The Bon Vivant’s Companion

Romantic, Parisian atmosphere. Candles lit around the bar. Great selection of scotch and bourbons as well as a decent wine list. If you’re trying to win over a date or your SO, bring them here.

Thanks for Jenny L for the recommendation to visit the Bön Vivant’s Companion! A fabulous shop tucked away out of plain sight, this off licence is stacked to the gunnels with a vast selection of booze.
I paid a trip to purchase a good bottle of rum, had a ten minute chinwag with one of the sales assistants and was recommended several different options from the myriad of bottles on offer. The one I went for included a gift case, but despite a five minute rummage the guy couldn’t find it for me. So I got the bottle gift-​wrapped instead and it looked amazing!
I will definitely be back. A great independent and perfect for presents, something a little bit special or just a decent bottle of plonk to treat yourself with.

Have been here 2 times in the last month and hasn’t disappointed either time.
Great food, great wine. But best of all has to be the customer service. Very attentive waitresses, never grumpy, always friendly and well informed about food.
Go, You won’t be disappointed.

Despite getting the wellies out, the poncho’s purchased and the ark carved for Taste, it was sadly cancelled, so Saturday was spent checking out the great places Edinburgh has to offer. Also, thanks to twitter, I found out that we could still ‘taste’ as The Bön Vivants Companion and Sipsmith had hastily arranged a tasting in place of the scheduled stand at Loch Meadows…
The Sipsmith tasting was fab and the Summer Cup with its fresh hints of cucumber (which I normally loathe) was a revelation and has ruined Pimms for me due to its superiority. The Sipsmith Gin was also great — even neat and is a new favourite.
Could I be biased about TBVC? Well, as someone who loves the Bön Vivant, I’ve also checked out TBVC which is also totally fab all of the time and never disappoints which is why all these reviews are all 5 stars. .
Staff really know their stuff — I hate discovering a certain type of wine when I’ve been travelling to discover, I’ll never see it again just because I’ve returned home and I speak to someone in a Wine Merchants who has no idea and won’t offer to do a bit of hunting for me. Not the case at TBVC and even ‘Its really rare’ won’t put them off.
If you are looking for some of the rarer spirits and great wine, this is the place to come as a first stop instead of trudging round town and getting sore tootsie’s. Yes, there is some high end stock but there’s also some reasonably priced bottles. It is definitely the place to come for some special occasion wine or a boozy gift :-)
I’m hoping to attend some of the regular tastings held in the basement this year now I’m twitter stalking and at the risk of letting the secret out, this is a great way to find out what is happening here. The guys at the Bön Vivant and Bön Vivant’s Companion are great at posting events on twitter, hence attending the last minute Sipsmith tasting.
TBVC — just awesome and I love it :-)

I’ve joined the raving party as The Bön Vivant’s Companion literally made my night after a disappointing meal out. Anchor Steam? In Edinburgh? Snuggled in beside Le Chouffe? Interested in my recommendation to check out Lost Coast (Downtown Brown and Tangerine Wheat Beer… YUM) to import? Bring these babies in as well as the summer beer from Anchor Steam and you have my heart in your hands. Oh and Zichichi wine too, please.
When the designated driver more excited about finding beer than eating food, you know you are onto a winner. Hugs to this place, and lots of them!

I have to join Steph in raving about the Bön Vivant’s Companion. They stocked the brandy I’d been searching town for, they kept it for me till I could go in, and then — lovely people — let me leave my heavy bags-​of-​booze* there while I did my Christmas shopping.
And, ahem, they were charming when I went back and decided to change the wine I’d bought. Top marks for customer service while dealing with a daft customer.
Really, it’s a great place, Everyone who works there is funny and lovely, they stock a huge range of stuff (and it’s not all expensive things, either) and you should go there, tonight.
*It’s Christmas! It was presents! Well, some of it…

I can’t wait to rave to everyone… and their mom, about this place.
WINE: they have it. i know shit about it… but DAMN did this place make me want to be a wino (pretty sure there’s a more delicate way to say wine-​lover). there must be 800 bottles of it. all different, all beautiful, all not white zinfindel (my poor mom).
SPIRITS (literal): If you are looking for that weird bottle of czech vodka that you drank with your hot australian girlfriend in a hostel in 1983 and you want to get it to remind you of that time (or drink to make you forget… because she WAS the one that got away) this place probably has it.
SPIRIT (metaphorical): So, I might be secretly in love with one of the sommalier’s. He had on a Christmas sweater, writes in calligraphy and knows 2 billion notes of what a wine tastes like and he still was cool. Not even a hint of pretentiousness. What a man!
VIBE: This place was hip, to say the least. But hip in a «look how hip this place is? crazy, right?» Just every angle was cool looking. The only thing missing was a murder mystery (because do you know how often people get murdered over wine cellars? A LOT… if TV is right).
VIBE DOWNSTAIRS: This was a little bit of heaven in a basement. The tasting rooms, well first you get to hang out in a «cocktail hour» type room that is so warm and inviting. There’s a bar, there’s a chair, there’s a winding staircase. It’s like the happiness of waiting for kids to come running downstairs on Christmas morning to open thier gifts. Except… even better cause — no kids. And even better cause — cocktails under the tree.
The tasting room was the best school ever. And you know how much I love buzzed education! So… this place is 100% hands down the Disney World of my universe right now!

What a gorgeous business. Seriously, so much thought has gone into every inch of this space, if nothing else it is an absolute feast for the eyes.
Fortunately, it also serves up some incredibly tasty vittles for your pre-​dinner canapes (including the best pâté I’ve ever had!) and a fantastic array of drinks. The wine even has a handy dandy guide so you know exactly what to expect from what is likely to be a bottle of wine you’ve never heard of before. They pride themselves on finding fabulous wine which won’t clean out your bank account. Over and above the wine is the beer selection — as a Californian, I was thrilled to not only find Californian beer here, I actually found CA beer which I hadn’t heard of before. OOh, that’s gooooooood.
In addition to all of this, they also offer great tasting sessions pretty regularly, as well as open evenings where draw in guests with offers of free cocktails and canapes.
It’s the kind of place that’s so cool you kind of want to keep it a secret… oops.