The Last Month...

I thought I'd share a little Instagram round up of my goings on this past month. It's been pretty hectic but it seems 'hectic' makes for some interesting images.
Highlights have been the opening of the husband's new bar, The Last Word, and the first bar, Bramble making it into The 50 Greatest Bars on Earth in The Sunday Times Travel supplement. We also enjoyed a trip up north to Glencoe for a friend's birthday, and watching Sebastian discover Kingston's tail one rainy Sunday afternoon was pretty cute...

Edinburgh castle in 5pm sunshine | Sebastian finds a new toy | Bramble makes it into 'The 50 Greatest Bars on Earth' according to The Sunday Times | a gift from my sister (handmade!) | my grandfather's orange lamp on my great aunt's piano in the corner of my living room | coral and leopard print | the best pizza in Edinburgh | Sebastian eating 'Lolipop and Grandpa' (illustrations by Cate James) our current favourite book | the husband opens a new bar, The Last Word | Liberty fabrics | Cramond beach | Sebastian's heart shaped birthmark | mummy and daddy swans with 9 cygnets at Rouken Glen Park | Kingston gets comfy on the new old sofa | 'Spaces' by 'Frankie' magazine arrives from Oz | bargain purchases | Kingston looking super white (and a little confused) after a bath | a few days in Glencoe | mmmm...antipasti | 'homely' Stockbridge market Edinburgh

...to the bar!

In honour of London Cocktail Week, I thought I'd post a little something of what the husband has been getting up to...
As I've mentioned before, here and here, my husband co-owns a couple of popular little bars in Edinburgh, one of which is called Bramble. Their knowledge and skill on 'all-things-booze' has won them a handful of awards & accolades. Most recently, the husband was asked to create a few bespoke drinks for the launch of 'Darnley's View', a gorgeous new handcrafted, London dry gin, by renowned vintners and spirit merchants, the Wemyss family of Fife, Scotland.
Although Wemyss have opted for photographs with a fresh, clean white background for their press release imagery, I wanted to show you these.Bramble is a basement bar in the New Town...it has very little signage, is difficult to find and evokes the speakeasies of the prohibition era. Once you find it you're guaranteed an excellent drink or 3; from a newly invented creation to the classics. You can pretty much tell all that by looking at these brilliant photographs by Peter Urwin.
No prizes for guessing that one of the trends in the cocktail world at present is the ongoing quest to find the prettiest, vintage glasswear possible?!
...anyone else kinda thirsty...?

Edinburgh Fringe Festival Programme

Back in March of this year, the smart people* behind the Fringe Festival asked Scottish illustrator, Johanna Basford to sit in a room for 12 hrs (twice) and draw. They then asked the tweeting public what quirky sites they'd like to see at this year's Edinburgh Festival.

They set up a camera and a live internet link and Johanna picked out the most random suggestions as they piled in through the live feed. She drew 176 suggestions out of 1675; these make up the shape of the recognisable Fringe font.

If you are a fan of the festival or live in Edinburgh you'll realise the enormity of having your work on the cover of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival programme. Even though this particular festival only lasts for the month of August; every coffee table, hotel reception, shop counter, bar, restaurant, café, festival venue, and poster in the city will feature the artwork from now until the last firework pops in the late summer sky just over the barracks of Edinburgh Castle...

Personally, I'm a massive fan of this type of illustration. Every time you look at it you see something new. I wish I could doodle so well. You can see more of Johanna's work here including the graphics for independent Scottish brewers BrewDog.

Clever marketing huh? Commission local talent. Check. Interact with the public. Check. Use a very current media communication system. Check. Stream it live on the internet. check. Originally, Johanna had completed a couple of what she calls TwitterPictures as previous personal projects but kudos to the Fringe team for jumping on the bandwagon and spreading the word to the masses.

By the way, my suggestion was a bramble berry shaking a cocktail and can be seen in the top left hand corner of the 'g'...I was going for subliminal advertising for my husband's cocktail bar, Bramble...wonder if it'll work...

In the end they went for three different covers (below) with a stream of illustrations rather than the font but i'm hoping to see the illustrated type on other graphic bits and pieces around town (especially the g)...

They've also made a nice little video explaining how it was all done.

* turns out those smart people were whitespace!

all images from JohannaBasford.com

book your tickets at www.edfringe.com

Sainted

So...the reason for my absence from the blogosphere and all things interweb, of late, is that, as some of you may know, since becoming a victim of the 'crisis that is credit', I have been helping out at one of my husband's ventures, The Saint (website coming soon) ...not to mention a long weekend in London...
A couple of weekends ago we were reviewed in a very well thought of paper by a very well thought of food journalist. The excellent review has, pretty much, put us on the map in Edinburgh and we have been crazy busy ever since it was published.
I don't think we could have written better ourselves, and we LOVE the place!!
You may think that it's not that big a deal, but in this hoity toity pocket of the world, 'word of mouth' is more than gospel and a bad review can kill a person's livliehood.
A big thank you to Richard Bath at The Scotland on Sunday...

Read the review HERE

Kitchen News II {Apple Crisps}

{News and reviews from my kitchen, also known as my husband's laboratory Vol. II}
As explained in a previous post, my husband is in the drinks trade. He often experiments in our kitchen, blending flavours, experimenting with garnishes, and generally making a mess.
These apple crisps were to garnish a drink at a recent distillery function, where he was asked to present a drink using the distillery's blended whisky.
They're so easy to prepare and make a great healthy snack (when not floating in a whisky based cocktail!).
Once again, I took pictures and got in the way...

Thinly slice the apples on a mandolin

Squeeze lemon juice over them to stop the going brown

Smother each slice in sugar syrup (half sugar half water: boil for 2 minutes then cool) and lay flat on a greaseproof baking sheet

cover with another greaseproof layer to keep them from curling and put in the oven on a very low heat (100 degrees) for about 4 hours...keep an eye on them though!

These were in a little too long and came out a bit dark

...but were very tasty!

Unfortunately these didn't make it to the function as they were too dark but we enjoyed them none-the-less!

Kitchen News I {Maraschino Cherries}

{News and reviews from my kitchen, also known as my husband's laboratory}
There’s a bar in a basement just one block from the main street in the centre of Edinburgh. It has limited signage, intimate nooks, and a serious selection of spirits. Not for the vodka and diet coke brigade. This place has an extensive range of specialist product that can be shaken or stirred into anything you desire or ask the bartender to invent. It just so happens that it’s owned by a man (and his business partner) with a very proud wife - me.
The bar team has been very successful and won a couple of awards for their innovation and all round excellence. Always keen to try new techniques, recipes and potions, my kitchen has seen many an experiment/disaster/triumph. From jellied gin and tonic squares to saffron and cardamom sugar syrup to homemade grenadine…made from pomegranates…who knew? Well...I didn’t…
Anyway, he recently made a batch of Maraschino cherries; a garnish for many a classic and contemporary concoction. I took photos and generally got in the way…


Add a 50:50 mixture of sugar syrup (50:50 water:sugar bring to the boil for 2 minutes then cool) and Maraschino liqueur to fresh cherries in sterilised Kilner jars and heat slowly, over an hour to 55C. Then keep heating for 30 mins to 80C. Then maintain that temp for 10 minutes and they're done!

leave them in the sealed jars for a couple of months and then they'll be ready to 'pop' into your Manhattan...easy!

For more information on the bar click here.