Brown's of Leith, Edinburgh
A new collaboration from the folk behind Timberyard, Shrimpwreck and Civerino's has real potential, but feels in need of some definition
When it comes to ‘big spaces with lots of food in ’em’, Edinburgh has two canonical examples. At one end, The Pitt – a grassroots space that feels like an ever-changing community project trying to go in various directions at once. At the other, Edinburgh Street Food – a meticulously planned, rammed-to-the-rafters and frighteningly efficient distillation of the street food concept. They’re both great but neither’s perfect, and in any case there’s definitely room for more of this. Jump to The Shore, and to Brown's of Leith.
The interior is a light but sympathetic reuse of the former George Brown & Sons Engineering Works by Gunnar Groves-Raines and GRAS architecture studio. It’s a mix of metal, wood and concrete; lots of simple lines, and plenty of those seats that are inherently coded as ‘school chairs’ even if they haven’t seen a classroom in about six decades. The food’s round the outside, the seating plan is such that you can get from one end to the other without standing on anyone’s coat, and every so often you catch sight of a big hook or interesting bit of the floor that links back to the industrial origins of the space. The flipside is that it’s fairly dark, quite muted in terms of colour, and very much not-muted in terms of sound.
On bar duty is Haze, the latest idea from the folk behind Timberyard and Montrose. They’re on a well-stocked stainless steel island with a row of bar taps, toasters, wine boxes and assorted prep machinery flanking their zone. The Sicilian house wine is excellent – additional ‘I’m a little fancy lad’ points for a by-the-glass orange – and the stripped-down food menu is a classic example of not trying to do too much. Nduja on toast (£8.80) is two bumper slices of golden toast loaded with a jammy, spicy spreadable sausage that runs a deep, deep red. It’s hot, it’s punchy, it’s got a little dish of pickles on the side, it’s great. The soft goat’s cheese with honey (£9) is… well, you can imagine. A lightly funky but brilliantly creamy cheese, some very light and floral honey with one of those lovely wooden honey drippers, and more very deliberately toasted bread. These are bar snacks turned up three or four notches; pick a good cheese and you’re most of the way there, and these guys are most of the way there.
Credit: Paula Szturc
That sense of swag has rubbed off on the other two kitchens in Brown’s. Shrimp Wreck are going big on lobster rolls and fresh oysters, while Civerino’s are taking the opportunity to go for some fairly ambitious takes on the pizza. It’s New Haven-style – a wafer-thin crust, cut in a grid so everyone can dig in and get a little bit. The vodka sauce, Italian sausage and truffle whipped ricotta pizza (£15) is light on the toppings but in a very measured way; each slice gets its own nubbin of sausage, and its own blob of that mild but earthy ricotta. The vodka sauce brings a nice sweetness and smoothness to proceedings, and balances against the crispiness and faint char of the base. It’s both refined and fun, and the exact sort of thing you’d want to plonk in the middle of a table full of pals.
And yet at times, it feels like the constituent parts of Brown’s are working at cross-purposes. As the crew from Haze glide through the room with their plates of high-end nibbles, the pizzaiolas at Civerino’s are literally yelling at the top of their lungs about a ‘pizza for Hannah’. Shrimpwreck are serving their dishes in compostable dishes, but Haze have actual plates. The Shrimpwreck guys are also shouting, but they’ve gone with numbers rather than names. We ordered Civerino’s most expensive pizza; there are three tins of fish on the Haze menu that are pricier. Is this a high-end wine and coffee spot with pizza and fish restaurants as close neighbours, or a post-industrial food hall where the bar just happens to have a love of Mediterranean small plates?
Brown’s feels ambitious, but a little ill-defined. If it was all chaos, more noise, more jostling, that would be… well it would be a lot to deal with, but it would create a febrile, energised atmosphere. If we replaced the shouting with one member of floor staff and gave everyone some crockery, it might make for a more laidback, refined vibe. As it is, we’re slightly caught in the middle. The food is good, the bar is nice, the location is great and the space has potential. Brown’s has lots of shades of grey – maybe in time, some of them will take on a more distinctive tone.
4-6 The Shore, Leith, EH6 6QS
Thu-Sun, 8am-8pm
@browns.leith