Elite Event: Tartan & Tweed At Cranachan & Crowdie!

This was so much fun it’s hard to know where to begin. I was hooked just by the title of the event, which gave me a good excuse to pull out the tartan tie and tweed combo. Add to that the great food and super friendly hosts and you have a smashing event. Pincer’s cocktails were great and I enjoyed hearing Jonathan explain how the Vodka and company came about. Pincer’s nicely complemented the wonderfully tasty vodka cured salmon from Wedgewood next door. I hope no one was keeping count of how many times I walked back to the counter for more, because I wasn’t… I couldn’t resist it, and why would I want to when it was paired nicely with crowdie and pesto on fresh baked bread. The owners were super friendly and it’s always a pleasure hearing from people who are so passionate about what they do… they love their shop and it shows. And it didn’t hurt that they gave us a discount on purchases for the evening. I would say it was a great evening had by all!

Such a wonderful night! Great smaples of food… I think we ate almost all the orange chocolate shortbread that was on display (we even bought some to take home it was so good!). Loved the cured salmon that was brough over from the lovely restaurant next store Wedgewood! And had fabulous drinks an elderflower non-​alcholic bubbly and a few delicious Pincer Sour’s! Jonathan from Pincer Vodka was great and told us all about his great vodka that has elderflower and milk thistle in it! Everything was so Wonderful tasting! Great bread from the Manna House to go with the Crowdie cheese and wild garlic pesto!
Such a cute store! Beth and Fiona (the owners) had packed the place out with such cute and wonderful local Scottish food and craft! A great place for buying REAL gifts that arent cheesy. WE did leave the night with a few things for our selves and a few for gifts for family. Will defintally direct others there for good scottish gifts! And I’s sure will be back ourselves!

Tartan, tweed and Unilocalers!
A great event and well done to Cressi for showcasing the best of Scotland’s produce with this event at Cranachan and Crowdie!
Great vodka from Jonathan at Pincer Vodka — those lemon cocktails were amazing. Myself, Sara and Tanya also agreed that this botanical vodka (with milk thistle — known hangover cure!) which we tried straight was lovely!
The food which included vodka smoked salmon (smoked by Chef Wedgewood) was fantastic and the flavour of the vodka really shone through. The garlic pesto was great too — would definitely kill a few vampires as was the crowdie cheese (I couldn’t resist buying some).
Good range of Scottish gluten free products available as well as various knick knacks which would make for great gifts.
So all in all, a great night. Thanks to Cressi, Beth and Fiona from C&C, Jonathan from Pincer and Chef Wedgewood for doing amazing things with salmon!

Hoots mon! That was a good Elite event!
Cranachan & Crowdie is fairly teeny toaty, so only a select few of us were invited along, and I was so pleased to me amongst the chosen Elites. We were greeted with smiles from Beth and Fiona (the delightful owners), and a drink from Jonathan from Pincer vodka. I especially liked his offer to make the initially very sherbetty tasting Pincer Sour either more sweet or more sour (I went for the latter), tailor made cocktails! Not too long later, in came the chef from Wedgewood restaurant next door, with two salmons he’d cured earlier that day in the very same vodka. Oh my! Add that to bread from the Manna House, a delicious soft cheese, venison salami (or something along those lines) and wild garlic pesto, and I was in food heaven. I swear, I’d have happily sat and eaten the entire jar of the pesto and if it hadn’t been a fiver and I hadn’t been totally skint I’d have bought some for myself.
Entertainment was provided by our lovely CM, Cressi F, who had us hunting around the shop for products from 10 different locations in Scotland, and then a quiz! I love a quiz. If only we’d won…
Cranachan & Crowdie is now definitely on my radar for future gift-​buying needs, I saw several things that my mum would love (and me, I wanted everything). Alas it was just after Mothers’ Day, but next year…

First off, it was a lot of fun having a Scottish-​themed elite event and it was great to see everyone decked out in their tartan and tweed! It was a fun evening with delicious vodka-​cured salmon from Chef Wedgewood, inviting and sherberty Pincer vodka cocktails from Jonathan, and the lovely ambiance of Fiona and Beth’s Cranachan & Crowdie. It is a lovely shop with so many beautiful things from such a wide variety of places around Scotland (as we can attest to first-​hand, especially after the map hunt!). It is great for locals that they offer not only such high quality merchandise in the heart of Old Town but also buy in bread from the Manna House — something I most definitely will have to order and pick up conveniently from Cranachan & Crowdie. It was fun to learn more about the business and have them welcome our group of international locals although they generally seem geared more towards tourists with their prices. Although this event had more of a shopping element to it than other elite events, I found some good birthday presents for my mum here, as well as some treats for myself. Thank you to our lovely hosts and to Cressi for organising a lovely tartan and tweed evening!

What a fun evening!
Between the gorgeous salmon from Wedgewood, the fantastic venison (??) salami and the wild garlic pesto that I ate so much of I was still tasting the next morning (sorry husband), we had some seriously tasty eats.
On top of the eats, we were treated to a fantastic elderflower fizz on arrival, and a serious Pincer vodka cocktail. I love locally made booze and have mostly been supporting the gin revival lately, so it’s great to see vodka back on the scene.
Beth and Fiona at C&C are an absolute hoot and I love their shop concept — it’s absolutely true that The Mile is lined with mostly tack, so it’s fabulous to have a place for tourists (and locals!) to come to sample some of the best of Scotland.
Our quizzes were a fun addition, and now I’ll know to pair up with Rachel R if I ever find myself in a pub quiz situation — she knows everything!

I was so lucky to get invited to the Unilocal Elite event as a guest. I met lovely people at a fabulous event and was culinarily spoilt. What else do I want?
Cranachan and Crowdie served us an excellent choice of beverages and foods from venison salami to garlic pesto and scottish soft cheese — all from Scotand — as every other item at their excellent store.
As a highlight they had invited Jonathan from Glasgow (No, Boxbury!) to introduce us to his Oincer Vodka served on ice with elderflover flavoring, and two yypes of vodka cured salmon from Wedgwoof restaurant next door (2013 SLTN’s «restaurant of the year»)
Guess where I’ll be dining out soon to write another review… and I am already biased :)
Our hosts were superb, the two of them run a very fine business which really doesn’t compare to the other «Scottish Specialities» store in Edinburgh.
We were so well looked after, many of us forgot it was a Thursday and had a couple of more delicious Pincers along with the food… (it was definitely not only me)
To me, this night was perfect, I got introduced to many people who were all so welcoming towards me, I am looking forward to meeting them more often and I had extremely fine food and drink
and I have my Easter presents sorted out — my family will get loads of Scottish goodies this year — so Cranachan&Crowdie will see me again soon.

Thank you Beth & Fiona for looking after us at Cranachan & Crowdie and to the lovely Cressi for arranging it all.
This shop is the way forward in tourist shops, other royal mile establishments should take note! Cranachan & Crowdie you show off the best of Scottish with style and not a bit of tat in sight!
I loved the Pincer Vodka and could happily drink it all night. I will most certainly be adding that to my wish list.
The chef next door at Wedgewood presented a salmon cured a variety of ways, but alas i’m veggie so didn’t try any.
We had a Scottish quiz and my team were first and we got a £5 voucher to spend in the shop. I bought a tea towel with red squirrels on it which now looks great in my kitchen.
thank you all for a most lovely evening.

I was very pleased when Edinburgh’s CM Cressida invited me to attend this Unilocal Elite event and get a taste of what it feels like, and I think it was the best IDEA ever!
Having been in Edinburgh for quite a few years, I don’t really check out shops on Royal mile but this is a must-​see place if you’re looking for a special treat, rather than the standard tourist tat!
Beth and Fiona were really great hostesses providing background info about the place, highlighting some of the great items for sale — All manufactured in Scotland. Food treats included venison salami (which I had to buy for home consumption!), Scottish soft cheese and the best garlic pesto dip! While checking out the shop I discovered also smoked almonds, which everyone must try at least once!
We were spoiled for a start with cured salmon from Wedgwood restaurant next door (awarded with SLTN’s «Restaurant of the Year 2013»), while Jonathan from Princer Vodka was treating us with vodka cocktails!
And of course there was such a friendly group of Elite Unilocalers, dressed up with either tartan or tweed or even both! Two quiz/​competition games added excitement at the mid of the event!
Thanks to Cressi for being once again such a great hostess!!!
For sure, I’m going back to Cranachan & Crowdie in the near future! ;-)

Cressida has only herself to blame for setting my standards rather high with elite events, and this one did not disappoint.
Cranachan & Crowdie were lovely hosts to us, and their toaty wee shop was an excellent setting for a very chilled out schmooze and booze meets gorgeous grub affair. I’m delighted to have been introduced to the place. As I said to the staff there I’ll be raiding them for birthday and christmas presents for a while to come now.
We were treated to a selection of treats, including the rather tasty Pincer Vodka (served lemon juice and cane sugar syrup; yummo!) and some cured salmon and game sausage. I didn’t try the fish as its not my thing, but everything else was mega tasty. I think the star of the night was the wild garlic pesto. It’ll make you honk for days but it is most devourable.
I was also very happy that everyone got on board with the dress code, quite frankly we all looked fabulous, but special mentions to Emily, Jenny, and Cressida for being seriously tartan’d up!

Being my first Unilocal event, I was a little nervous but was swiftly put at ease by the cordial Cressida and all the other welcoming Unilocalers in attendance. It’s a smallish shop but there was an ideal amount of people to create a lovely, warm and friendly atmosphere. There was much fun had (outwith the booze and scran) in the form of a map quest and a Scottish themed quiz; won by *ahem* Mikel and myself *ahem*
There were incredibly drinkable cocktails from Pincer Vodka made by the proprietor, James, himself. Two types of cured salmon from the excellent Wedgewood restaurant next door, garlic pesto, venison salami and crowdie cheese. All served with tasty crusty bread. Beth and Fiona made consummate hosts and even offered us 10% off!
I will admit, shamefully, that Cranachan & Crowdie is somewhere I have passed many a time and dismissed as being another Royal Mile tourist trap. The reality is that it is full of anything but the usual tourist tat seen around town. They sell a great variety of Scottish products that range from St. Andrews pottery, an impressive wall of craft beer to everything in-between.There is something here for everyone; tourist and local alike. It’s somewhere you’ll find great quality, authentic products, unique gifts and souvenirs all in one place.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening spent in great company and hosted somewhere I will be sure to return.
And thank you Cressida for such a splendid Unilocal baptism!

Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin which roughly translates to ‘Our ain reek’s better than ither folk’s fire’.
Living in Edinburgh the past 4 years it’s easy to be homesick for Dublin Bay prawns or a nice bit of salmon on soda bread. Well Cressi, Beth, Fiona and Johnathan sure put on a show that demonstrated to everyone: Scottish, home grown produce is where it’s at!
Decked out in our tartan and tweed (hooray for everyone’s effort!) we started off with a quick introduction to the amazing pesto –woah I will not be kissing anyone for the next few days!- a lovely game sausage with peppercorns, crowdie on delicious thick bread and the cherry on the cake, some amazingly cured salmon. The chef from Wedgewood next door had gone out of his way to cure a hunk of salmon in Pincer vodka in two ways: first with red peppercorns and strawberries and second with seaweed (and possibly something else?). Both were delicious though I’d take the red peppercorn and strawberry out and show it a good time.
Then we had an introduction to Pincer vodka. After which we all had a lovely cockail made from the vodka, crushed ice, lemon syrup and cane sugar syrup. It was deliciously sweet and bitter. I could drink it all night! The same can be said about the vodka neat. Wow, it’s got taste!
The lovely Cressi had organised a wee activity for us. She had us running around in pairs snapping photos and taking note of all the different places the goods in the shop came from, all Scottish of course! Following that, a wee quiz on Scottish history.
The ladies at Cranachan and Crowdie were good enough to give us 10% off purchases made on the night so I left with some beer and a jar of very interesting banana chutney.
Thanks everyone for such a lovely evening and for showing us that there’s more to Scottish food than haggis, neeps and tatties (though it’s a seriously good palce to start!)

What a nice evening, full with charm and delightful goodies. There was lots to browse and choose from and we even got 10% off all things Scottish.
We enjoyed a Scottish quiz and were sent around the shop in a treasure hunt kinda way. The task was to take 10 pictures of 10 different Scottish produced foodies and upload onto Unilocal as we got along.
I had missed the introduction to all the lovely food and vodka, but nevertheless got my own display and introduction to vodka infused salmon sprinkled with sesame seeds, delicatent vanison salami, Scottish soft cheese, elderflower soft drink, garlic pesto tip, Pincer Vodka locally produced, Scottish bread.
Needless to say we browsed the shop before leaving as satisfied customers.
The staff Beth and Fiona were adorable. So much fun. Cressi was her usual kindred spirit and brilliant host. A big Thanks to everybody who made this evening a special one x