16 FOOD AND DRINK
CAFÉ REVIEW: Hideout Old Town By Charlie Ellis CROSSWORD Compiled by David Albury
ACROSS
4 Backward movement of gun when
fired (6)
6 Bullfighter (8)
9 Heavenly bodies orbiting the sun,
usually depicted with a tail of
gasses (6)
10 Give power to something (8)
11 Pile of rotting vegetation used by
gardeners (7,4)
15 Make active or cheerful (7)
17 Browning in the sun (7)
18 Playing out a scene, especially
historical (2-9)
22 Small-bladed implement, often
folding (8)
23 Of a storm, to die down (6)
24 Slang expression meaning “hurry
up” (4-4)
25 One who works in a bank behind
the counter (6)DOWN
1 Small bar or informal restaurant (6)
2 Shrub that is popular as a
houseplant at Christmas (10)
3 Small freshwater turtle (8)
4 The action of a bullet hitting a
surface and rebounding (8)
5 Strongly scented flower with
daisy-like flower heads (8)
7 Raised platform used by a speaker
(4)
8 Type of grasss that grows in
shallow water (4)
12 Inexperienced member (10)
13 Combustible globe (4-4)
14 Hour-glass shaped item, filled with
sand, found in kitchens (3,5)
16 Plant of the foxglove family, with
small blue, white or pink flowers (8)
19 Be very unsteady (6)
20 Classic poem or film (4)
21 Moving inside (4)NESTLED JUST around the corner
from the Castle and the Grassmarket
on Upper Bow is a lovely cosy nook.
Hideout Old Town opened in late- It is great to be able to find
good specialty coffee in such a busy,
touristy area. As such, it is part of a
trend towards better coffee in and
around the Old Town that includes
places such as Room & Rumours and
Santu. Hideout Old Town is
consistently full, with many
customers making their way up to it
via the little dark stairway connecting
Victoria Street with Upper Bow.
The Hideout team have made great
use of the small and charming space
with a selection of snug corners in
which to relax. They have also made
a nice feature of the ‘ghost sign’,
advertising lemonade and ginger ale,
on the outside wall. As with the
original Hideout Café in Leith,
Hideout Old Town has a distinct
retro feel with a range of intriguing
old coffee makers on display, and
music coming from cassettes.
Anyone who grew up in the 80s or
90s will feel a wave of nostalgia as
they browse the wall of tapes. Lou
Reed and Bowie tunes were wafting
around the café on my last visit.
The original Hideout (on Queen
Charlotte Street in Leith) soon
established itself as a popular spot for
coffee and brunch. Its lovely arched
windows allowed light to flood in,
while the retro touches added to the
relaxed, timeless feel. These included
old reel to reel tape players, and
vintage televisions repurposed as
bookcases. The Leith branch was
recently sold, and has been renamed
the Old Spence Café by the new
owners. Thankfully, they have
retained the original décor and feel.
Hideout’s manager admits that the
disruptive tram works on
Constitution Street coupled with the
pandemic restrictions created a very
testing environment. It meant that,
despite all the efforts by him and his
staff, there was ‘little reward’. This,
combined with the continued success
of the Old Town café, led him to
selling up after 10 years in Leith. He
admits that it ‘felt weird to leave a
business I’d built up from scratch’. He
now feels that, though he’s still
adapting to the new situation, it was
‘the right time to move on’. And the
Leith café is, he is happy to say, in‘good hands’.
Hideout Old Town is certainly
doing well. As soon as the doors
open at 9am, tourists begin to trickle
in, keen to be caffeinated and fill
their bellies with tasty ‘scran’. By 9.
the place is usually ‘hoaching’, with
seats hard to come by. The test for a
very busy place such as this is
maintaining standards when the
orders come pouring in. On the basis
of my experience, they manage to
serve well made coffee throughout
the day, as well as maintaining good,
cheery customer service. They clearly
have a well trained team. At Hideout
Old Town you can enjoy coffee made
using Hideout’s own custom blend,
pulled on a super slick Slayer
machine. The coffee is nicely
balanced with warming notes.
As well as a nice selection of
sandwiches, filled croissants etc, they
serve tasty soups which are ideal on a
dreich day in the capital. A bit of a
signature dish of the café is their
fantastic honey cake, which makes a
great combo with a hot drink.
Hideout also serves Teapigs teas and
a range of sodas. Well worth a visit, if
you can dodge the tourist hordes.An Old Town café with snug relaxing corners
ANSWERS4 Recoil, 6 Toreador, 9 Comets, 10 Energise, 11 Compost heap, 15 Enliven, 17 Tanning, Across:18 Re-enactment, 22 Penknife, 23 Becalm, 24 Chop-chop, 25 Teller.1 Bistro, 2 Poinsettia, 3 Terrapin, 4 Ricochet, 5 Camomile, 7 Dais, 8 Reed, 12 Tenderfoot, Down:13 Fire-ball, 14 Egg timer, 16 Veronica, 19 Teeter, 20 Epic, 21 Into.Out of hiding