Amethyst Bar Opens on Royal Mile

X MUSE Vodka brings art, cocktails and festival energy to Edinburgh Art Festival 2025

Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has a new cultural hotspot for August — the Amethyst Bar by X MUSE Vodka. Running till 23rd August at the French Institute and open daily from 2 to 10pm (closed Mondays), the pop-up is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2025 and blends world-class mixology with contemporary art.

X MUSE, the world’s first blended barley vodka, has taken inspiration from the artworks at Jupiter Artland, its spiritual home, to create a bespoke cocktail menu. Expect serves inspired by Charles Jencks’ Cells of Life, Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Star/Steer, Anya Gallaccio’s The Light Pours Out of Me and Nicolas Party’s Cafe Party. Alongside cocktails, guests can try neat tastings of X MUSE’s two heritage barleys, Maris Otter and Plumage Archer.

The space includes an outdoor terrace overlooking the Royal Mile and an indoor creative hub anchored by a striking amethyst installation curated by X MUSE co-founder Vadim Grigoryan. The crystal centrepiece nods to Gallaccio’s The Light Pours Out of Me and reflects the vodka’s connection to art, creativity and shared cultural experiences.

Grigoryan describes the bar as “a modern-day agora” — a meeting point for artists, curators and festival-goers alike. “Our partnership with EAF is a continuation of our belief in the transformational power of art. The Amethyst Bar is designed with the utmost attention to detail, both in space and in taste.”

Part of the UK’s largest annual festival of visual art, the Amethyst Bar offers a rare fusion of Scotland’s distilling traditions, visual culture and Edinburgh’s unmistakable festival buzz. Whether you’re an art devotee or simply in search of a perfect late-summer cocktail, this is a pop-up worth making time for.

The Amethyst Bar, French Institute, Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Open 6–23 August, 2–10pm, closed Mondays.