John Leslie’s Bar – Still one of my favourite pub experiences
Plus a new pub coming to Easter Road.
It’s just gorgeous. John Leslie’s has got to be right up there in the top tier of Edinburgh pubs. A wonderful bar runs straight through the middle of the pub, splitting the lounge and saloon bars. The grand gantry includes an old clock. Late Victorian pub designers seemed to really have something for ceilings, as like other turn of the century boozers, it’s unnecessarily but beautifully detailed. And it’s completed by stained glass dotted around the place.
I was initially disappointed by the beer on my first occasion, but it didn’t matter – I would have been almost as happy drinking tap water in this setting. But I went back a few days later to give it another go and was delighted by the Harviestoun I was served.
It being on the other side of town to me, John Leslie’s is not somewhere I manage to frequent often. This may a good thing, as had it been any closer to home, I fear I’d be in there soaking it all up every day.
Read my original double review below.
Leslie’s Bar – Redemption
I’m a few pints into a mini bar crawl in Newington. I’m walking – from the lovely Steel Couslon Southside – to Leslie’s Bar. I’ve never been here before, but I have heard good things. I don’t realise that I am about to walk into one of Edinburgh’s most beautiful pubs.
The chaser – A new gastropub
Reports last week that an abandoned pub on Easter Road is being revived piqued my interest because of who is involved. The Cooper’s Rest has just been granted a certificate of lawfulness from the council to reopen as a pub.
A decade ago, plans were first mooted to turn it into flats. That permission, and a series of subsequent similar applications, lapsed, and now Newbarns Brewery and The Palmerston pub have teamed up to take it over.
According to the two businesses, “The Cooper's Rest is a brand new gastropub in Leith, Edinburgh, aiming to redefine the ‘pub experience’ by merging the warmth of a traditional pub with high-quality, modern cuisine.”
I don’t have a huge interest in gastropubs, and have not visited to The Palmerston over in the West End. But I do have an enormous fondness for Newbarns Brewery, and an appreciation for anyone who decides that what we need is more pubs. Let’s hope we see the new pub open in the near future.
In case you missed it, my article on the butchering of Ringwood Brewery was published last week in Pellicle. Even if you’ve never drunk any of their beers, I would argue they’re worth knowing about because of what their founder Peter Austin gave back to the brewing industry.
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