Getting in on an act started with such relish by Brewdog’s maverick owners, Edinburgh-based craft beer Innis & Gunn is the latest bottled brand to lend its name to a new bar. Not that it’s so overt in Lothian Road’s Beer Kitchen – I&G haven’t actually named it after themselves, for starters – but then their presence alongside other locals like the Hanging Bat and Red Squirrel seems to be turning this formerly desolate street into Edinburgh’s newest up-and-coming spot for good bars.
Up-and-coming, but not quite there yet, which is why the Beer Kitchen doesn’t quite seem to have found its audience yet. There are groups of students and it’s within easy distance of the Filmhouse cinema and the many theatres nearby, but the presence of groups of lads when we were in might have been a hangover to the very recent days when this was one of Lothian Road’s less salubrious strip joints.
It’ll get there, though, and there’s no denying the quality of what they’ve done. Set in a single room with a spacious steel bar and a raised seating area, the old metal and bare brick template has been followed to perfection, while the beer choice is truly ridiculous (in a good way). Only partly drawn from I&G’s range, it includes 15 draught lines and almost 50 bottles and cans, with beer flights and taste pairings with a hearty menu of steaks, sandwiches and slow-cooked pork and beef also on offer. The breakfasts are particularly teasing, with Innis & Gunn-infused sausages on a roll, eggs benedict, black pudding hash and full cooked choices available.