Continental Ways

The west end of George Street and its Castle Street crossover are in a state of gastronomic change.   Librizzi’s has been replaced by Mark Greenaway’s. Cosmo’s, the oldest of Edinburgh’s ambitious Italian restaurants, closed down a while ago but it, too, has been replaced.  And what has happened to Centrotre?  It’s now called Contini, but this is no more than a new name, because it’s said that customers have been having difficulties with the old one - a pronunciation problem perhaps? Or, after more than a decade, a different moniker was simply deemed desirable.

 But happily it’s still Victor and Carina who are in charge. The spruce decor inside this former George Street bank, with all its imposing pillars,  remains the same. The wine list looks as good as ever. The menu,  it's true,  has been revamped, but not hugely.  It’s still - perhaps even more so - the place we had grown to love.

Carina has celebrated its relaunch - if that’s the word - by writing a sumptuous seasonal cookbook, beautifully designed and greatly enticing. It’s all in the family, because she is the sister of Mary Contini, of Valvona & Crolla, already an established writer.  But the two sides of the family go separate ways, with separate aims - Victor and Carina having recently taken over the National Gallery of Scotland’s restaurant and cafe in Princes Street Gardens, while Valvona & Crolla continue to run a cafe and shop on the third floor of Jenners, as well as their Vincaffe near Harvey Nichols.

In George Street yesterday afternoon, the newly-named Contini was bridging the gap between lunch and dinner by, as usual, serving coffee and drinks indoors and out on the pavement. That stretch of the street is at present  in a state of interesting upheaval with wooden platforms being built from the kerbside into the roadway. These, as part of what looks like a policy of increasing pedestrianisation, will form cafe terraces in time for the Edinburgh Festival, helping to push George Street in the continental direction in which it has recently been going.

But with yesterday’s weather a little unsettled, we chose to sit inside at one of Contini’s window tables, drinking their excellent coffee and thick hot  Italian  chocolate, augmented with glistening slices of pure gluten-free chocolate cake, a golden honeycomb crunch, and a dollop of creme fraiche. One of Contini’s pleasures is that it’s open all day, serving coffee or breakfast from 7.30.  We did not wait on for dinner, which as before  includes an assortment of fresh, not inexpensive seafood dishes, well-composed pastas.  and some classy pizzas, eked out with irresistible desserts.
6 July 2014