(Leith, Edinburgh) — A forge since 1893
55.9757° N / 3.1702° W
The fire is lit
Twenty-two seats around one open fire in a blacksmith’s forge on Anvil Close. Nine courses, rewritten each week by whatever the boats and farms bring in.
(01) The forge
For sixty-eight years a blacksmith’s fire burned at the foot of Anvil Close, shoeing the dray horses of the Leith bonds and bending iron for the boats on the Shore. For sixty-one years it didn’t. We cook on that same brick hearth, under the same eleven-metre chimney, with the bellows ring still bolted to the wall.
Anvil Close, the year is
1893
1893
A farrier from Musselburgh takes the lease on a stable yard off the Shore and lays a brick hearth wide enough for two men to work at once. The chimney goes up eleven metres, so the smoke clears the bond warehouses.
1916
With the dray horses requisitioned, Laidlaw’s sons turn to the docks: chain, cleats, hooks and hoops for the Leith fleet. The iron rings in our ceiling were their test pieces.
1961
Lorries have taken the breweries’ trade. Jim Laidlaw nails a final shoe above the door — it’s still there, points up for luck — and lets the fire die. The forge becomes a tyre store, then a lock-up, then nothing much.
2019
Isla Moncrieff, a chef, and Ruaridh Baird, a joiner, lift a false floor and find the hearth intact, bellows ring and all. It takes two years and one very patient building officer to get it drawing again.
2022
Birch kindling, Midlothian oak, eleven friends at the counter and a burnt loaf. Since then the fire has been lit four nights a week. The bread has improved.
(03) The fire
The fire keeps its own timetable and we cook to it. Scroll through a Thursday — the temperatures are what our probe reads at the grate.
Gas lines in the building
0
Everything is cooked on wood, or not cooked at all.
Chimney, laid 1893
11m
Tall enough to clear the old bond warehouses. Still draws beautifully.
Oak burned, tonnes per month
1.4t
January to September. Colder nights, hungrier fire.
Zones on the fire bed
3
16:00Kindling
Birch kindling first, then Scottish oak split last winter. Isla keeps a tally in chalk on the chimney breast of the nights it took two matches. There are four.
17:15640°C
The bere loaves go into the mouth of the flame for eleven minutes. The leeks go the other way — under yesterday’s ash, where they’ll stay until dinner.
18:30455°C
Roaring, steady and barely. The oysters go on ice at the cold bench, as far from the fire as the room allows. That’s deliberate.
19:00430°C
Arrivals every quarter hour, so no two tables meet the same course at once. The first scallops go into their shells on the birch embers.
20:15360°C
Fresh oak over the steady side. The hogget goes on the bone and the room starts to smell like a hill farm in the Borders.
21:30240°C
A handful of heather goes on the embers to smoke the honey. The brambles, meanwhile, have never been within four metres of the heat.
23:00110°C
We rake the embers under the ash and let it sleep. In the morning the ash is sieved and saved. It cooks tomorrow’s leeks.
(04) Producers
Everything on the plate comes from within a day’s drive of Leith, most of it within the hour. This is who brought what this September.
(05) In the glass
The Cellar pairing
From growers who farm the way our farmers do — plus a sherry that has no business being this good with a scallop.
The Still Room pairing
Ferments, shrubs and cold infusions made in our kitchen, built to behave like wine at the table. No syrups, no mocktails.
Either pairing can be halved (£45 / £26). Bring your own bottle for £30 corkage — one per table, and we will ask for a taste.
(06) Said about us
They keep yesterday’s ash to cook tomorrow’s leeks. I have been thinking about that leek for a month.
Twenty-two seats, one fire, and not a single course showing off.
A room that smells of oak smoke and good decisions. Book the counter.
(07) Reserve
The next eight fires are open to book. We hold each seat with a £40 deposit, which comes off your bill at the end of the night.
Next eight fires · Wed–Sat
Staggered so every table meets the fire at its best
Tap a free seat — we’ll seat your party together
Your evening
Thursday by the fire
£80 deposit today · taken off the bill
Thursday 24 September · 19:45 · 2 guests at the counter.
A confirmation is on its way, with directions to the door with the horseshoe over it.
HRTH-2409-7Q3KGift vouchers
Good for the menu, the pairings or anything on the bill. Valid for two years, posted in a wax-sealed envelope or sent the same day by email.