The rise of ‘posh’ bakeries and specialty coffee places in Edinburgh seems inexorable.
When we think of bakeries and cafés in Edinburgh, we might immediately associate them with fashionable suburbs such as Bruntsfield, Leith, Abbeyhill, and Stockbridge. In Stockbridge, Lannan bakery has become something of a media sensation due to the incredibly long queues and the strict limits that the bakery now has had to impose.
We rarely associate the fringes of the city with such places. One exception is Patina at Edinburgh Park Central. While the nearby Gyle Shopping Centre has chain coffee places, Patina offers good specialty coffee and high class baking in a very pleasant setting, a world away from the narrow streets and crowded pavements of the city centre.
While Edinburgh Park is primarily a business – focused area, on a Saturday morning Patina was particularly busy with a steady flow of customers ordering coffee, bakery and sandwiches. What they offer is similar to places such as Twelve Triangles, with its seven branches across the city (plus one in Melrose) offering ‘Bakery, Coffee, Provisions’.
Edinburgh Park has tried to avoid sinking into corporate blandness by adding a cultural aspect to the area as well as a natural feel. It’s described as ‘a natural space to flourish’. Particularly attractive is the area of water, which makes creative use of the Gogar Burn, which has been formed into three narrow ornamental lochans.
Around the water stand statues of a selection of Scotland’s greatest poets, including Hugh MacDiarmid, Norman MacCaig, and Liz Lochhead. For each of them there is a short selection from their work, contemplative and thought provoking words to absorb as you wander around – or sit on the many benches, or at picnic tables. While fairly busy during the week (though some of the office blocks remain unfilled – the long-term effects of the pandemic and shifts in work culture), on a Saturday morning it was a quiet and relaxing spot.
Patina is very accessible, only a few yards from a tram stop and with good bus connections, plus ample parking. You can see why people might come here as a bit of a break from busy city centre places.
The other customers included several who were treating themselves after exercising: running, having a gym session or playing paddle at the nearby courts. Though it was early July, it was a day of sunshine and heavy showers, with threatening clouds swirling around. The tables inside were at a premium, but fortunately there were plenty of sheltered tables outside.
From these, you get a very pleasant view over the curving tramline up towards the Pentland Hills. That view may soon disappear as the area develops further.
Patina has its roots in the Newcastle restaurant and pottery, Kiln. Pottery is available to buy at Patina, as well as coffee making equipment. Kiln has been going for over ten years and Patina is clearly a place which is the product of experience of the sector and considered thought. The bakery is just one part of the business, with a high end restaurant next door the main business. The bakery was inspired by a trip to Copenhagen and the quality pastries the owners Rich and Geffen discovered there.
The beans Patina uses are roasted by St Martin’s coffee of Leicester and they also serve coffee by local Edinburgh roasters Cult – whose café at the east end of the Meadows is one of the very best specialty places in the city. They were using St. Martin’s Magpie blend which includes beans from Brazil and Rwanda, which produces coffee that is ‘sweet, fruity and leaves a long aftertaste’.
The coffee I was served was, despite the long queue of customers, well made with satisfying nutty characteristics and good depth of flavour. Or perhaps the nuttiness came from the excellent almond croissant!
On the edge of the city, Patina is a bit of a surprise. It’s an excellent destination for those wanting to escape the city centre on a busy day, such as during the Festival and Fringe. Here you may find respite from traffic, tourists – and the lengthy queues that you tend to find for the best coffee places and bakeries.
Patina
3 Airborne Place
1 New Park Square
Edinburgh Park
EH12 9GR
