The eve of 26th January heralded the return of Burns’ Night to The Sun Tavern, the night during which we pay our respects to the great Rabbie Burns -‘Scottish national poet’, waxer lyrical on haggis, mice and red, red roses.
The night kicked off with a spot of spoken word. Our good friend and poet, Will Conway, took to the stage and gave us all a stirring rendition of ‘A Red, Red Rose’ in honour of the great man himself, before moving on to a couple of his own lyrical creations.
Meanwhile, the free haggis scotch eggs courtesy of Pig & Hay started making their way out. These proved to be a smash hit – with our stores emptied long before midnight!
As is tradition on Burns’ Night, next up came the age-old address of the haggis. The honour in this case belonged to Rennie – from Scottish legends The View – who took to the stage and recited the customary verses before jumping onto the decks and throwing out some rock ‘n’ roll classics.
Not before he sprinkled the room with a dash of patriotism, however, as a bagpipe-heavy rendition of ‘Scotland the Brave’ was selected for his first tune.
In terms of the liquids, we at The Sun Tavern teamed up with The Balvenie to create a Scotch heavy cocktail in tribute to the Ploughman Poet, which was available on the night for a discounted rate – the aptly named Wha Hae.
It went down a treat. Balvenie DoubleWood, Amaro Montenegro, Winter red ale syrup & oak bitters all came together to create a drink of rare depth. A fine balance of malty sweetness, against the Amaro’s herbaceous bitterness, were all grounded by the Balvenie DoubleWood 12yr and the oak bitters.
For those who came and preferred their Scotch a little neater, there was our award-winning Whisky list to work through! And work through it they did, with the nectar flowing readily all evening long.
A big thank you to everyone who came down and made this such a great night, hope to see you all again next year!