Cameo bar (by the cinema, not in Leith)

It's potentially confusing because there is a place on Commercial Street called the Cameo Bar. But nobody would want to trek all the way down there when there's a nice bar/cafe attached to the Cameo cinema in Tollcross...



I believe they do quiz nights sometimes and it can be a bit busy/noisy/crowded, but usually it's got a lovely atmosphere.

Important points? It's open late and if has free Wifi. Oh, and there are some secret sockets which aren't meant to be for public use but might be riskable. If I get bored of the Trav I may give this one a go...

Fredericks

The shiny new place upstairs on Frederick Street has a lovely view.

They serve Artisan coffee (which is lovely, if you like that sort of thing) and a small but pleasing selection of teas. There's also some food but I didn't try any...

There were a few sockets visible but appeared to be a complete absence of Wifi. And it's kinda small and busy.



Good for taking visiting patents for a nice pot of afternoon tea perhaps, but not for getting any work done.

The Chocolate Tree

I went in here for the first time today. It was, alas, a brief glimpse, as there were no chairs available. The place is quite small, quaint, and rather nicely adorned, but without chairs, it is just a hallway to the door.

That having been said, it holds promise. The chocolate sweets one can buy are amazing - I very much suggest the chilli and tequila. Also, the staff are completely awesome, and up for a ten minute chat about Linguistics. This may be because I know the staff, and she does Linguistics, but that's not the point.

I look forward to checking on a future date to see if they have wifi.

The Trav

It occurred to me that the Traverse Theatre's bar/cafe has free WiFi and, being a bar, is open late. Time to investigate!

If you've never been, it's underground and very red. When it's quiet it's lovely; when it's busy you can't move for over-inflated egos. However, the staff are generally pretty civilised which kinda makes up for what the clientele sometimes lack.



The WiFi seems to be an okay speed. There are many various seatings for the placing of bums on. A few sockets are dotted around the edge of the main bar area - not sure whether they're meant for public usage though. I had intended to have a mocha to test and was quite excited when I spotted a big tin of illy but it seems the coffee machine was turned off around 8pm. They offered filter coffee but I went with cola, which was only £1.50 - not bad for such a generally swanky establishment!

I'll have to come back to see how it pans out during the busier months (and to see if they make me unplug, which would be a bit of a dealbreaker) but for now I'm quite impressed.

And for those of you who don't frequent this sort of place, it's here.

Chocolate Soup [closed]

...this place is alright.

IFF (That's logic for if and only if) you like overpriced food, glaringly bright colours (which really destroy the otherwise lovely quietude of a hangover, I might add), weird tables/booths, and lots of tourists and yuppies.

IFF.

But it's not all that bad. I mean. It serves hot drinks. See?



I didn't check the wireless because I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could.

Coffee Names

In a shocking move, this post has nothing at all to do with any café in Edinburgh. Rather, I want to highlight another post on Brown Pundits about hard-to-pronounce names. Razib Khan mentions how a friend of his was upset when he failed to pronounce her name correctly, even though both of them were Indian in origin. He points out correctly that a) he's from an entirely different section of India (Bengal), and wouldn't know anything about the pronunciation of names in Southern India b) it's perverse to take pride in having an unpronounceable name.

More relevant to this blog, however, is a note in the comments. Basab Pradhan writes:

At Starbucks, after a few hand offs, the name that the Barrista shouts out can be unrecognizable. So I started giving “Bobby” as my name. Easy that way. I know a lot of Indians who similarly have a “Starbucks name”

That's pretty interesting.

So, in the interest of being more culturally and linguistically aware, I will now be marking cafés on whether or not they manage to pronounce my German (and Lithuanian and Jewish) name correctly. If I hear one 'Mr. Lituer?' for 'Littauer', I am going to start giving my name as 'Dr. Prahandeeninadeshnakali' and see how they manage it.

Free wifi map

The Edinburgh Reporter has a map of venues with free wifi. It includes things like Starbucks and libraries where you can't just get at it, but it's still potentially useful.

http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/free-wifi/