Pull up a chair and make yourself feel at home

barstool Place: The Watershed Address: 44 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh Telephone: 0131-220 3774 Opening hours:

Sun-Weds 10am-midnight; Thurs-Sat 10am-1am Prices: Pint around #2.55; food served 10am-10pm

THE beauty of old men's pubs is you can hide away in a corner and nobody will bat an eyelid as you lounge around in your civvies. A trip to a style bar, on the other hand, requires maximum effort and planning. Here, the punters must look as stylish as their surroundings.

The Watershed is a bizarre mixture of the two. The cosy atmosphere makes it feel as if you're hanging out at a mate's house, while the hideously bright lighting makes it a real no-no for those bad hair/ pubescent skin days.

Located down in the depths of Edinburgh's Stockbridge, where the old codger's bar still reigns supreme, it can only be the lack of competition which accounts for the popularity of The Watershed for the hip kids. The ever-loveable Edinburgh uni students, who've got daddy to buy them a pad in the area, make up a significant chunk of the clientele, but a surprising number of Edinburgh reprobates seem just as happy to bask in the stifling artificial limelight.

The vibrant aqua, purple and yellow decor easily upstages the punters on the looks front, while the cool curvy sofas are there not to offer comfort, but to be endlessly posed on. And by the end of the night you're guaranteed to be seeing stars - an eye-catching galaxy of little lights twinkle invitingly and appropriately above the bar.

A welcome change from the full-on style bar, this place is certainly relaxed - so much so that at busy times you could easily dehydrate before you manage to get the drinks in. The cool staff will get round to serving you just as soon as they can be bothered. But the advantage to this is there's no question of them hassling you if you feel like making your pint last for the rest of night.

And it's the feeling that your pal has converted his living room into a bar and invited the most ill-suited bunch of people round that makes The Watershed a place you'll go back to.

Claire Prentice

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