Cocktails in the City

Good things come to those who wait, or so they say. One thing is certain: ‘they’ would find it very difficult to wait for another year for Cocktails in the City to brighten up Edinburgh’s autumn social scene. Boozing in a church may call to mind a scene from Angela’s Ashes rather than a sophisticated evening of cocktails and chat, but if you live in Edinburgh long enough, you will definitely acquire a taste for this kind of quirky event. Twelve diverse cocktail bars, including the likes of Amicus Apple and Harvey Nichols’ 4th Floor Bar, all gather under the austere roof of the Mansfield Traquair for one night only to remind us Edinburgh’s cocktails bars are some of the best you will encounter.

For those of you who have not ventured past GHQ or the Omni Centre at the top of Leith Walk, going to Cocktails in the City will make you wonder what other neighborhoods and back alleys you have been missing out on. The Mansfield Traquair, completed in 1885, is termed “the Sistine Chapel of Edinburgh”, and the beautiful frescoes and wooden ceiling suggest that its sobriquet isn’t half-wrong. (The building is a former Catholic Apostolic church, which already sets it apart from the crowd in stern, Presbyterian Scotland.) The combination of conservative and cool is typical Edinburgh, and is cosy without being snooty.

The deal that Cocktails in the City offers its customers is simple: for £15, each person gets three coupons to enjoy three cocktails of their choosing. Each stall has two drinks: one is usually a fruity cocktail, and the other smoky or a little unexpected. Want some kumquat and cracked black pepper on your vodka on ice? No problem. The evening, which has been running for four years, is as laid-back or as formal as you want it to be. Tigerlily’s slick, cool bartenders share close quarters with the down-to-earth, Jamie Oliver-esque James Grundy who represents Sipsmith, a gin distillery established in London in 2009.

Fortunately for the predominantly female crowd, no matter which stall you frequent, the universal law of Bartenders Being Smokin’ Hot is obeyed. We could go into a discussion of the Freudian subtext of cocktails and their creation, but we figured you would get bored. So if you missed Cocktails in the City this year, shame on you, and do your damnedest to be there next year. Check out the bars, explore Leith (it’s the new frontier!) and psyche yourself up for next year. You will be rewarded in heaven.