THE TIDE ART GALLERY AND COFFEE SHOP

This is a fairly new café at the bottom of Kings Road on the corner with the promenade.  Once a pub, it has had a few incarnations, but works really well as an art gallery and café.  Serving soup and sandwich type snacks, coffee, tea and homemade baking it is a welcome addition to catering on the prom. 

The owner is an art school graduate herself so all the pictures, jewellery, models, pottery and sculpture is of a high standard and makes the surroundings very pleasant.  She has some very original hexagonal shelving by Zhuqiu Huang.  You can browse before, during or after you have your drinks as she and her and her sister run a very friendly establishment.  They provide lots of newspapers, a shelf of books and games and have a play area of toys for kids.   The interior of the front doors have been painted with a colourful design and are a work of art themselves.

A few fixtures from the original pub remain.  They serve the drinks from behind the old bar, while the cakes are arranged in glass cake stands on it.  The half panelling has been painted either white or terracotta and the walls above are white to show off the art.  The toilets are clean and functional like pub toilets but I feel that they too will soon have an artistic stamp on them.  There is a sofa area, lots of traditional tables and chairs and a few bar stools at a counter with a sea view. 

 

I had a plate of very tasty unliquidised potato and leek soup which contained bacon.  The waitress warned me first in case I was vegetarian.  My friend’s bacon roll was equally good and her side salad was extremely fresh.  We had a couple of coffees to wash it down which were also up to the same high standard.

You can find it at 56 Kings Road, Portobello, EH15 1DX.  Phone no 0131 669 9408 or it has Facebook page. It is open 7 days a week 10am - 6pm.