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Panda & Sons

Edinburgh

An Edinburgh icon with vintage stylings and inventive cocktails

This cocktail bar fronted by a family of tweed-wearing hairdresser Pandas is no new concept, having opened some 12 years ago, but the world continues to fall in love with it, step-by-step down its Queen Street entrance.

And as word of the bar has travelled – not least in the slip stream of owner-adventurer Iain McPherson – the clientele has become more international. Once you've visited Edinuburgh Castle, climbed up Arthur's Seat and seen the café where Harry Potter was written, it's time for a drink at Panda & Sons.

With vintage vibe and stylings and the wide-armed welcome of the likes of Nicky Craig, Sean Moggach or Chloe Yeung – bedecked in panda aprons – this is the kind of place where you're as at home with a pint as you are a show-stopping cocktail. Though if you're of a geeky disposition, the latest cocktail menu Transcend 2.0 is a seminal piece of work. A discovery of sub-zero cocktail making, it features freeze distillation and freeze-drying methods, alongside McPherson's own techniques, switching and sous-pression, which have made him one of the industry's most influential drinksmiths.

Have you ever considered what would happen if you removed the water from a spirit and replaced it with something else? Well, few had before McPherson. Take the bar's Coconut Daiquiri, which sees the water in rum replaced by roasted coconut milk. Or for more sub-zero libations, head to the Frozen Delights section and to the alcoholic sorbets and ice creams. McPherson has studied ice cream-making at two universities and founded his own brand of boozy gelato Señor Scoop – you don't get the moniker Mr Freeze for nothing.

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