The area around the top of Leith Walk is becoming a hot spot for elite level specialty coffee.
Perhaps this because the area is on the cusp of the city centre without quite the exorbitant rents found in the tourist heart of Edinburgh. Ante on Haddington Place was recently joined over by Kul over the road on Elm Row. On a back street, just a short distance away, lies a truly stunning venue to drink coffee. This is Santu’s Roastery and coffee bar.
Wonderfully different
Santu have been roasting coffee at 23 Union Street since 2021, but have now set up a coffee bar within the building, open to the public. With its vast scale and lovely light, it offers an absolutely glorious place within which to enjoy well-made, high quality coffee, brewed from beans roasted a few metres from your seat.
As a venue it offers a peaceful retreat, distinct from some of the very busy cafes you will find across the city. Here, there’s not the same constant chatter or pressure on seats. Santu already has their own little coffee bar on the Canongate. Small and snug, it’s primarily for takeaway; to caffeinate tourists as they explore the Old Town. Their place on Union Street is very different in scale and in the general vibe, existing in a parallel world sans bustle and urgency. It’s something wonderfully different.
An ethereal air
As you walk in you’re immediately aware of the size and scale of the place, a place of light and minimalism, with light streaming in through the roof. Music, often ambient, pulses gently through the space. The high ceiling gives it an ethereal air. At the centre is their industrial scale roaster. In this, Santu roast beans from farmers they have a direct relationship with in the Espirito Santo region in southeastern Brazil. The main focus remains the roasting and distribution of beans. Santu supplies a number of cafes, hotels and eateries across the city and beyond, including Milk.
Santu’s new coffee bar seems to be a case of testing the water. Unlike other cafes, they don’t need vast numbers of customers from the get go, as they already have a successful roasting business. A large number of their present customers come from nearby offices (who get a 20 % discount), but like the coffee roasting aromas, word is spreading. One of these customers talked of the ‘lovely fruity smell’ that often seeps into his office from Santu. Coffee can change the atmosphere. They’ve started out on a small scale, with seats for about 15. They could, if they wished, expand this number. However, if the place was filled with chatter and urgent laptopping, it might change the character of the place.
A steady drip
At present, it’s possible to sit in and absorb the gentle pulsing tunes, with the reverberating coffee sounds adding a background rhythm. It feels like a spot with a different pace, shorn of the urgency of the world outside. Yet, as you sit you are only a short distance from busy streets – and indeed the city centre. Even writing about a ‘hidden gem’ such as this feels risky- helping to encourage many others to visit, to breach the peace. At present, the place is attracting a steady drip of customers, not a flood (in coffee terms, a V60 pour over, not a rapid stream of espresso). However, on each visit, the place seems to be getting busier, despite high calibre competitors nearby (Artisan Roast, Ante and Kul).
The place has the character of an art space or gallery. Indeed the place was previously the home of Edinburgh Printmakers, now in Fountainbridge. Santu’s founder Washington Viera (who grew up on his grandparents’ coffee farm in Brazil) wants to “replicate” what the Printmakers had, and ensure that Santu’s roastery is a “vibrant community space”. So far, he’s delighted that they have, since June this year, already built up a number of “loyal customers”. Given the character of the place and the quality of the coffee, this is no surprise.
Creative repurposing
Prior to Edinburgh Printmakers, the building was a washhouse, the ghost signs of which run down the side of the hall. Santu is an illustration of the way that specialty coffee has played a leading role in finding new uses for old buildings, of imaginative repurposing. Coffee roasteries have been springing up across the city in recent years, including in areas traditionally associated with industry (Granton, Peffermill, Leith), as well as within more central parts of the city, such as Obadiah in Abbeyhill, The Cobbled Roastery on Thistle Street – and Santu’s.
Good things come to those who wait
The service was gentle, with the barista letting customers know that he would deal with them in due course (“’I won’t be too long”). On ordering a batch brew (filter coffee made on a larger scale), I was told this would take “about 5 minutes”. I was only too happy to wait, especially in such an atmosphere. Nothing was rushed, which is key to maintaining quality with specialty coffee, which requires precise brewing methods to extract the best. Good things come to those who wait.
Indeed, the barista got lost in his work. When his colleague suggested that it was break time, the barista admitted “I didn’t realise the time”. I daresay that we’d all be living better lives if we can get truly lost in what we do, with the need to be constantly conscious of the time side-lined. I used extra those minutes to try and capture the calm serenity of the place in my notebook.
Rumbling and roaring
However, be warned that when beans are being roasted the still calm is broken by the rumbling and roaring of the roaster. This tends to drown out the music and may overwhelm casual chatter. Outwith these times, Santu’s Roastery and coffee bar offers a chilled and inspiring place to enjoy delicious brews.
Santu Coffee Roastery
23 Union Street, EH1 3LR
