Scotch Malt Whisky Society Archives - Scones, history and a dollop of politics

A few months ago we visited Cafe Portrait in late afternoon only to be told that if we wanted any of their “absolutely delicious” scones we would have to be there much earlier in the day. The manner in which we were told sounded almost like a challenge, throwing down the gauntlet, even!

External view of the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh — Opened in 1889 at a cost of £70,000, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street

Scones versus lunch

Never ones to shirk a scone challenge we set about it today. Rather conveniently the Portrait Gallery is on the same street as the Whisky Society where we were to have lunch. Suffice to say we were there early enough and they had scones … fruit and cheese and mustard. Mindful of our lunch date later we decided to share one of the cheese and mustard scones … unexplored territory for us! But first we spent some time going round the exhibits.

Internal view of the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh — The Foyer. The Gallery was built in 1889 at a cost of £70,000 funded by John Ritchie Findlay, owner of The Scotsman newspaper.

Scotland certainly had its fair share of heroes and scoundrels. Here’s a random selection.

Robert Burns, reproduced on shortbread tins the world over, this is the first time we have seen the original by Alexander Nasmyth in 1787

Gregor MacGregor painted in 1804. Scotland’s greatest scoundrel through selling packets of useless land in a semi fictitious Kingdom in Central America. Somehow he managed to be buried with full military honours in Venezuela

Portraits of Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie — Flora Macdonald who famously helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to France (painted by Richard Wilson in 1747) and the Bonnie Prince himself (painted by William Mosman in 1750)

Execution of Charles I — The rather jolly looking beheading of Charles I. Perhaps we have progressed after all … Charles III shouldn’t have to worry too much nowadays (painted by Jan Wessop in 1649)

Okay, but what about the scones? Cafe Portrait is big and airy and busy. We might discover whether or not their rather immodest claims for their scones were justified or not.

A first

There’s lots of delicious looking food on offer but, mindful of our lunch date, we only wanted a scone to share. The fruit scones looked good but we decided to be adventurous and try their cheese and mustard offering. We hadn’t come across that combination before. No need for jam and cream, butter was all that was required. It was delicious with a lovely textured crunch and soft interior that tasted like nothing we had tasted before. Probably more cheesy than mustardy but the two together formed a very savoury treat! We had to admit that their original bragging was entirely justified and we felt slightly chastened for having even doubted it … topscone.

Illogical

The only downside to our visit was that the lift wasn’t working.

Painting of photographer with a plate camera — I started my career on plate cameras like this. Now, just fifty years later, I only ever use my phone … incredible.

Turned out that it hasn’t worked for the whole of this year. Apparently it’s the only one of its type in the world and they are currently waiting for technicians to come from Italy to try and fix it. Only the directors of an art gallery could get into a situation where a completely unique lift is required. Hopefully it will be sorted soon because there are a lot of stairs.

Talking of illogical decisions It would appear that this year the world reached an all time spending high of £2.6 trillion on arms manufacturing. Surely this is an indictment on all of us. Just think for a second on what that vast amount of money could have done had we not directed it towards death and destruction. The world needs a ‘reset’ button where it can return to original settings. But were the original settings any better? Aaaargh!

And today Humza Yousaf stepped down as First Minister of Scotland in a very graceful speech. Probably too nice a man for politics, it will be interesting to see what happens now.

Robert Moffat missionary with John Mokoteri and Sarah Roby. Mokoteri and Roby were supposedly his adopted children but were more akin to servants

In case you’re worried, we hadn’t spoiled our appetite and managed a fantastic lunch at the Whisky Society, helped down by a few glasses of the amber nectar.

EH2 1JD tel: 0131 624 6200 Cafe Portrait

///supporter.united.emerge

Forgive us if this post reads like ‘a day in the life of two slightly deranged sconies’, but bear with us. Although we ended up here at the Edinburgh Press Club, that’s not why we were in Edinburgh. Rather we were here to see the newly refurbished Scotch Malt Whisky Society Member’s Room. We have been members here since the beginning of time so after a two month closure we were keen to see what changes had been made.

This was the first day it was open again. Unfortunately they should probably have waited another few days before opening. It was still full of workmen doing last minute fixes. We need to return when the renovations are complete. However, we did manage a very nice lunch and a couple of very nice drams from the Coleburn distillery in Elgin. It has has been closed for almost 40 years so just a little bit special.

At the centre?

On our way back up the centre of Edinburgh we decided to visit the actual centre. Most people think that the centre of the city is on the Royal Mile near St Giles Cathedral but it’s actually just at the top of Leith Walk. It’s a simple cast iron bollard which nobody takes the slightest notice of but it is very important. A fact of which the workmen digging up the road seem to be oblivious. Distance is measured from here. For example, when they say that Falkirk is 28.3 miles from Edinburgh it is actually measured to this bollard. Post codes are also worked out depending on their distance from the bollard.

It could well have been made in Falkirk but unfortunately we couldn’t find any maker’s mark. For bollard enthusiasts it doesn’t get much more exciting than this! We’re sure that if someone were to mention it was lucky to rub the ring on top of the bollard there would be a queue.and the workmen would have to be a bit tidier.

Oysters

Just a stone’s throw from the BOLLARD is the Cafe Royal Oyster Bar and that’s where we ended up next. It’s been here since the 1860s and, amongst many other things, is famous for its large tiled pictures that decorate the walls.

Internal view of the Cafe Royal — the bar of the Cafe Royal with tiled pictures

For us, of course, it’s famous as the rendezvous point for meeting our friends before and after Scotland international rugby matches. The result in these matches never seemed to matter too much, a great time was always guaranteed in the Cafe Royal. We can even remember some of them!

The Scotsman

Anyway, we had a drink for old times sake and moved on towards the Royal Mile. Unexpectedly we came on the Edinburgh Press Club and discovered that they had scones. Told you to bear with us and we get there in the end. It gets it’s name because it used to be the office and print works for ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper.

After our lunch we didn’t need much so yet again it was simply tea and a scone to share. We sat at the window which allowed us to watch the kaleidoscope of people passing by in Cockburn Street. Edinburgh is such a magnet for tourists that it can be great fun just observing the weird and the wonderful. A silent disco passed within a few feet of our window and, unless you know what is going on, you might think that an entire crowd had simultaneously lost their minds.

The original Edinburgh Press Club opened in 1939 as a sort of social club for journalists, writers and dignitaries. The intention was to make Edinburgh the “centre of sweetness and light.” In it’s current premises it harks back to a time of clacking typewriters before anyone had even heard of the internet and even less of “fake news”. We are pretty sure however that newspapers would have printed as much fake news then as they do now.

Fascinating as all this was, we soon had to turn our attention to our scone. Not before time we hear you say! It came with a generous portion of cream and overall it was fine but definitely fell into the ‘ordinary’ category. We never knew this place existed so it’s good just to know it’s there even if the scones aren’t quite up to scratch.

The sound of wealth

Window at Jingling' Geordies — A window in Jinglin’ Geordie

When we left the Press Club to catch our train home we popped into ‘Jinglin’ Geordie’. It’s a pub that used to be a regular haunt in my student days. The Geordie in question was George Heriot a local goldsmith whose pockets were so full of coins that they jingled as he walked, hence the nickname. After he died in 1624, money from his estate was used to build George Heriot’s schools which still bears his name and was the inspiration for Hogwarts, Harry Potter’s school.

After a varied and rather nostalgic day we did eventually get our train back to Falkirk.

EH1 1NY tel: 0131 526 3780 Edinburgh Press Club

///risen.trim.degree

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Tag Archives: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Cafe Portrait