Art and Vintage
A chef and an artist run it together, the exhibitions on the walls change, and The List calls the coffee arguably the best cup in town.1
Why go
The List places it on Lyne Street near the Abbeyhill Colonies and describes a chef-and-artist partnership serving a big breakfast, loaded sandwiches, sourdough toasties and tacos, with contemporary art on the walls in changing exhibitions.1 The same piece records semi-regular dinner nights that are BYOB, so a daytime cafe turns into a dinner room on those evenings and you bring the bottle you want to drink.1 On the coffee, The List's Abbeyhill neighborhood piece goes further and says it arguably serves the best cup of coffee in town, in bowl-sized mugs to boot.
2
Good to know
- Address: 3 Lyne Street EH7 5DN, in Abbeyhill. Jeff's list files this one under Old Town, and the hygiene register and The List both put it in Abbeyhill.3
- Timing: the daytime card is the reliable one. Dinner nights are semi-regular, so check before you plan around one.1
- BYOB: the dinner nights are bring your own bottle.1
- Price: nobody publishes one.
- Getting there: Lyne Street is a short street off Easter Road near the Abbeyhill Colonies, about ten minutes' walk from the top of Leith Walk.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 20 November 2018, FHRSID 875542. That is more than seven and a half years old, so it describes a kitchen from before the pandemic and says nothing current either way.3
- If you find it shut: an older List piece records a temporary closure for flood damage. The newer roundup lists the cafe as open and its hygiene registration is still live, so it should be, and the flood is the history worth knowing.2
Verdict
could-visit — A chef and an artist run one room near the Abbeyhill Colonies, and the art on the walls changes because one of them puts it there. The List rates the coffee as arguably the best cup in the city and serves it in bowl-sized mugs, and the food is the honest cafe card of a big breakfast, loaded sandwiches, sourdough toasties and tacos. The dinner nights are semi-regular and BYOB, which is a specific and unusual thing for a daytime cafe to do. It sits at could-visit rather than higher because one publication is the whole critical record, no price or hours are published anywhere, and the statutory hygiene inspection dates from November 2018. Go in the morning, drink the coffee, and check the socials before you plan an evening around it.