Art, paint, music and food. Perfect.

Victoria Street is open once again. Fresh, welcoming and with 

some great art on the walls.Chris Bushe - a brilliant Scottish painter. 

A fabulous Sam MacDonald picture, an artist from the Scottish islands who makes big battered copper pictures of shoals of fish and

 some Kelly Stewarts scenes of Edinburgh & Paris- all of it

 original stuff and really at home in the restaurant.

Thanks to Chris and his team in the kitchen and Jo, Karen and the front of house team...everything was put back, polished up and looking great for the opening.

Of course the usual last minute traumas occurred as count down to opening drew close. A new coat covered in paint, front door continually blowing open to freeze assembled diners, wireless music stopped so we were in silence. To be honest music is only ever used as a background in Howies, but being a Radio DJ & musician  for years it is something I am more passionate about. So rather than plug on with the antique Amp I sloped off and bought  the groovy new Sonos system which I have been coveting for myself to be honest but at least it let me get my hands on it.

Now I am not an itinerant plugger of all things but seriously this guy at Richer Sounds, Garry (with two r's) was great.  Being a woman more often than not in a place full of hi-fi, wi-fi, streaming, Mp3 players and the like I get used to being spoken to like I have had my brain removed. Garry was great though and so I left confident to go and install it myself which I did. It worked beautifully for 10 minutes then my new title as super techno geek became more useless techno gook until John Lane our super duper IT man  saved the day swooped in found an anti virus program was taking up about 70% of the hard disc sorted us out and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt. So all is good. The sounds are grooving and the place is jumping.

When  I say jumping I mean packed to the gunnels not a spare seat in the place. In fact it reminded me of the good old days in Victoria Street.

Originally it was  a Pierre Victoire and the long suffering husband Howie and I had our very first ever date there. Struck by the tangible atmosphere - there's something about being in a stone medieval room with history literally all around right next to Edinburgh Castle that stays with you. It does.
So when Pierres closed it was a natural expansion of Howies at that time to buy it and open which we did.

It is one of the best locations in Edinburgh make no mistake so when we sold up 5 years ago it was with a tear in our eye but hey ho on we went.

Who would have thought January 2012 we would be back in there. And delighted too. It's familiar territory and was like being in the company of a great old friend yesterday sitting there for lunch.

The new January menu that Chris produced was a joy from start to finish. You may think of course I am biased but not really.
Having been a judge on Iron Chef on Channel 4 last year I can't help but be critical. But the smoked salmon on a bed of leaves with Thai dressing, followed by creamed spinach & goats cheese crepe is without a doubt my new obsession. I will be in there daily eating it. I will.
The others had great food too.  Hell it's easier if I just show you the menu. And the £8.95 is not a misprint.

January Lunch at Howies Victoria Street

2 Courses £8.95 

STARTERS (all available as main courses)
Soup of the day (v)	£2.65	£3.50
Traditional Cullen Skink served with a cheddar cheese crouton	£4.15	£6.15
Traditional haggis, neeps & tatties with thyme jus	£4.05	£6.70
Bruschetta of grilled sardines with rocket salad and a lemon & thyme dressing	£4.15	£6.55
Herb crusted deep fried brie served with a homemade beetroot & horse radish relish and dressed salad leaves   (v)	£3.95	£6.15
Warm salad  of shredded beef tenderloin, julienne tomato and rocket with a honey mustard vinaigrette	£4.25	£7.05
Hot smoked Scottish salmon with Thai dressed salad leaves	£4.15	£6.05
MAINS
Homemade Scottish beef & venison burger on a toasted flour bap served with a spiced apple chutney and fried vegetable crisps: add organic cheddar or bacon for an extra 50p each and add fries for £1		£6.95
Chunky roast pumpkin chilli served with aromatic basmati rice and a fresh herb yogurt (v)		£6.15
Creamy chicken pot pie  with carrots, celery, peas and warm puff pastry lid		£6.50
Scottish salmon fettuccini with leeks and citrus crème fraiche		£6.85
Warm  spinach, roast red onion & goats cheese crepe  with dressed rocket  salad (v)		£6.95
Freshly landed catch of the day -seabass - yuml		£7.95
Casserole of the day -  It was beef yesterday - with creamy mash - perfect		£7.15
Puds include in the infamous banoffi, dark chocolate & ginger torte, afogatto, poached pear, cinammon panacotta. Nice.
I must away....Howies Waterloo is shut today ofr 3 days for a makeover too....it's never dull this business they call restaurant that's for sure....will keep you up to date....phew....

Victoria Street Refurbishment Started!

Very excited about  our refurbishment which kicked off today January 8th, 8am at Howies, Victoria Street, Edinburgh.

Here on the left you can see the Howies sign on the current exterior which is Purple and Black...don't ask why - I don't know, you see we have just bought the restaurant back after 5 years so you would really have to ask the previous owners......so..anyway inside and out we decided it's time for a change.

Here are some of the photos of the ‘before’.

As you can see a mishmash or colour and all sorts of quirky bits and bobs .

The restaurant has two separate dining rooms.

The front room has 3 huge picture windows that look out onto Victoria Street - Victoria Street was built hundreds of years ago and is genuinely regarded as one of the most beautiful streets in Europe as it snakes from Edinburgh's Grassmarket to George IV bridge, The Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle just round the corner.
Every shop or restaurant here is a one off. So if you want a real flavour of medievil Edinburgh look no further....I digress.

As you can see red, whitea silver extraction pipe and splodges of teal on the wall. These are the colours we are looking at painting it - no not all of it just the pillars and arches. Final decision on colours tomorrow with John the patient and delightful painter.

If you would like to keep up to date with the inevitable stramash (Scots for everything going wrong, then right, then quickly wrong again) then click the follow button at the top right hand button of this page.

 This is the bar which is usually stacked with bottles, glasses, coffee cups and smiling staff but it's all been cleared out for the big turnaround.
Colours have been difficult to decide upon. Howies logo is teal and cream so why mess with something so delicious we are just using those lovely hues to do the whole jing bang (Scots slang for the entire project).

 The current window display is mainly brushes, rollers, and large plastic buckets. We are only shut for 4 days so you can imagine the pressure on turning it round fast. We have 7 - yup count 'em - 7 brides for 7 brothers no no no I mean 7 painters in there with scaffolding, dungarees, a loud radio and a propensity to whistle out of tune.


This is the back room. An in fact the only thing we've done since buying Howies back mid-December is to rehang this amazing battered copper chandalier which was originally an gas fired one in the Victorian era. Tis a thing of beauty so much  so it's being lowered during the refurb so you can see it properly...it's a beezer (Scots slang for a beautiful example) and was hanging in the very first Howies we opened 21 years ago and we've carried it with us ever since.
The high chairs are looking for a home as there just is no room for the little darlings. They look like Ercol and will be wending their way to an Edinburgh charity shop unles you would like one? Free to your lovely baby.
We need stacking high chairs for our mini diners - baby changing facilities also being fitted into the ladies loo. We do love the wee ones. Good news cludgiewise too  the loos  are being done up too - I didn't think you would appreciate those photos...no I thought not.

 Part of the exterior here. The middle section...black, blue, purple and the most attractive addition of the plastic hanging basket which will be ritually burnt as it is truly a hideous thing.

The whole place was done properly a long time ago and since then has been patch painted and occasionally tweaked so it is well overdue a great big wash of coherent colours.

The picture windows were full of people with their noses pressed against them today wondering what on earth is going on. So do tell them......

That both inside and out it is all being done…..exciting stuf. I shall post an update - meanwhile if you want to book a table for the reopening click HERE