L’ escargot bleu wine bar: quiz night fun

Real fire

Nestled in the basement below the French restaurant L’ escargot bleu on Broughton Street, chef-patron Fred Berkmiller has crafted a unique and cosy wine bar. Skip down the steps to discover an outdoor space cleverly reworked into private booths from two former cellars, with patio seating that's fun and sociable in warm weather. Inside, you're often greeted by a roaring log fire and good tunes.

Some of ‘Team Bite’ visit on a Thursday evening for the regular quiz night, enjoying 70s disco music all night—our era. Sometimes it's rock, sometimes blues. When I arrive, Liz is sipping a Kir crémant with Monin violette. In a twist on the Kir Royale, you can choose from a range of syrups that add a subtle tinge and flavor to your bubbles. We order charcuterie platters for our group to share and baked camembert to dip baguette slices in. A couple of bottles of RHÔNE Cinsault, Le Paradou, 2023 Rosé, perfectly complement the cheese and meat. Fred Berkmiller’s wine list is impeccable.

Platters to share

The food is typically French real food — I've eaten sardines from Marseilles, cold-smoked duck, Comté, Brillat-Savarin, Fourme d’Ambert, San Daniele ham, Jesus Basque salami, goat's cheese and Corsican Capocollo. And look out for the Vacherin Mont d’Or when in season!

Tonight, however, an Italian meat on the charcuterie board catches our attention: perfumed, soft, maroon in color, and heavily marbled. Mathilde, the bar manager, tells us it is Ossocollo from Northern Italy, a traditional cured meat popular in the Veneto and Trentino regions, made from pork neck or shoulder and cured with salt, pepper, garlic, and fennel. Meanwhile, Lea is delighted by the little pickled tomatoes, and Mathilde revealed she pricks them with three cocktail stick holes and rests them in a pickling mixture. Simple, yet the result is intensely piquant tomatoes.

As for the quiz, we do well with Disney films and Greek Gods, and our alcohol knowledge proves second to none! However, we failed miserably at naming the best-selling ten chocolate products in the UK, concluding we are too middle-aged and too snobby for mass-market chocolate. Nevertheless, we win some different flavoured macarons, which round off our meal nicely with coffee. Îles flottantes, next time!

L’Escargot Bleu & Wine Bar – 56 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3SA - 0131 557 1600

Hours:

• Wednesday & Thursday: from 4 pm

• Friday & Saturday: from 2 pm

Book here