The Oxford Bar
Edinburgh boasts many fine pubs, restaurants, wine bars and other eateries. Most are on the city’s main or more popular throughfares, but there are others that are not quite as noticeable and need a bit of searching out. One such “howff” is The Oxford Bar, a little gem in Young Street in the heart of the city’s new town. It mighti take a biti off detective i work to find it, but that would be quite apt as it is the watering hole of author Ian Rankin since the mid-80s. Rankin is the author of the celebrated Inspector Rebus novels, and it came to no surprise that he used the pub as the drinking den of the taciturn detective. For one reason alone – it’s the venue of retired and still-working policemen, so there’s your authenticity right away! Fans of the Rebus novels can sup their beer and picture the detective doing the same before, during and after solving a case. And if you’re really lucky, Rankin himself might pop in while you’re there so you can quiz him about his latest work. Not that he’ll give anything away, of course! It’s a genuine, nopretensions and much-loved local which I have visited more than once. Still, never managed to meet that writer chappie... what’s his name again?!