Just call me "mezcal lady"

There’s hospitality... and then there’s walking into a bar for the first time and finding your picture already on the wall.

Let me back up.

I went to a bar called The Last Word early on in my Edinburgh trip, and I went right after they opened. There was only one bartender working and she told me to grab a seat wherever and she’d be right with me.

Despite the cozy-looking armchairs by the fire being open, I made my way to my usual seat at the bar. And, as I was de-layering, I saw a display of polaroids by the bar.

One in particular caught my eye - someone had scrawled, “Mezcal Lady” on the bottom in Sharpie.

My first thought: “Oh, how funny would it be if I knew the Mezcal Lady...”

My second thought: “That’s me!!”

It was at this point that the bartender rounded the corner, and I immediately accosted her. “This is me! I’ve never been here!”

Turns out, I unknowingly went to the bar’s pop-up in London a few weeks earlier. And, when the bartender realized what photo I was pointing to, her first comment was, “Oh, I heard all about you!”

Cue my visible panic as I try to remember if I did anything out of pocket 😅

Thankfully, I didn’t.

I was memorable because, when one of their bartenders told me his favorite agave was tepeztate, I gave him a small, unlabeled bottle of Ofrenda’s tepeztate that I happened to have in my bag.

Anyway, that bar is great, the bar team is even better, and this story was pretty representative of my time in Edinburgh as a whole.

I’ve never seen such a tight-knit hospitality crew, or been so throughly swallowed up by one. It was like they slowly pulled me into a huddle with a whispered, “You’re one of us now, welcome.”

By the end of my two-week trip, I think we all felt like I had moved there.

And honestly, if you could get a visa to bartend, I would be tempted to buy a real coat again so, it’s probably for the best that I can’t.