opening on George IV Bridge. Always known for its hip hop playlist, Bar Kohl has welcomed many an old school star.

If memory serves, Coolio, Snoop Dogg and, I think, Cypress Hill have all propped up the bar. The guests at the party were rather more fresh-faced.

[Guests at Bar Kohl's twentieth.][5]
Guests at Bar Kohl’s twentieth.