New cafes in the Morningside area of Edinburgh are ten a penny, but few of them are interesting enough to make much of a mark.
What used to be the gatehouse, and is now the Lodge Cafe, at the start of the Hermitage walk along the Braid Valley is showing ambition, however. A cramped little cottage, which once served as a tollbooth beside the clock at the bottom of Comiston Road, it was moved stone by stone to its present site some years ago and has prompted many bypassers to say it should be turned into a cafe.
This has now happened, though work is still in progress, with the promise of a terrace with outdoor service by summertime.
At present it looks like a gardener’s cottage with a gleaming espresso machine in its kitchen, the atmosphere perhaps more rustic industrial than woodland chic or walker’s dream. But it is friendly, faintly quaint, and definitely an asset to its surroundings, with parking space outside, smart new hand-made benches to sit on, and varnished Singer sewing machine treadles converted into round tables where you can drink good Italian coffee while devouring Victoria sponge or pastries.
It opens early, too, serving fried eggs in a roll, bacon and Stornoway black pudding as well as other toothsome things to ladies with substantial dogs. I liked it enough to try it again, so watch this space.
4 March 2016
What used to be the gatehouse, and is now the Lodge Cafe, at the start of the Hermitage walk along the Braid Valley is showing ambition, however. A cramped little cottage, which once served as a tollbooth beside the clock at the bottom of Comiston Road, it was moved stone by stone to its present site some years ago and has prompted many bypassers to say it should be turned into a cafe.
This has now happened, though work is still in progress, with the promise of a terrace with outdoor service by summertime.
At present it looks like a gardener’s cottage with a gleaming espresso machine in its kitchen, the atmosphere perhaps more rustic industrial than woodland chic or walker’s dream. But it is friendly, faintly quaint, and definitely an asset to its surroundings, with parking space outside, smart new hand-made benches to sit on, and varnished Singer sewing machine treadles converted into round tables where you can drink good Italian coffee while devouring Victoria sponge or pastries.
It opens early, too, serving fried eggs in a roll, bacon and Stornoway black pudding as well as other toothsome things to ladies with substantial dogs. I liked it enough to try it again, so watch this space.
4 March 2016
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