The BowBar

The Bow Bar occupies a single room on West Bow, just off the Grassmarket, and has traded in its present form since 1987, when a redesign by Ian Whyte gave the tenement space its traditional alehouse look. Deuchar's IPA, now a national brand, started out as the pub's own house beer that year. There is no music, and the television only appears for rugby internationals. Behind the bar sit around four hundred single malt whiskies, including the pub's own bottlings, alongside cask ales that rotate through beers from independent breweries across Scotland and beyond. Food is limited to soup and pies supplied by Findlay's Butchers of Portobello. The pub is Grade C listed and won the Scottish Hospitality Awards' Best Pub in Scotland title in 2024.