Monday 29 December 2008

Local Ales at our Local Pubs

Over the holidays, Alette and I decided to explore our neighbourhood pubs more closely. While we'd previously patronized Bert's Bar, it was primarily for their Internet access. While they have a decent selection of cask ales, they just didn't have the most welcoming atmosphere. From some reading online, it appears that a recent remodelling was the culprit.

A few days ago, we visited the Melville Bar. Nicer environment, but they only had two cask ales, once of which is Deuchar's. And while it's a fine ale, you can get it at every pub in Edinburgh. More interesting are the pubs that offer different local (meaning Scottish) beers. St. Vincent's pub does this (which we first visited in September), but it's not really that close to us.

After a short walk on Saturday, we finally checked out Teuchter's. They had four real ales available; I had a great little Ossian Ale. A great environment, with some nice comfy sofas. There's also a nice restaurant downstairs that's supposed to be good, and is on Alette's gluten-free list: A Room in the West End. We'll try it for lunch one day and report back.

Incidentally, if you're interested in another beer posting, I'd like to direct you to one of our other blogs, Green Living Edinburgh, where I recently posted a guest blog entry (it's really Alette's blog afterall) on beer and the environment.

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