Photo of
May 16, 2016

 

Fancy a beer? Salt Horse has a few to choose from.
Fancy a beer? Salt Horse has a few to choose from.

The 5pm Dining blog was sad to learn that Edinburgh’s Blackfriars bar and restaurant had shut up shop.

For what it is worth, we thought that chef Andrew Macdonald was producing some of the most interesting food in town.

However, when one door closes, another opens and all that. In this case, Blackfriars has been replaced by Salt Horse, an appetising hybrid of a café, bar and craft beer bottle shop.

Beer galore

The capital is not short of exciting craft beer bars but Salt Horse, on Blackfriars Street, stands out. The bar has twelve keg lines of foreign and domestic beers plus dozens and dozens of bottled beers.

If you have ever wondered how you can get your hands on a bottle of Burning Sky Saison à la Provision or a Hanssens Oude Geuze your search is over.

Your scribbler may have the appropriate beard but we don’t have the beery obsession of a true hop head. However, even to the untrained eye, the range of beers on sale at Salt Horse is amazing.

The food menu consists of meats, cheeses and daily specials – all designed to go well with beer. The range changes regularly but the meats on offer might be hot-smoked pig cheeks from Trealy Farm in Wales or air-dried Sika venison from Scotland’s Hammond Charcuterie.

Cheese to please

An eighteen month-old Comté, a Colston Basset Stilton and Barwhey’s Cheddar are some of the cheeses currently on sale.

Specials might be confit duck leg with Asian slaw on an open sandwich or beetroot hummus with seeded flatbreads.

Salt Horse also has a quirky little beer garden, still something of a rarity in Edinburgh.

Salt Horse promotes the beer garden with the line ‘Drink outside in the wind & rain’ although they promise that covers and outdoor heaters are on their way.