A year of Edinburgh Pub Reviews
A thank-you to the readers, the pubs and the city.
On a whim one Sunday last October, I decided to start a pub reviews newsletter. As a writer who happens to visit a lot of pubs, it seemed to make sense. I live in Edinburgh. So I imaginatively called it Edinburgh Pub Reviews.
I started with three reviews and no subscribers. I chose three places I loved: Newbarns Taproom, The Bow Bar and The Percy. Fifty-odd pubs, and tens of thousands of views later, I’ve hit my first anniversary.
I moved to Edinburgh just over two years ago. It was only meant to be for a year, and had a clear end point: I was here to take some time off work, study for a master’s then return back down to London to continue my old job once the degree was done.
About halfway through that first year, I ditched that plan. I handed in my notice at work. I decided to stay here.
It’s the old cliché: You go somewhere temporarily at first, you fall in love, you never return to your old life. But I hadn’t fallen in love with a person, I’d fallen in love with a city.
Edinburgh is full of people like me; people who find it more difficult to leave the longer they stay. The pubs play a big part in the connection I have with Edinburgh.
You learn a lot about a city’s people by its pubs. I can’t think of a pub in Edinburgh that hasn’t felt welcoming to me. And I’ve been to a lot. A nod and smile from the person serving, some nerdy beer chat with the landlord or the random conversation struck up with the stranger at the bar… These small gestures have all contributed to me feeling at home here from the day I moved up.
Thank you to everyone who puts so much into running these pubs, and making them so special. I imagine it’s mightily difficult at the moment. But when it comes off, and you see a full pub full of happy drinkers, I hope it feels worth all the effort. I hope you know there are still loads of us out here who love pubs, value them, and are rooting for you all to keep going.
My god, this city is blessed with so many good ones. There are gilded Victorian palaces such as The Diggers, Artisan Bar or Leslie’s Bar; snug one-roomers such as Kay’s Bar, The Bow Bar or The Oxford Bar; neighbourhood staples like The Cumberland, Dreadnought or Colinton Inn; the no-nonsense, slightly overlooked Cask and Barrel, Windsor or Mathers; the avowedly old-school Harp & Castle, Gladstones or Harbour Inn. Here, I need to shout out my main pubgoing pal Dan, who has introduced me to so many of these great places over the years.
Then there are the brewers. I’ll admit I didn’t know much about Edinburgh’s breweries before I moved here. But the city, with is rich brewing history, is home to some absolute crackers.
Leith, especially, is producing some of the best beer I’ve ever drunk in the UK. Campervan Brewery does an unbeatable nitro stout, Extra Black. Its neighbour Newbarns consistently, and prolifically, makes the most well-balanced lagers, pale ales and IPAs you’ll taste in the country. Just up the road is Moonwake, home of a quite exceptional Kolsch which I could drink forever.
Most importantly, thank you, reader, for the last year. I love getting in your comments, questions and suggestions. I hope you’ve got something out of Edinburgh Pub Reviews, and maybe even tried somewhere new off the back of one of the reviews.
If you’re a subscriber, I know you already appreciate great pubs. Let’s keep supporting them by trying new venues whenever we can. We are blessed with an unending list of great ones. Keep suggesting them to me by leaving a comment or replying directly to this email.
There are now (nearly) 500 of you who read Edinburgh Pub Reviews every week. You can help grow the community by letting a friend or two know about it. Forward a review you like to a friend, or use the share button below.1
I’ll continue with a new review every two weeks, while in the weeks in between I’ll publish an older review which more recent subscribers may have missed.
I can keep going until I run out of pubs – which, given the volume of fantastic ones, I don’t think will happen for quite a while. My list for future reviews is more than 60 entries long. A testament, I think, to the staggering choice in this magnificent, wonderful, glorious city, and to the pubs and people in it.
The chaser – A favour or two
If you’ve got this far down today’s newsletter, thank you. Now I’m just talking to the hardcore readers, I’m going to ask for two favours.
Firstly, if you enjoy getting this in your inbox every Wednesday morning, I would love it if you shared it with a mate or two. Perhaps on a local Facebook or WhatsApp group. Maybe you could tell them why you subscribe and why they should, too.
Secondly – and this bit is totally voluntary – you can buy me a virtual pint. I’m a freelance journalist and Edinburgh Pub reviews is my passion project which I do outside of my other work. That means I make no money from it.
The button below takes you to Monzo, a secure payment service where you can choose how much to put in, using a debit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. If you value these reviews, I would really appreciate a small tip. But don’t worry if you’d rather not give anything. The fact you subscribe is enough.
Where next?
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Thank you, again, for being a subscriber.
Imran
Or, if you have your own Substack, you can recommend this newsletter to your subscribers. It really works. I’ve generated over 100 subscriptions to other Substacks by recommending them. And I’ve received over 100 new subscribers by being recommended by others.
A special thanks to the three newsletters who have brought me the most subscribers: Sophia Hembeck’s The Edinburgh Muse, Michael MacLeod’s
and Kenny Farquharson’s .
Top effort. Good to see a shout out to the Athletic Arms and the terrific beers at Moonwake - have a b pint on me and enjoy the festive break!