The Whisky Room at the Athenaeum Hotel

Taking a cue from sometime guest & muso-turned-foodie farmer Alex James, things could get blurred at the edges with a 300-strong whisky menu to work through. Top-flight drams & Mr James’s artisan cheeses work well together here: sample 12-year-old Balvenie DoubleWood with creamy compatriot Blue Monday, or a nibble of Suffolk Gold with Gentleman Jack – an extremely classy version of the omnipresent Jack Daniel’s. There are also some truly regal Caledonians if money is no object: reckon on £60-plus for Springbank 1968, & more than £100 for a 1948 Glenlivet. If your budget only runs to a tenner, go for Auchentoshan Three Wood, Clynelish, Edradour or peaty Irish pretender Connemara. Fancy metropolitan cocktails are available for those not sold on whisky, & modish nibbles match the quirky-chic surroundings.