Understory opens as a late-night cocktail dive bar beneath Rutland Street in Edinburgh's West End

The West End has a new reason to stay out after dark. Understory opened in September in the vaults beneath the Edwardian Rutland building at 1a Rutland Street, and it has quickly set itself up as the area's answer to a proper late-night bar.

The name comes from the layer of a forest that grows beneath the canopy, out of the light, where life quietly thrives. Down a flight of stairs, the room is all deep red panelling and maximalist flourishes, with a ceiling covered in painted foliage, low table lamps, whisky barrels used as perches and a copper-lit back bar.

The bar describes itself as a dive bar, but with a twist. It keeps the unpretentious, sit-where-you-like ease of a traditional dive while serving drinks of real sophistication. Much of the work happens in its own lab, carved into the historic vaults, where the team prepares ingredients for the menu using techniques such as ferments, fat washing and force carbonation.

General manager Sam Baxendale arrives after five years at the helm of Bramble and more than two decades working in Edinburgh bars. The drinks are created by James Grant, head of bars for the Rutland building, whose first menu, Batch 01: Halcyon Days, draws on British childhood memories. James trained in fine art, and every drink starts as a pencil sketch, with the drawings later printed as the bar's coasters.

The Edinburgh Reporter singled out a cocktail served to look like a pint with a bag of Scampi Fries, a Lychee Martini washed with Petits Filous and an Irn-Bru float with tonka bean sorbet. Small plates come down from the Kyloe kitchen upstairs, from corn ribs to chicken tenders.

James has said he wants people to enjoy themselves and does not want cocktail culture to be priced out of reach. The bar sits within Signature Group but aims to keep the freedom and feel of an independent.

Understory is at 1a Rutland Street and opens seven days from 4pm until 1am, and until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays. Tables can be booked on the Understory website.