Nothing’s more sure than change but when news that The Stag’s Head, an old Broughton Road pub that dates back to the 1890s, was to close there was a real air of sadness among its regulars. However, the new broom has well and truly swept through the old place and a bright and welcoming wee hostelry now sits on the corner of Rodney Street and Broughton Road making it well and truly The Other Place.
While the bar/restaurant owned by Michael O'Sullivan of Market Street’s famous Doric Tavern has a completely new image, several features from the old place have been kept. Its elaborate late Victorian ceiling, the mosaic door entrance bearing the pub’s old name with a stag’s head and the weel kent big picture of the very Stag remain. Interestingly the Broughton Spurtle, the free local news sheet, learned from a representative of the Highland Wildlife Park that this image is of a North American deer of the genus Odocoileus, and is probably the white tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus. Whatever it is, it provides a fine link between the past, the present and the future. The original stone walls and wood all remain as born again distressed style and a fitting salute to the pub’s past whose old ghosts are surely smiling at the transformation.
The new owners have been sensitive to the local environment aiming at a friendly local bar with a home from home feel to it while offering a large range of different drinks to cater for all tastes. The house lager is Oranjeboom from the Netherlands and over 100 bottled beers from around the globe are on offer along with ciders, draught ales, spirits and wines. They offer a varied playlist that is regularly updated with music to suit everyone.
The comfortable seats that are easy to relax in are partly covered in hide, in keeping with the bar stools that give the hint to the American food theme that heavily influences the menu. The brand new open kitchen that allows cooking aromas to waft temptingly through the bar serves the likes of homemade meatloaf and their own recipe hotdogs and a house speciality, homemade beer brisket chilli.
The Other Place has opened at an ideal time of year and already there is a great buzz to the place. During an unusually hot summer the front doors sit wide open giving a welcome continental air as folk sit enjoying their food and drink in the Scottish sun with flowers tumbling from baskets above. The very dab!
2-4 Broughton Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4EB
0131 556 2911
Food is served from 12 till 10 all week
Breakfast from 9 till 11.30 on a Saturday and Sunday
- Log in to post comments