I skipped the long and hot queue at Edinburgh's best bakery

You don’t have to wait in line

I know that queuing at Edinburgh’s finest bakery, Lannan, has become a right of passage.

I’ve done it before, but this sciatica says ‘nae chance’ to doing it again.

However, thankfully for those of us who don’t do standing - even if they are giving out cups of water to those in the line, when I visit on a Wednesday morning - there is Lannan Pantry.

I decided to revisit this Stockbridge addition, which opened back in October last year, to try their picnic offering.

You can pre-order items like filled sandwiches and pastries online, or shop for things in the pantry, to eat al-fresco. Just stride right in there. It’s next door to the corner bakery.

If you want to eat on the grass, Inverleith Park is just a short walk away, and there’s The Dene. I was doing neither. Instead, I decided to take my spoils up to visit my 90-year-old mum, so we could have an indoor picnic, probably with Foyle’s War or something else she likes on the telly playing in the background.

In the end, there were loads of suitable goodies in this shop and events space, which was looking especially gorgeous, with a full fridge and a table that featured spindly beans, plums, grooved tomatoes and other grocery items.

I unpacked my spoils up at my mum’s house, and we feasted.

The best bits were an excellent mackerel pate (£5.50) that had lots of lemon and black pepper in the mix, and we spread it thickly on their crusty and flour-dusted classic baguette (£4).

We also had chunks of the salty Fourme D’Ambert (£32 per kg) fromage and a nutty and funky Le Marechal cheese (£44 per kg). I’m not usually a hard cheese fan because I find it a bit boring, but this was a lovely complex and creamy number.

Then, a big bag of fancy cream cheese and herb Bret’s crisps (£4.50). These were way classier than my average Wotsit, and the ridges let the garlicky and dill-forward green goddess dressing (£5.50) cling to every curve like Keira Knightley’s dress in Atonement. We were covered in crumbs.

The things that really sent my hard-to-please mum into raptures were the sausage rolls (£7) each. These are occasionally on the counter in the pantry, though you may have to queue. We shared the sturdy black pudding and pineapple number, which was something for the Hawaiian pizza lovers, though they’d been judicious with the fruit ingredient.

Their sobrassada and fennel version was all gorgeous and sticky in its paper bag, with a bit of spice in the dense sausagey mix.

Mum also tried their Polara (£3.50) soft drinks, with the prettiest packaging. There was the fizzy green and citrussy Cedrata, and the brown Chinotto, which is like cola, except with a pleasingly bitter tinge.

Unfortunately Soutar Senior tapped out at pudding. So, I had to take home the huge tub of tiramisu (£7.50), which easily feeds two and is one of the bestselling items at Lannan Pantry. It was a fluffy number, with loads of chocolate dusted on top, and a satisfyingly syrupy layer of sponge.

And we had a few of their fat Shrub cherries (£17 per kg), which stained our lips in the same shade as Clinique’s Nineties lipstick Black Honey.

Again, we ate in the house, because the sun had gone in. Oh well, it’s Scotland.

I know I did this picnic thing wrong, but it felt so right.

Lannan Pantry, 29-35 Hamilton Place, Edinburgh, www.lannanbakery.com