BIG BURRITO

Scotland Food and Drink Fortnight - starting Saturday 5th to Sunday 20th September. This year, the Fortnight activity is even more special and important to the industry. During lockdown, we relied a lot on our local suppliers to put food on our table in the middle of a pandemic and we’ll be using the SF&D Fortnight to shine a light on these local food and drink heroes. Keep a look out for more info on local food and drink producers.

Many restaurants have extended the EAT OUT TO HELP OUT scheme, either continuing to offer the same deal or amended slightly. Here is a list of participating restaurants in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

EDINBURGH AND THE LOTHIANS

• Cold Town House, Grassmarket - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• New Chapter, New Town - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• 56 North, Newington -50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• Kyloe Restaurant and Grill, Rutland Place - 50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday, 5pm-9pm

• The Queen's Arms, Frederick Street - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• McLarens on the Corner, Morningside Road - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• Element, Rose Street - 50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• The Black Bull, Grassmarket - 50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• The Huxley, Rutland Place - 50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• Boozy Cow, Frederick Street - 50% off your food up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• The Refinery, St Andrews Square - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Aurora, Leith - £10 off their 5 course tasting menu, Wednesdays and Thursdays

• The Boathouse, Portobello - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday. September and October

• Dunmuir Hotel, Dunbar - 25% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday. Must book in advance

• Whighams, Charlotte Square - 25% off, Monday to Wednesday

• Chophouse, Leith and Market Street - Mon-Wed from 5pm

• Carberry Tower, East Lothian - 20% off, Mon-Wed

• Down the Hatch, South Queensferry - 20% off, Mon-Wed dine in only

• Copper Blossom, George Street - 50% off food bill to max of £10pp

• Mariachi, Victoria Street - 50% off food Monday-Wednesday

• Veeno - 50% on our lovely pasta, bruschetta and desserts - up to £10 per person

• Barologist - 40% off food, Monday to Wednesday

• Vittoria on the Bridge, Vittoria on the Walk, Divino Enoteca, La Favorita, Berties Fish n Chips - 50% off food and soft drinks, Monday to Thursday

• Voodoo Rooms - 50% off food and soft drinks up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday

• The Dome - September special set menu with 25% OFF Sunday to Thursday and 10% OFF on Fridays and Saturdays (must be booked in advance)

• Harajuku Kitchen - Choose one of our selected starters and a Harajuku Special Stir Fry yaki udon noodle main for just £10 per person! The offer is available Mondays & Wednesdays

• Urban Fox - 50% off food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday

• Bubba Q - £5 off when you spend £25, £10 off when you spend £40, £15 off when you spend £60. Need to show them the voucher post on their Facebook page

• Contini - £10pp off your bill if you order a starter and a main, lunch and dinner, Monday to Wednesday and you must book in advance.

• The Scottish Cafe - traditional Afternoon Tea for £15pp Monday to Wednesday and you must book in advance OR 3 course meal with carafe of wine for £25pp available Monday to Sunday.

• Rabble, Indigo Yard, Tigerlily and Montpeliers - 50% off your food and soft drink up to the value of £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• Brasserie Prince, The Balmoral - £30 3-course meal for only £20 from Monday-Thursday.

• Ronaq - 50% off food, Monday to Thursday

• Cafe Domenico - 25% off sit in, Monday to Wednesday

• Chaophraya - 50% off food and soft drink up to £10pp, Monday to Wednesday.

• Whiskers Wine Bar - £10 off your bill when you spend £30 or more, Wednesday and Thursday from 12noon.

• Paolozzi - 2 courses £11.95, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Friday, Saturday, Sunday lunchtimes

• Vesta - 50% off food up to £10pp, Monday to Thursday

• Hectors - 50% off food up to £10pp, Monday to Wednesday,

• White Horse Oyster Bar - 50% off food, Monday to Wednesday from 5pm.

• Pomo Pizzeria - 50% off food, Monday to Wednesday

• Froth and Flame - 50% off, Tuesday to Thursday, 4pm-945pm.

• Hard Rock Cafe - 50% off up to £10pp, Monday to Wednesday

• Revolution - 50% off food and soft drinks, Monday to Wednesday

• Howies, Waterloo and Victoria Street - 50% off food and soft drinks up to £10pp, Monday to Wednesday

• La P’tite Folie - 2 course set dinner for £25 including a glass of wine, Monday to Thursday

• Peacock Alley, Waldorf Astoria - Traditional Afternoon Tea for £25pp, Monday to Wednesday

TARTANSPOON WEEKLY WRAP - NEWS FOR YOU TO DIGEST

FOOD

Chef Barry Bryson, Edinburgh - is hosting collab evenings with Spitaki but it sold out within 40 hours of going on sale. They are considering another night so if you want on the waiting list, email info@spitaki.co.uk. It’s a 5 course tasting menu for £45pp.

Whisky Forager, Edinburgh - are hosting a collab evening with Old Pulteney Whisky. 5 course tasting menu with paired Old Pulteney whiskies and a guest speaker from the distillery. £69pp and two dates are Monday 14th and Monday 21st September. Email whiskyforager@yahoo.com to enquire about booking.

Waldorf Astoria, Peacock Alley, Edinburgh - Following the great success of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, Peacock Alley have extended the £10 off Traditional Afternoon Tea for Mondays-Wednesdays throughout September. Experience award-winning Traditional Afternoon Tea in the iconic Peacock Alley featuring a selection of finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones and delicious pastries created by the talented Pastry Team including a Passionfruit & Praline Dome, Raspberry & Lychee Choux Buns and Honey & Lavender Madeleines, as well as a wide variety of tea from Edinburgh Loose Leaf Tea Specialist, PekoeTea, all for £25 per person, normally priced at £35 per person.

Barola, Glasgow - Come to be seen, stay for the pasta. Barolo, the Italian restaurant from the folks behind The Anchor Line, will reopen this month on Mitchell Street in Glasgow with a stylish new look offering modern day Northern Italian fare in a Piedmont inspired setting. The effortlessly stylish restaurant will now be known as Barolo and will offer understated, classic Italian cooking alongside fine wines and signature cocktails. The restaurant will have a new abundance of natural light from the previously covered glazed cupola. Design features will include new branding with a palette of rich blue, rose and gold, adding real pavement appeal. Marble, brass and leather finishes give a classic, timeless feeling to the interiors and vibrant artwork stud the walls telling the story of the Italian heritage of Piedmont. Barolo will be open for breakfast, lunch, cicchetti (Italian tapas) and dinner, seven days a week and will serve hand-made pasta, seafood and grill dishes from Italy using the finest ingredients with a 150 cover capacity that manages to feel very intimate, spread across the bar, main dining room, private dining room for up to 35 guests and outdoor pavement terrace.

PRODUCT

John Watt Coffee - superb small batch ethical coffees available to order online straight through your door. Read more here

Mackies Ice Cream - As the culmination of its “Summer of Simple Pleasures” promotion, Mackie’s of Scotland are offering the chance to win a lifetime supply of their ice cream – two litre tubs every month for life. Entries are open this week and all entrants from the 10 weeks of giveaways will be included in this final draw. The campaign is the Aberdeenshire family firm’s largest ever on-pack and online competition, with ten weeks of carefully curated prizes intended to provide the winners with simple joy. The lifetime supply of ice cream winner will be drawn at random on Monday 7th September (closing midnight on Sunday 6th September) - the simple entry form is at www.mackies.co.uk/simplepleasures

Clootie McToot - I know, I know, I’m whispering this…. their Christmas Dumplings this year will be apricot brandy, cherries, cranberries and a selection of dried fruits. Get your orders in now.

Nexba Kombucha - new to the market, this Booch is loaded with 500 million probiotics. Read more here

DRINK

Holyrood Distillery - have a lovely tranquil open Beer Garden/Courtyard serving up Innis and Gunn ales, cocktails, and Pizza Geeks pizza. It well socially distanced, table service and if you fancy catching some rays it’s a wee suntrap! Booking is essential. Read more here

eTeaket - Edinburgh based independent tea company eteaket have just launched their brand new ‘Tea Journey’ which is a great way to try out a range of their delicious teas from around the world and trying their ‘Tea in Mind’ for re-balancing and calming your mind. They travel the world visiting tea gardens to source and provide the highest quality ethical, award-winning leaf tea as loose leaf and tea bags. With travel restricted round the world at the moment, satisfy your wanderlust with our Tea Journey Subscription including a trio of teas every month- As well as this you will also receive downloadable recipes, ‘tea in mind’ tea routines, detailed tea info & much more and from just £6.95 per month. Eteaket’s Tea Journey is a fantastic way to try out a range of their delicious teas. With the Monthly Tea Journeys, you’re going to learn their tried and tested ‘tea in mind’ system for re-balancing and calming your mind. This will provide you with tea routines to practice daily that will allow you to live more. You’ll discover the joy of tea and be able to travel the world as you learn different ways to brew. You’ll also learn how to create healthier soft drink options like tea mocktails and tea lattes. Each month will also include a tea routine tracker sheet so you can start to create new habits to re-balance and calm your mind so you can experience more happiness in your life. Tea Journey provides tea routines to practice daily that will allow you to live more. You will also learn how to create healthier soft drink options like tea mocktails and tea lattes.

• 3 delicious teas &/or infusions every month! (3 x 10g loose leaf teas)

• A monthly downloadable video and pdf explaining how to get the most out of your teas

• Detailed information on your monthly tea routine

• Downloadable tea routine tracker sheet

• An eteaket ‘periodic teable’ as a guide to how to brew each tea type along with a guide to a selection of 3 minute tea routines

• Free UK Delivery! Or the option to ship anywhere in the World!

• Super easy to cancel yourself anytime!

• Eteaket’s Tea Journey is also available to buy as a gift, either on the monthly subscription, where you can cancel anytime, or with their 3, 6 or 12 month gift subscriptions

• From £6.95 per month

Cocktail Canaries - Ready mixed bar quality cocktails, delivering cocktail postbox pouches right through your door no matter where you live! Read more here

Isle of Raasay Single Malt - sells out before its even launched! The distillery set aside 4,350 bottles for online pre-sale out of a total expected out-turn of 7,500 bottles at 52% abv, non-chill filtered and natural colour.  The remaining bottles have been snapped up by a selection of international markets, specialist retailers, restaurants, and bars. The Isle of Raasay Single Malt Inaugural Release is an elegant, lightly peated (15-20 Peat or Phenol Parts Per Million) dram that is rich in dark fruit flavours. Made with 100% Scottish barley, distillers’ yeast, and Raasay water from the distillery’s own well, this historic release was matured in first fill American oak and is finishing maturation in 21 exclusive first fill Bordeaux red wine casks. Every drop is distilled, matured and bottled on the Isle of Raasay. Did you manage to get one?

EVENTS & TRAVEL

Street Food Awards - 2020 has been a rough year for hospitality. But, slowly, the world looks ready to break bread together again. Informally, in the open air - or big high- ceilinged warehouses. Not at cramped tables in restaurants. Street food is the food people want to eat right now - served up in the way people want to eat it. The British Street Food Awards supported by Hellmann’s is part of the biggest street food competition in the world - and it always finds the best that’s out there.A British Street Food Award is a prize that genuinely changes lives. Wingmans, big winners at the BSFA and the ESFA in 2017, recently opened up their second ‘proper’ restaurant - in Soho. MEATliquor, who won at the Awards back in 2009 – now have 12 of the things. BSFA winners go places. But only when they’ve won through the BSFA heats – and this year they’re in some of the coolest street food arenas in the country.

Once again, they're pumped to be partnering with the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), who will be running the application process for the award for the Most Sustainable Trader, sponsored by Hellmann’s, and compiling our shortlist. The first stage will require traders to explain their proudest sustainability achievement of the past year, with the second stage asking traders to complete their quick-fire sustainability assessment tool, the Food Made Good 50. This year there will be FIVE regional heats culminating in a live, national cook- off judged by the general public and a stellar line-up of judges. Now that’s what we call pressure.

British Street Food Awards (Central heat) 28/29/30 August – Street Food Club, Nottingham
British Street Food Awards (South heat) 19/20 September – Blue Collar Street Food, Reading

Welsh Street Food Awards 26/27 September – Street Food Circus, Cardiff British Street Food Awards (Northern heat) 2/3 October – Grub, Manchester Scottish Street Food Awards 9/10/11 October – The Pitt, Edinburgh
British Street Food Awards (the final) 16/17 October – Hawker House, London

Barbados - British Airways sale is now on until 30th September. Pick up flights to Barbados from London Gatwick for as little as £450pp.

Whilst in Barbados, make sure you visit the beautiful St Nicholas Abbey Rum Distillery. Read my review here

Alzheimer Scotland - I know this isn’t directly food and drink related but just think of the calorie burn and the food you can eat afterwards! Alzheimer Scotland is calling on the public to step up and join in with their annual Memory Walk, and this year it’s going virtual. As physical events can’t take place due to the coronavirus pandemic, the charity is encouraging people across Scotland to support them during this difficult time by taking part in their own walk over the weekend of 19 and 20 September. Where you walk is totally up to you - and with so many great places to choose from you can create special (socially distanced, of course) memories with friends and family that will last a lifetime. Whilst the usual Memory Walk events cover a 5km distance this year it’s your route; your way and, best of all, it’s free of charge for every participant. All the charity asks is that you consider fundraising or making a donation to help them continue to make sure nobody faces dementia alone, and encourage your friends and family to sign up too. Participants will be provided with exclusive content over the big weekend including warm up videos, good luck messages, scavenger hunts, specially selected Spotify playlists and more.

Thats all the news for this week folks, until next week.

Adele x