Edinburgh has become a haven for cool, new restaurants and bars that have quickly made their mark in a city already flush with traditional favourites. So how has Smith & Gertrude made such an impact so quickly?
Smith & Gertrude – Edinburgh’s answer to the laid back bars Down Under
Situated in the ever-fashionable Stockbridge area of Edinburgh, a Bohemian neighbourhood where alternative therapists sit cheek by jowl with old record stores, and tattoo parlours rub up against vintage clothes shops and a farmers market, Smith & Gertrude offers a relaxed haven away from the bustle of city life.
Customers – many of whom are regulars – pop in for a glass of wine and a plate of cheese at any time of the day, or come in for a leisurely weekend brunch and to browse the papers. There is always a cafetiere of coffee on the go, and on a Friday night, the place is, to use local parlance, ‘hoaching’, with friends enjoying a bottle of wine or two with friends, and playing some favourite sounds on the old-school record player and vinyl collection.
Thirty-three year old Duncan Findlater and his 31 year old wife Amy opened up the bar in 2015, and since then have scooped a clutch of awards, including Best New Bar in Edinburgh 2016 in the List Food & Drink awards, and Best Wine Bar in Edinburgh in the I-On Reader Awards 2016. These accolades are all the more remarkable given that neither of them had any real hospitality experience, other than working in bars as students.
Inspired Down Under
Amy and Duncan Findlater wanted to re-create the vibe of the Australian wine restaurant scene in Edinburgh
Duncan formerly worked in IT, and Amy was a casting agent in London, but both had decided they wanted a change of career, and one where they could work together. They spent several years living and working in Melbourne and New York, and inspired by the type of laid-back bars serving up top-notch food and wine they experienced on their travels, the couple decided that when they returned to the UK, they were keen to set up a similar concept.
“Melbourne is a massive foodie city, and brunch is a huge part of their lives, and of course the weather is so good and it’s the thing you do at the weekend. And with so many new places opening up, the quality was always excellent as no one could afford to rest on their laurels,” says Amy.
Living in Melbourne also enabled the couple to visit many winemaking areas including the Barossa Valley and Mornington Peninusla, which sparked their interest in wine. “ It allowed us to learn about wine in an accessible and informal way, which is less easy in the UK,” says Amy.
Simple but quality
Keeping it simple: cheese and wine flights
On their return to the UK, they decided they wanted to set up a wine bar selling simple, good quality food in a friendly approachable environment, somewhere, for example, where a single woman could happily sit with a glass of wine and not feel uncomfortable, and where locals come for brunch on a Sunday.
“There were some great bars and restaurants in Edinburgh, and plenty of places doing beer and cocktails really well, as well as more traditional wine bars, focusing on Italian or French wines. But we felt there was a bit of a gap in the market for something like this,” says Amy.
The first challenge –and one of the biggest headaches – was finding suitable premises and gaining the relevant planning permission and licence. The couple were adamant they wanted to be located somewhere with a strong community feel, and they did consider other similar areas of the city, including Bruntsfield and Marchmont. However, with few suitable properties on the market, they eventually stumbled across the venue for Smith & Gertrude, which in its previous incarnation had been both a cat café and a ladies gym.
Now, any hint of moggies and sweaty work-out gear have long been banished and the couple have invested over £120,000 of their own cash in refurbishing the building into the current bright airy space. Overlooking Hamilton Place and the River of Leith, the bar has a reclaimed school gym floor, big scrubbed pine tables decorated with small vases of flowers, primary coloured chairs and a record player and a stack of vinyl in the corner for customers to choose from.
Passionate list
Locals have quickly welcomed Smith & Gertrude to the Edinburgh scene
At the outset there were around 100 wines on the list, but this has since grown to more than 150. “We never wanted to have a huge list, as we wanted to keep things simple and didn’t want it to be intimidating,” says Duncan. “However, on the other hand we keep tasting things we love and we also want to offer customers variety.” And with 25 wines by the glass, which change on a daily basis, there is no doubting that customers are spoiled for choice.
“We try to sell slightly unknown varietals by the glass, rather than the more familiar grapes,” confirms Amy. “So for example, if someone wants a Pinot Grigo we might suggest they try a Greek Savitiano or an Italian Lugano which people are blown away by. It’s not totally out there, but just slightly different. “
Austrian push
There’s no real theme to the list, simply a range of wines that the couple themselves love, though Amy admits to being a particularly big fan of Austrian wines, with around 15 wines on offer from the country. Sourced from Dalston-based Newcomer Wines which specialise in wines from Austria they deal mainly with very small producers, many of whose wines are organic and biodynamic.
“The Austrian wines have been tasting amazing, they are really quite elegant and refined, mineral driven with pure fruit,” she says. “It’s maybe where our palates are at the moment, but they are selling well and Gruner is quite well known. The wines are still approachable for customers, though we do have a dry ferment coming soon which is a bit more obscure.”
English invasion
Surprisingly perhaps, given that we are, after all, in Scotland, English wines are increasingly popular. Smith & Gertrude have stocked Camel Valley wines including Bacchus, Brut, Rose and sparkling wine from day one, and often by the glass. “It’s something we’d like to offer more of, but we need to take the time and go down to Kent and Sussex and visit some producers,” says Duncan. “They are a wee bit more expensive, especially the sparkling, and it is hard to get people off Prosecco,” sighs Amy. At £48 a bottle, the Camel Valley Brut still sells for less than the Champagne,
Rosé is another trend that has also reached this northern outpost of the country, with S&G offering five by the glass. “It’s the only seasonal wine, and a completely different buying process – it’s the only wine you buy for the colour,” points out Duncan. And for S&G’s customers, it seems, the paler the better.
And while rosé is traditionally a drink favoured by women, it would appear that Scotsmen aren’t afraid of getting in touch with their feminine side, and are happy to be seen quaffing a glass of pink wine early in the evening. “Quite a few of our regular guys drink rosé,” says Duncan. “We don’t go through tons of it, and we could probably expand our offering, though neither of us are terribly interested in it.”
Best selling wines
Smith & Gertrude’s best selling wines include a Pinot Noir and a Carmenère from Chile, which Duncan puts down to their being great value, at £27 and £25 respectively. “They are both great wines and in that sweet spot price wise, between £25 and £30.”
S&G offer no house wine as such, but do have an entry level Valpolicalla for £20 as well as a Montepuliciano for around the same price.
The majority of the bar’s wines retail for between £20 and £40, though a “fair few” go for between £40 and £60. However, average spend amongst their customers is in the £25 – £30 price bracket. S&G also offers a cellar list which includes a Monte Bello for around £125.
Sauvignon Blanc remains a big seller, but in true S&G style, the bar likes to offer something that little bit different, so they have included a wild ferment Sauvignon from Malrborough in New Zealand. And while Malbec is also a hugely popular wine, Smith & Gertrude don’t offer this by the glass, preferring to persuade their customers to try something slightly different.
Challenging Chardonnay
When the bar first opened, their customers were less than enthusiastic about Chardonnay, which Duncan puts down partly to the old ABC – anything but Chardonnay – backlash. “If we put Chardonnay on the by glass, it just wouldn’t sell,” he recalls. So to address the problem, the bar offered a flight of Chardonnays including a Chablis, and a Macon, all the way up to an oaky Aussie number.
“It helped our customers realise that Chardonnay is an incredibly versatile grape and doesn’t have one single flavour,” says Duncan. “We love changing people’s perception of Chardonnay, and most of our customers are open to trying new things. And they are far more receptive to trying something they don’t know at all than something they think they know. If people have preconceptions about a particular wine, it’s harder to get them to try it.”
Smith & Gertrdue’s wine list is categorised by countries rather than styles. “I really don’t like wine lists divided up by style, as people think they know what style of wine they like, but often they don’t,” says Amy. “I don’t meant that in a patronising way, but they wines don’t necessarily fall neatly into one category, and we feel that dividing it up by country works well for us.”
And buying wine in smaller volumes means that the couple can ring the changes on the wine list on a frequent basis. “Sometimes we may only buy five or six bottles of a wine, and then when that’s gone we move onto something new. It enables us to buy a lot of different wines.”
Despite the huge popularity of Prosecco, this is another wine that Smith & Gertrude doesn’t offer by the glass. “We import our own sparkling wine from France which we put on instead of Prosecco, but we do offer it by the bottle as we understand that some people just want Prosecco.”
Working with suppliers
The couple buy their wine from a variety of sources, including the likes of Liberty Wines and Alliance Wines, and Edinburgh-based suppliers De Burgh Wine Merchants and L’art du Vin, while importing some wine directly from the producers.
Initially, Amy found the whole business somewhat intimidating – “ The wine business is a funny thing,” she says. But she was fortunate that the two sales people she dealt with from Liberty and Alliance were young women, of a similar age to herself. “They totally got what we wanted to do with Smith & Gertrude, and were incredibly supportive.”
Simple food offer
As part of their ethos of curating a low key, relaxed vibe, the food offering at Smith & Gertrude is similarly relaxed. A selection of cheese and charcuterie from Scottish and Spanish suppliers to pair with the wines, baked Camembert, cheese toasties and simple salads, all designed to share and be picked at form the mainstay of the menu.
“We try and use as many local suppliers as we can,” says Amy. “Just nice fresh ingredients nothing too fancy, and that’s what our customers seem to like.”
Beers and spirits
And that’s certainly the case with their beers and spirits, most of which come from Scotland, and many from Edinburgh itself. “Our selection is quite small, but we have thought about it carefully,” says Duncan The bar stocks around six beers, including one from Aberdeen called Deeside, and another from Campervan Brewery, a one man band outfit situated half a mile down the road in Comely Bank. “You can’t get much more local than that,” laughs Amy. “There is so much great food and drink being produced in and around Edinburgh that there is really not much need to look further afield.”
Locally produced Electric Spirit gin comes from Leith
Gin outsells every other spirit at Smith & Gertrude, according to Duncan, with Edinburgh Gin being very popular. Another local gin on the list is Electric Spirit, which is made just down the road in Leith. But the couple made an exception to their sourcing local rule, by including a gin from San Francisco, 209, on their list which Duncan describes as “amazing” “Served with a tonic called 1724 and basil, it’s very popular.” Another locally sourced spirit is Dark Matter, a spiced rum from Aberdeen, which Amy says sells particularly well in the winter months.
Soft drinks haven’t been overlooked either, particularly as the drink driving laws in Scotland are stricter than the rest of the country. Again, the Findlaters were keen to source locally, and discovered Kitsch Sodas, an Edinburgh-based drinks company producing drinks such as Rhubarb and Thai Basil and Cucumber and Fennel.
Coffee offer
Coffee and baristas are very much part of the offer and theatre of S&G
Similar attention to details has also been applied to the coffee they serve. “We ummed and ahhed for ages about whether to get a coffee machine or not,” says Duncan. “We realized if we were going to do it properly we’d need a barista, and that would change the whole feel of the place. We wanted to focus on cheese and wine, and not be a coffee shop, so that’s why we went down the cafetiere route instead.”
They source their coffee from a local coffee shop Fortitude, which roasts their own beans, and from Steam Punk in nearby North Berwick in East Lothian.
On a Sunday morning, the bar offers a pop up coffee bar, when the “bearded barista” as Duncan describes him, turns up with his portable coffee machine. “It gives Sunday mornings a different feel when we open earlier, at 10am,” says Duncan. Serving up pastries too, and with a range of Sunday newspapers to browse through, the couple say that Sunday mornings is one of their favourite times of the week.
As if they didn’t have their hands full enough with running the bar, the couple have recently set up their own bakery producing sourdough bread, to overcome problems they were having in sourcing a regular supply. Not only do they now produce enough bread for their own use, they are supplying it to other bars and catering outlets in the city.
As to the future, the Findlaters aren’t quite sure what their next move will be. They like the idea of opening a second bar in the city, but are adamant it wouldn’t simply be a carbon copy of Smith & Gertrude.
“We felt it would be quite hard to replicate this bar, as it grew organically and we feel if we had to copy it, it just wouldn’t feel authentic,” explains Duncan.
And whatever this ambitious couple does next, you can be sure it will have that authenticity at its heart.
