MARY Moriarty sweeps through the Festival Square entrance of the Sheraton Hotel with the grace and presence of a silver-screen heroine.
With her full-length fake-fur, hair piled high a la Bet Lynch, and silver and cerise jacket, she’s hard to miss. But over lunch it becomes clear that there’s a lot more to the landlady of the Port O’Leith bar than initially meets the eye.
Mary is
vice president of the Edinburgh branch of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, and has also served for two years as president of the Edinburgh and District Ladies Licensed Trade Auxiliary Association,
But her regulars might well be surprised to discover that the woman who has been known, on occasion, to break up fights by jumping across her bar to physically intervene didn’t always hanker after a career in the licensed trade. Far from it. In fact, but for a cruel twist of fate, she might never have set foot behind a bar at all.
Taking a sip of her white wine - "I can’t drink red," she declares loudly - she says: "It was always my ambition to live in America. After leaving school (Edinburgh’s Tynecastle High), I developed an interest in antiques and for years spent my time going around auctions and second-hand stalls finding items that I could export to the States.
"As a result, I visited America quite a lot and found I really enjoyed the lifestyle there. It was never my intention to have a pub."
Her ambition was briefly achieved in 1980 when, together with her teenage son and daughter, she moved to California where her sister already lived. It was to be a fresh start for the newly-divorced Mary, who had been married to mountaineer James Moriarty.
"Two years later we came back to Edinburgh to finally sell up, but my daughter said: ‘Oh, mummy, I’d rather finish my schooling here.’ I’d sold the house by then, but I thought that if I found somewhere to stay for a couple of years until she’d finished school at 16, then maybe she’d feel better about going to America . . . it never happened."
Mary, like her pub, is a contradiction. On the surface, the Port O’Leith is a typical working man’s haunt, a remnant of a bygone age. But, unlike other bars of its ilk, the Port boasts not only an impressive internet site - one it’s had for six years - but also regular coach outings to the opera and theatre for its regulars.
And, contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t Mary’s first pub . . . that was a wee local in Haddington called The Gardner’s Arms.
"I knew nothing about bars when I returned from America," admits Mary. "But it was a job I thought I could do, and like everything, you grow and learn."
She learned quickly, and since taking on the Port in 1984 has become one of the Capital’s most influential licensees.
At the moment, Mary is well and truly embroiled in a battle that could change the face of Edinburgh pubs forever - a blanket ban on smoking in the city’s restaurants, cafes and pubs.
It’s a proposal first aired last year by SNP MSP Kenny Gibson, who called for a private member’s bill to impose the ban, a measure seen by many as draconian.
Mary explains: "We are trying very hard to find a compromise. I mean, I understand a ban on smoking where there is food, but in a boozer!
"The licensed trade has come up with the compromise of putting signs up that say ‘This is a ventilated smoking area’, but the whole point is this: customers who come into a pub have a choice.
"If they don’t want to be in a smoky environment, they can always turn round and walk out."
A smoker herself, Mary concedes that the debate isn’t really that clear cut, and admits: "The concern is about the staff who have to stay there all day in a smoky atmosphere.
"When asked, I always say that I reckon I smoke about 180 a day. That’s ten cigarettes smoked passively for each of the eight hours I spend behind the bar."
Accepting a top-up of wine, while using the lull between courses to light up again, she reflects on how she has seen Leith change in the 18 years she has been at the helm of her bar.
"When I first went there, Leith was derelict, and I gave myself three years. Then there were over 1000 dockers. Now you’re lucky if it’s 120."
Ironically, her bar has become a microcosm of Leith’s changing community - dockers have been replaced by writers, actors and computer programmers.
Despite this, the Port has remained a traditional watering hole, refusing to be yuppiefied or stripped back into a minimalist style bar like many of those around it.
"I’d describe it as a boozer," says Mary. "There’s not quite sawdust on the floor, but it’s a bar that has always been a great leveller."
As for modernising her bar, she says: "I have thought about it, and considering that all the upgraded bars are now doing very well, maybe I should have done it a few years ago."
A raucous laugh suggests that was never a serious option. She adds: "There’s something about nice chrome bars that’s very clinical, and I’m sure when the young ones go there in their nice silk dresses and lovely hairdos, being seen in a place like that matters. However, nobody in the Port O’Leith thinks like that."
After 18 years, though, Mary, 63, admits that this Hogmanay she thought the unthinkable.
She says: "For the first time - when we had a three o’clock licence over New Year - I found myself thinking that I’m getting too old for this."
But before her regulars fall of their bar stools in horror, she adds: "Maybe the answer is not to give up, but to let somebody else take the responsibility."
Either way, she promises: "I’ll always be there."
Reputation justifiably steaked on good food It may be a shade expensive, but Liam Rudden is not surprised that The Grill Room is loaded with awards
AS recognition goes, the AA Rosette for Culinary Excellence is hard to beat, and is rarely awarded to the same restaurant twice.
The Grill Room at The Sheraton Hotel, however, has won it on no less than three occasions, and is currently the only Edinburgh restaurant to boast the prestigious accolade.
It’s some reputation to live up to.
Entering from the Festival Square entrance of the hotel, The Grill Room is located on your left. Forest-green tartan panels, highly polished wood and framed pastels give it the atmosphere of a very exclusive country club.
"Isn’t this lovely," says Mary, as we are shown to our smoking table near the door.
The menu soon arrives, sporting a rich gamey flavour in keeping with the surroundings, and it doesn’t take Mary long to decide what she’s having.
"The Crottin (cheese) with oregano, black olives, rosti potato and red onion salsa sounds irresistible," she says, having already spotted her main course. "It has to be the sirloin steak," she says hungrily. "After all, we are in the grill room."
For myself, the pigeon and peanut with orange and frizzle endive salad beckons, while a main course of steamed brill with salmon mousse, crushed rosti potato with smoked bacon, creamed leek and wild mushrooms is surely too tantalising to be true.
As we settle back, the tranquillity of The Grill Room becomes apparent. "I love the plates," says Mary, commenting on the gold-leaf thistles adorning them, as a waiter deftly unfolds the linen napkins and expertly positions them on our laps.
That heralds the arrival of the starters - and both look like works of art.
Each slice of pigeon breast is placed with precision around the garden-fresh frizzle salad. With just a dusting of black pepper, the pink flesh melts in the mouth.
Mary admits she’s torn between eating hers and looking at it, but soon the aroma of the cheese is too much and she is savouring her first mouthful. She sighs: "This is very nice, the cheese and the red onion salsa are wonderfully complementary."
Before long, all that’s left of the work of art are a few smudges of colour on her plate. She notes: "That was very light, just what you want in a starter at lunchtime."
The main courses too are immaculately presented. Mary’s sirloin strides its ‘piperade’ of vegetables. "There’s tatties, mushrooms, peppers, courgette . . ." she lists, before cutting into her steak, which, although ordered blue, is more pinkish.
"It could have been a bit rarer," she says, "but it’s still very nice and the vegetables are nicely crisp."
My brill sits on a bed of potato and bacon, crowned with a ‘dod’ of salmon mousse and encircled by a moat of creamed leak and mushrooms.
The brill itself is steamed to perfection, flakes ready to crumble, and even the crushed potato has retained its crunch. The combination is mouth-watering.
"It’s such a lovely room," remarks Mary as the unobtrusive but ever-watchful waiter keeps her glass topped up to a respectable level.
But has it lived up to expectations? With a litre of still water for £3.90, The Grill Room definitely has its expensive touches, but the food is perfect.
"You come here for the excellent service, the beautiful decor . . . and the plates," says Mary, adding, "and I’ve been to some very ordinary restaurants where I’ve paid a lot more for less."
The bill
2 x two-course lunch from the seasonal menu (including four glasses of house wine) ..........................................£49.00
1 litre still water...............£3.90
Total: £52.90
