Tag: Cafe 1505

Monday coffee deal offers a brighter start to the week

Edinburgh café launches reusable cup offer with sustainability at its heart

MONDAYS could soon feel a little brighter in Edinburgh as a city centre café launches reusable cups alongside a new half-price hot drinks offer.

Located beside Surgeons’ Hall Museums in the heart of the capital, Café 1505 is encouraging customers to switch to its reusable cup by offering 50% off hot drinks every Monday.

The discount is available exclusively to customers using the café’s own reusable cup, combining value with a more sustainable choice.

The campaign is being introduced by Surgeons Quarter, which manages Café 1505 as part of its wider commercial activity across the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh campus. Profits support the College’s charitable work in surgical education, training and improving patient outcomes worldwide.

Scott Michell, Managing Director of Surgeons Quarter, said: “Monday can be the toughest day of the week for customers and for hospitality businesses, so this is a simple way to give people a lift while also encouraging a more sustainable choice. It is about making the start of the week a little brighter, while reflecting the values behind Café 1505.

“We know people are thinking more carefully about the choices they make every day. This offer gives them a good reason to come in on a Monday, while also shining a light on the ethical and environmental thinking already built into the café.”

Café 1505 serves Caffia Grown by Women coffee, using beans produced by female farmers in cooperatives across regions including Peru, Nicaragua and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Used coffee grounds are also recycled at Cyrenians Farm for composting.

The reusable cup launch forms part of a wider sustainability drive across Surgeons Quarter’s commercial operations.

Its four-star Ten Hill Place Hotel has held a Gold Green Tourism Award since 2008, with further environmental measures including the removal of single-use plastic bottles and the use of 100 per cent renewable energy.

By linking value with sustainability, Café 1505 aims to give workers, students, visitors and local residents another reason to rethink their Monday routine.

The Café 1505 reusable cup is available to purchase for £19, which includes the first hot drink free – with every Monday thereafter offering 50% off for cup holders.

For more information, visit the Surgeons Quarter: https://www.surgeonsquarter.com/

A festive risotto with purpose

Forget bland winter meals. This season, a vibrant risotto is bringing local produce and community spirit to your plate, straight from the kitchens of Ten Hill Place Hotel. The secret ingredient? Vegetables sourced directly from charity Cyrenians’ weekly veg boxes, proving that great food starts with great connections.

Cyrenians operates an organic farm in West Lothian and all money raised from the sale of their organic produce goes directly to fund their work tackling the causes and consequences of homelessness.

Executive Chef Dominik Kawalec, a 26-year culinary veteran who traded his native Poland for Edinburgh’s food scene, and rising star Junior Sous Chef Morgan Dow have crafted a dish that’s more than just a recipe—it’s a celebration of local agriculture.

Their candied beetroot risotto transforms simple, fresh ingredients into a winter warmer that packs serious flavour:

Ingredients

· 1 leek, finely chopped (for leek hay) 

· 1 onion, finely chopped

· 2-3 cloves of garlic

· 1 cup risotto rice (Arborio recommended)

· 1 sprig each of thyme and rosemary

· ½ cup white wine

· 1-2 bay leaves

· Salt and pepper to taste

· 100g Parmesan cheese

· 2 tbsp cooking oil

· 4 cups vegetable stock

· Beetroots for pickling and puree

Preparation

Pickled Beetroots

  • Combine white wine vinegar, sugar, water, and black pepper
  • Pickle beetroots in this mixture to add a tangy dimension to the dish

Leek Hay

  • Julienne the leek
  • Deep fry until crispy, creating a delicate, crunchy garnish

Beetroot Puree

  • Roast red beetroots in tin foil
  • Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme
  • Blitz with apple juice, sugar, port, and red wine
  • Creates a rich, complex base for the risotto

Cooking Method

  1. Fry onion and garlic until translucent
  2. Add Arborio rice and deglaze with white wine
  3. Gradually add vegetable stock, stirring continuously
  4. When rice is nearly cooked, incorporate beetroot puree
  5. Finish with pickled beetroots and crispy leek hay
  6. Garnish with goat cheese and Parmesan

Every Wednesday, Cyrenians offers fresh, organic veg boxes for pickup at Café 1505, available in small and regular sizes through weekly or fortnightly subscriptions.

By choosing these veg boxes, you’re doing more than preparing a delicious meal—you’re supporting their important work to tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness and connecting with the vibrant food ecosystem of Edinburgh.

Charity partnership plants seeds for success

Edinburgh venue becomes next veg bag hub 

A POPULAR Edinburgh hospitality and performance venue has paired with a homelessness charity to increase local sustainability, by supporting its organic vegetable bag subscription. 

Located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, Café 1505, part of the Surgeons Quarter campus, has become the 10th distribution point for organic fruit and vegetable bags grown at the Cyrenians Farm, based outside the city. 

The initiative allows shoppers to customise their bag choosing its delivery frequency, size, and excluded items. 

Aimed at reducing food waste and packaging by utilising re-useable bags, subscribers received a selection of fruit and vegetables grown at Cyrenians Farm in Kirknewton. 

The Nicolson Street based café joins a chain of other collection points across Edinburgh, Kirknewton, Ratho and Bathgate. 

Sophie Bell, Fundraising Manager at Cyrenians said: “We have been working with Surgeons Quarter on a number of initiatives, and we’re continually impressed by their commitment to work with like-minded enterprises. 

“Having Café 1505 as a distribution point gives subscribers more locations to collect our delicious produce, giving supporters on the South side of Edinburgh a whole new way to tackle homelessness with us.”  

Cyrenians Farm in Kirknewton, West Lothian, is home to a community for young people aged 16-25 years, and the surrounding working farm provides opportunities for residents, volunteers, and visitors to grow vegetables, and develop life skills, while being in a trusting and nurturing community. 

Another initiative includes Café 1505’s coffee grinds being used in compost for the Cyrenians Farm creating a circular sustainability scheme.  

To mark World Homelessness Day in October, Surgeons Quarter’s flagship hotel – Ten Hill Place – hosted an event with Cyrenians to launch its latest impact report. The report celebrates the role Cyrenians has played over the last year to tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness, supporting over 10,000 people in their time of need through the 60+ services that it runs in Central and South East Scotland. 

This charity partnership is the latest in a long line of ethically motivated actions by Surgeons Quarter whose profits go towards the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s (RCSEd) objective of improving patient outcomes globally. 

Stewart Munro, Operations Manager at Surgeons Quarter, said: “We are always looking for new ways to incorporate sustainable practices across the entire SQ campus.  

“That’s why it’s important that we work with incredible charities, like Cyrenians, to foster these initiatives is something we are all very passionate about, and we’re delighted to work with them as a distribution point for their veg bag subscriptions.  

“By enjoying coffee at Café 1505, you’re contributing to compost at Cyrenians Farm, where the veggies for these bags are grown. It’s a wonderful cycle of sustainability!” 

As part of Surgeons Quarter’s commitment to ethical practices, Equal Exchange’s ‘Grown by Women’ coffee is served in Café 1505, which supports female farmers in Peru and Mexico.  

It has also held a Gold Award in Green Business Tourism since 2009 and prioritise sustainability in the four-star Ten Hill Place Hotel, which they manage and promote along with all other commercial activities held within the RCSEd campus. 

More information about Surgeons Quarter can be found at: 

https://www.surgeonsquarter.com/  

New outdoor café with space for 100 now open in city centre

A CITY café is opening a new outdoor seating area this week to give diners a place to relax in the centre of Edinburgh.

Café 1505 on Nicolson Street is extending its outdoor seating into the courtyard of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, which will be able to accommodate up to 100 guests for food and drinks.

Café 1505 “Al Fresco” will open to the public between 12pm and 8pm, from Friday 24 July until Monday 31st August.

The venture is bringing life back to the courtyard which is normally used as a venue for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – The Space @ Surgeons Hall.

Chris Wallace, Café Manager at Café 1505, said: “Given everything that’s happened in the city recently, we are so excited to be bringing a new outdoor café to Edinburgh.

“From Friday, visitors can enjoy food and drinks from our café and fully stocked bar, in a safe outdoor space. There’s a large marquee which hopefully will keep any turbulent Scottish weather from dampening spirits!

“We’ll be serving everything from pizza and nachos to tapas boxes. The team is really looking forward to recreating some of the magic we experience every year as a Fringe venue – albeit on a smaller scale.

“After 8pm, visitors are free to visit the bar and restaurant at our other venue, Ten Hill Place Hotel.”

Visitors will not be required to book ahead but will be asked to leave their contact details as part of the Scottish Government’s Test and Protect programme. In line with current guidance, groups will be limited to a maximum of eight people.

All staff have received full health and safety training and social distancing will be fully observed throughout the venue.

Café 1505 is owned and managed by Surgeons Quarter, the commercial arm of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Profits from the café go towards the College’s charitable objectives of improving access to surgery and saving lives worldwide.

The café uses seasonal produce and serves what it claims to be one of the most ethical cups of coffee in Edinburgh – Coffee Grown by Women, a fair-trade product which empowers female farmers in Mexico and Peru.

Ten Hill Place Hotel gave 2,137 free room nights to NHS staff working in Edinburgh’s hospitals between March-May this year.

Search is on for Monarch of the Stovies!

– City centre café is on the hunt for 31 recipes for January –

AN EDINBURGH eatery is calling on proud home cooks to share their secret recipes for the perfect stovies – for them to be replicated by professional chefs and served to the public.

Café 1505 on Nicolson Street hopes to ignite the capital’s passion for the age-old comfort food by serving a new recipe each day in January, as part of its ‘Burns Month’ campaign.

At the end of the month, the café, which is operated by Surgeons Quarter, hopes to use customer feedback and sales figures to award the city’s ultimate recipe – crowning a member of the public as Edinburgh’s Stovies Queen or King.

The traditional potato-based stew typically contains leftover meat and onions, but recipes and ingredients vary widely across families and regions.

Scott Mitchell, Managing Director of Surgeons Quarter, said: “There are some fiercely proud cooks out there who have carefully-honed recipes passed down from generation to generation.

“Likewise, there are those who adapt the traditional formula by adding new, potentially controversial, ingredients and flavours.

“We’re urging the public to hand over their precious recipes for our catering team to prepare. Who knows, we might just settle the city’s ultimate stovies recipe once and for all.”

Café 1505 is owned by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSEd) and owes its name to the year of the historic institution’s inception.

It is operated by the college’s commercial arm, Surgeons Quarter, and all food is prepared on site by the same award-winning catering team that serve the thriving conference business and Ten Hill Place Hotel, Edinburgh’s largest independent hotel.

Alan Dickson, Executive Chef is looking forward to working with his team to do justice to the public’s recipes.

Alan said: “I’m really intrigued to find out what resonates, and whether the traditional or modern take on stovies is more popular with customers.

“One thing is for certain, my money is on a granny coming in first place – I’d be amazed if any of the younger generation can compete!”

Applicants are encouraged to hand their recipes to the Café 1505 team, send them a message on Facebook (Café 1505 @ Surgeons Quarter) or email them to:

cafe1505@surgeonsquarter.com 

between now and the 31st of January.

The winning recipe will receive a 2 night bed and breakfast stay for two at Ten Hill Place Hotel.

Surgeons Quarter promotes, sells and manages all commercial activities held within the RCSEd campus. All profits support the charitable aims of the College which are education, assessment and advancement in surgical standards worldwide.