Sinister: A trip down Memory Lane, A trip down Princes Street

[Ian Halliday]

In the last few weeks, people have been recalling the contrast between
the time before they were married and the time after they were
married. For me, it's a long memory that I need, perhaps like that of
an elephant. Unfortunately, by now, I am indeed getting the body to
match.
In the old days, music was the backdrop to my life, but so was food.
Nowadays, there's less music, but just as much food.
In the eighteen years since I married, my trips to Edinburgh have been
less and less frequent, partly - indeed mainly - because for fifteen
of those years I lived on the other side of the world. But now that I
have returned to the green and pleasant land, I have some questions
about Edinburgh, where I spent some of the best and worst days of my
business trips.

Restaurant 1: Just off Princes Street, if I remember correctly, there
was a diner called "Desperate Dan's". They sold man-size ten ounce
steaks, dan-size fifteen ounce steaks and desperate-dan-size twenty
ounce steaks. I was there for Pancake Day one year, and had pancakes
there to celebrate.

Restaurant 2: On Princes Street, if I remember correctly, there was a
basement restaurant themed around the work and movies of Rock Hudson.
As it was downstairs, and with that theme, it was not unreasonably
named "Rock Bottom". Despite that, I enjoyed the food and the decor,
but with the passing of time and the awareness of some issues, I am
sure that this restaurant has either gone the way of all flesh or else
rebranded and renamed itself.

Hotel 1: On these business trips, I used to stay at a place the other
end of town from Waverley Station, at a place which might have been
called something like the Ellersley House. They had an hors d'oeuvres
wheel almost as large as the London Eye as a major point in the hotel
restaurant.

Can anyone tell me about the current state of any of these places? I
know that there are many Edinburgers on this list who will have
memories that can tell me things that are beyond the reach of Google
and Directory Enquiries.

Yes, the Britain I have returned to is not by any means the one |
left, but in my humble opinion some of the places will be the same.
Please excuse the pompous style of writing, and the fact that this is
very light on B&S material, as far as I know. Or maybe the places I
have mentioned were once or will become favourite places for
Sinisterenes?

Ian
-- 
Ian W Halliday, BA Hons, AAIBF Snr, ATMG, CL
+44 772 546 2965 (GMT+1)
http://ringbark.livejournal.com/
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