It may well be black and white on the outside but it has Blue Bols (geddit?) on the inside, as well as Best, IPA and Red Stripe on tap! And a beer garden the size of a thimble with a 000.1% chance of getting any sun at any time during the day. Surprisingly for the middle of the festival it was pretty quiet and although there was a TV screen it didn’t serve as a distraction such was the quality of the chat about the previous evening’s humping of Clyde. That has nothing to do with fornicating gorillas, btw. Almost no tram chat and not a jazz band in sight marking a significant upturn in pub choosing. But then I would say that – I chose it

Special prize for anyone guessing what road the pub is on.

Hurrah for trams. Let’s hope they buzz a lot and flick sparks into the evening air or else it’s all going to be a total disappointment.

I have no idea if we discussed football at any point in the evening. One of my favourite pubs though.

June’s post season session saw us gathering at The Abbotsford at the posh end of Rose Street. Ok, there’s no posh end on Rose Street but this is further from the stag night favourites than most pubs.

The pub itself has a nice centre bar which makes getting served pretty straightforward. There were a couple of big TV’s on showing footie results but as Scotland had already dispatched the might Faroe Islands there was only a passing interest in the other group results.

There was a range of real ale to compliment the standard fare and some of the more adventurous/misguided partook of a pint of Old Engineers No.12 and Barrel Bottom Original – someone might want to correct me on the actual names of these fine brews.

At some point I’m pretty sure there were, literally, a bunch of pirates at the bar but given the heated debate over Edinburgh’s transport infrastructure, queues at the Forth Bridge and just how good Robert Sloan is despite us only seeing him once it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.

Long the fallback pub when other options don’t look so promising, the Blue Blazer rarely fails to disappoint. Most importantly there’s no jazz band going to be playing in here any time soon. Managing to shirk any responsibility for getting a round in I can’t comment on the prices but the ambience, a word you wouldn’t use in the place itself, hasn’t changed in about 40 years. Homely to some, basic to others – but still a reliable Edinburgh watering hole.

Double pub review this month for reasons that will become clear very soon. This used to be The Hogshead when I last went there (some time ago) and the layout hasn’t changed much despite the name change. An airy front section has plenty of room for tall tables and equally perilous stools although there are some nice big sofas in the corner if you like that sort of thing. A couple of plasma TV’s are placed well enough so that they don’t become too much of a distraction and there’s also a couple of pool tables if the chat gets really boring.

Beer was reasonably priced and the place wasn’t busy on a Tuesday. Then again that could have been because at about 9-ish the band arrived and proceeded to play some laid-back jazz, slightly too loud to allow for the usual stellar conversation about formations, signing targets and bus routes. So, after a quick political rant from yours truly we drank up and snuck off across the road to the Blue Blazer.

Newbies are always welcome and the group is growing at the staggering rate of about 1 person every six months. Don’t feel intimidated but if you want to fit in immediately just mention the Scottish Cup disaster at Queen’s Park.