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SIDE DISHES NEWS TO NIBBLE ON
LOCAL FOOD WRITER
Sue Lawrence has published a new cook book, focussing on
recipes for laid-back meals for sharing with family and friends at home. Among the mainstays of Eating In are 21st century dishes that retain a link to Scottish culinary heritage.
GLASGOW- BASED
RESTAURANT
booking site 5pm.co.uk has a new string to its bow this month with the launch of a new service featuring local takeaways. It provides a one-stop site for online menus, ordering and secure payment.
ALSO in the world of virtual food and drink is DrinkBritain.com, a website which aims to map local British drinks producers. They’ve invited List readers to tell them of a favorite place in Scotland to enjoy local drinks. Send your answer to competitions@drinkbritain.com by 24 August, with an exclusive tour for six people of WEST brewery in Glasgow up for grabs.
BAR CRAWLER
BREWDOG 1397 Argyle Street, Glasgow BrewDog’s controversial craft beer revolution rumbles ever onwards with the opening of its latest bar in Glasgow’s West End. Joining outlets in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, the new bar – modern and industrialesque – has a prime site with views of Kelvingrove Art Gallery through large branded windows. Their heady range of beers are offered on draught or bottled, from the relative calm of 4.1% Trashy Blonde to Hardcore IPA at 9.2%, plus other craft beers from around the world.
11–18 Aug 2011 THE LIST 109
Honoured guests Despite austere times Martin Wishart and partner chef Paul Tamburrini have opened the doors on a glittering, superbly engineered Edinburgh brasserie, as Donald Reid reports
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In a city packed with restaurants and a respectable array of upmarket and glitzy places to eat, The Honours brings something new to Edinburgh. It is not fine dining, nor fine-dining lite, nor pastiche French. Rather, it’s a classic metropolitain brasserie of the kind long admired in Paris, New York and Singapore, one defined by its impressive interior, range of dishes and service-led approach.
It opened three weeks before the Festival and while bedding in will be an ongoing process for a team with exacting standards, it’s already purring along nicely. For a chef who doesn’t do telly, the thousands of bookings the 70-cover restaurant has already taken is testament to the respect and loyalty Martin Wishart has earned among locals in the ten years since he won Edinburgh’s first Michelin star. For this venture, however, Wishart remains at the helm in his original Leith restaurant, with Tamburrini running the Honours kitchen. A comprehensive makeover of the former Cosmo and Tony’s Table site sees an interior of tiled floors, mirrored walls, grand lampshades and golden daubs. The main action is in a single, long dining room with the kitchen just visible at one end, to and from which the staff, led by the brusque bonhomie of distinctive maitre d’ Steven Spear, emerge. They have a key role in setting the tempo of the place – and a brasserie like this needs buzz not subdued reverence.
In cooking, ambition and looks, it’s a notch above Can capital diners create the buzz this place needs?
Starters range from soups and salads to charcuterie plates and a soufflé – the cheffiest item on offer. Further down the poster- sized menu and you’ll find macaroni, cottage pie, John Dory in a Sauternes sauce and a plate of veal sweetbreads. It’s certainly a menu with lots to discover. Prime steaks are cooked in a state-of-the-culinary-art Josper Grill, an indoor charcoal barbecue delivering 300C-plus temperatures, and the dessert list makes its own bid for the common touch by bigging up ice- cream sundaes. First-time diners here might be excused an indulgence in the menu’s flashier options – and you can spend £40 a head without effort – but in time the integrity of the simpler-sounding dishes, and the appealing value of a daily prix fixe option (three courses for £17.50 at lunch, or £19.50 pre- theatre), should sustain a wide range of diners and eating occasions.
THE HONOURS 58a North Castle Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3LU
0131 220 2513, thehonours.co.uk Tue–Sat noon–2.30pm, 6–10.30pm;
Sun 12.30–2.30pm. Closed Mon. Ave. price two-course meal £26