Bramble Bar & Lounge

Bramble Bar & Lounge is a cocktail bar at 16a Queen Street on the northern edge of the New Town. It belongs to a small family of related venues that also includes The Last Word Saloon, Lucky Liquor Co and Mothership, so if you enjoy it, there are several more bars from the same stable to explore.

The draw is the cocktail list, which is published as a PDF on the bar's website, so you can look through it before you arrive and pick a few drinks to try. It is best thought of as a place for conversation over a few drinks rather than for dancing.

Bramble opens every day from 4pm until 1am. It does not take reservations; it is walk-ins only, which keeps things simple but means it can fill up on Friday and Saturday nights and during the festival. Arriving early in the evening, or going on a weeknight, gives you the best chance of a table. If it is full, the sister bars are not far away.

Bramble suits couples, small groups of friends and cocktail enthusiasts, and it is a good choice for a pre-dinner drink or a nightcap after a meal in the New Town. Large groups may find the walk-in policy difficult on busy nights, so splitting into smaller groups or choosing a quieter night is the practical answer. If you are planning a bar crawl through the New Town, Bramble makes a good first or last stop, since its late licence runs until 1am every night of the week, including Sundays.

Queen Street runs parallel to George Street and Princes Street along the northern side of the New Town, facing Queen Street Gardens. From Bramble, the restaurants and bars of George Street, Thistle Street and Rose Street are a few minutes' walk south, and St Andrew Square and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery are at the eastern end of Queen Street. Café St Honoré on North West Thistle Street Lane and Dishoom on St Andrew Square are both close by for dinner beforehand. Taxis are easy to find on the main New Town streets late at night, and Princes Street has night buses.