#85. Mathers, 1 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh

Linus and I embarked on a mini crawl of some West End pubs. Our first stop was Mathers No. 1 near the intersection that Linus calls "Edinburgh's Times Square."



It was a cold night, and the blast of hot air upon entering quickly became intolerable. The place was full of bald, old farts. And that was just the women. There was no place to sit, but plenty of space to stand in the middle of the floor. However, notice how the patrons choose instead to stand at the bar, blocking access for people to order a drink.



Here you can see Linus struggling to get our drinks while sandwiched between the round, oblivious types one can invariably find shamelessly blocking access to the taps.



This proclivity to bar-block is a strange custom given there is no table service at the pubs and all orders must be placed with the bartender.

Anyway, I had high hopes for this pub as I quite like the Mathers (No. 2?) over on Broughton. I ordered a Wadworth 6X, and promptly lost four pounds on the fruit machine before we quickly downed our drinks to escape this sauna.