The blog’s weekend managed to combine two birthday celebrations and a blackout although perhaps not the sort of blackout which the celebrations might suggest.
First up was Stravaigin on Friday night to toast/mourn a friend’s milestone birthday. The meal all went fantastically with great food and some cracking wines until, just after our main courses had been cleared, Gibson Street suffered a powercut.
The staff soldiered on, bringing out dozens of tealights to supplement the emergency lights and generally doing their cheery best to make sure that a trifling matter such as no electricity didn’t spoil anyone’s evening. Top work all around.
Incidentally, Stravaigin are hosting a Day of the Dead dinner on Wednesday. There is more info here.
The Stravaigin team also took part in the the Great Western Chilli Cook Off which we blogged about last week.
However, the top gong went to Roxy 171.
Both the public and the judging panel voted Roxy 171 the chilli meisters with Tchai Ovna and Cafe Cherubini running up.
Sunday afternoon, it was up to Tony Singh’s rooftop Oloroso restaurant in Edinburgh city centre. The irrepressible Leith-born chef was throwing a bash to mark his restaurant’s tenth birthday, no mean feat in these volatile times.
Tony gave a brief but characteristically colourful speech in which he remembered the late James Sankey, his business partner and front of house man who co-founded the restaurant.
Plenty of drinks; tray after tray of lobster tacos and some unexpected autumn sunshine playing across Edinburgh’s skyline made for a decadent Sunday afternoon.
In the cold light of the morning after, the blog raises a much needed cup of coffee and wishes Tony and his restaurant all the best for the next ten years.