Lucky Liquor Co
Thirteen bottles of spirits, thirteen cocktails, and the whole thing torn up and rebuilt every thirteen weeks, in a Queen Street basement with records on and a pool table downstairs.
Why go
The rule is thirteen. Top 50 Cocktail Bars describes it without the bar's help: "The bar takes 13 bottles of spirits, which are used to make a selection of cocktails that are available for 13 weeks." The bar caps its spirits and its menu at thirteen and rebuilds both from scratch four times a year, which is a harder discipline than letting either grow. Mike Aikman also runs Bramble and The Last Word Saloon, so this is one of three rooms from the same hand.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is on the current thirteen. The bar rebuilds the whole menu every thirteen weeks out of thirteen bottles, so there is no house classic to fall back on.
- Avoid: coming hungry. This is a drinks room.
What locals & experts say
- Mike Aikman, the owner (The Scotsman, 2025):
Who doesn't love vinyl and pool? We actually had loads of Fringe entertainers come to us last year to hang out away from the madness.
That is the operator talking about his own bar, so it is testimony about who drinks there.2 - Top 50 Cocktail Bars:
Edinburgh's cocktail scene is growing stronger year-on-year, bolstered by gems such as Lucky Liquor co.
The page carries no rank, no year and no byline, so it is a bare listing.1 - No critic has judged the drinks themselves in any source this list accepts.
Good to know
- Timing: late. Check the venue site for exact hours.
- Booking: walk-in. A small basement fills every August, so early or late beats the middle of the evening.
- Getting there: Queen Street, five minutes from The Stand on York Place and the George Street venues.
- Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme record for these premises reads Improvement Required and is dated 3 March 2011, with no re-inspection published since. Fifteen years without a fresh visit means the hygiene register is not describing the bar as it trades now, in either direction. Worth an enquiry to the council before drawing a conclusion.
Verdict
could-visit — Mike Aikman's Queen Street basement, and his own account of last August is the reason it is here: 'We actually had loads of Fringe entertainers come to us last year to hang out away from the madness.' Vinyl, a pool table, a short drinks list rather than a wall of bottles. That is a specific and checkable claim about who is in the room at 1am, and it comes from the man behind the bar, which makes it good information and a weak endorsement at the same time. No independent verdict on the drinks has surfaced, so it holds at could-visit until one does.