And being the dutiful host to Irish globetrotting Cuz we thought we’d go. For an Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.
The Scottish capital is bathed in sunshine today, glistening off the Castle Rock.
And the buzz is about the upcoming Fringe and Festival.
And its citizens, as is their wont, are sat on the grass banks in Princes Street Gardens with their lattes and croissants.
There is, of course, another Edinburgh, Embra, if you will, of hostelries and revelry.
A parallel street of the arterial Princes Street, thoroughfare, namely Rose Street.
It’s certainly not what 18th-century New Town architect James Craig had imagined.
Hens and stags
But Rose Street has become synonymous with stag and hen and rugby parties on Rose Street 14 expeditions.
The challenge being to drink a pint in each of the street’s bars.
A Herculean task but one not beyond this party animal but only when he was a cub.
Slightly more grizzled, with snow under my bandana and on my beardie.
I’m breaking it up in numbers divisible of 14, only don’t ask me after the first couple of pubs.
Lining the stomach
Wiser now I’ve taken steps to allay the inevitable saur heid and gut by ensuring me and Eddie line our tummies first.
And that can only mean square sausage and fried egg rolls with sauce at Snax’ hole in the wall cafe.
Before hitting The Abbotsford, and we’re doing this backwards because it’s closer to our meeting point at Scott’s Monument on Princes Street.
And it’s a neat segue as the ornate island bar watering hole, dating back to 1907, is named for Scott’s Borders mansion.
You’ll find yourself at the back of the old Jenner’s department store amid the rigging of the refurb following the fire.
The Embra institution played a part commissioning famed brewery architect P.L. Henderson to design the new bar.
Give it a try
Rose Street, of course, has become a staple for rugby fans passing through for Six Nations matches at Murrayfield in the West End.
And Milne’s has been showing the British and Irish Lions matches, putting on the best Belhaven’s beer and hearty fare.
Cuz and myself partake the ale, all for research purposes you understand, and vow to return this Saturday for the final test.
Rock this city
Now because we’re old school, we skip the Great Grog Wine bar on account of it billing itself for its vino, that it shouldn’t be on a beer crawl.
And jump to the Black Rose Tavern which has made its name as a rock bar, and whose barkeeps are straight out of central casting.
Where we meet the first of our Irish bartenders, and they’re everywhere in the city.
And he points us away from the Portland brew and to the cheaper but none less tasty local IPA.
Hail to the Pale Ale
Now a little knowledge never goes amiss which is where this tour guide comes in.
And walk into any Scottish boozer and you’ll hear a punter at the bar asking for a pint of heavy which is similar to the English bitter.
Cuz has developed his tastes in the couple of months he has been here now, thankfully from the insipid Tennents.
And now imbibes McEwans 80/-, or shilling, which will do for now.
But it is my mission to introduce him to Scottish IPAs.
Or IPA, or Indian Pale Ale, a hoppy brew which was exported to the subcontinent in the mid-18th century.
And which has enjoyed a revival and a revolution, particularly across the States.
All of which we pass over as we sip Auld Reekie Ale in our next pit stop, the Rose Street Brewery’s own tipple.
One for the road
Near the midpoint of our crawl we find one of the original Rose Street bars, the Auld Hundred.
It started off life as a mission hall before being converted into an alehouse in 1800.
Confession time here, we forego the local Cold Town Beer for an old favourite.
The Staropramen Czech beer which with Urquell Pilsener is one of my fallbacks when I see it on tap.
Of course as is the way for any of us who go Walkabout we don’t get as far as we would like.
Before we get the hook from Mrs Cuz, who has been shopping in the nearby boutiques.
We get away with what the Cuzzes call a Juicy in their local, the Cumberland, further down the hill in the New Town.
Crawling home
Before I’m dropped back at Waverley Station and my train home to North Berwick.
Where I have only now emerged blinking into the daylight to share my thoughts on our first third of Rose Street.
We will be back to complete our mission, the Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.
And maybe little wine drinker her, the Scary One, can take some of the pressure off by taking Mrs Cuz shopping.
And allow us to continue our research.