Newcomers: Revealing all

The missives have been signed so I guess its an appropriate time to divulge the name and location of the pub. It's called the Illicit Still and is situated in the Tollcross area of Edinburgh city centre.

The pubs locality has undergone significant change over the past few years. Traditional industries such as brewing and iron works are being replaced with a mix of high quality residential apartments, student accommodation and financial institutions. HBOS, Standard Life and Scottish Widows whose combined staff will number well in excess of six thousand after the completion of the newest phase of office building, are all within 500mtrs.

Tollcross is home to the Kings theatre and Cameo cinema with the world famous Usher hall nearby. These entertainment venues bring a wealth of people in to the area in the evenings as do the many quality restaurants that surround them.

Residents in the area number approximately fifteen thousand. Provision for a further two and a half thousand people is nearing completion adjacent to the recently renovated canal basin which is close by.

We think that it's a cracking spot and although the pub is relatively small we hope that we can deliver an intimate pub with bags of character that will appeal to the surrounding businesses during the day and mixed population of students and residents in the evening.

Before we can get up, running and trading the refurbishment has to be finished. Its not going as quickly as we expected but we are still aiming to open on the date we have set.

It's a really exciting and interesting time for us especially as we both work full time in education. Its proving to be hard work and a bit of challenge

The adrenaline is flowing and our sleeves have been rolled up in anticipation for the hard graft to come over the next few weeks. I am totally convinced that we can do it, others do not seem to have our confidence. We shall just have to wait and see who's right.