Talk of the Town: Winners haven't got a Lotto bottle

IT was a case of second thoughts as the Capital's newest Lotto millionaires left onlookers asking "It could be who?" after taking stage-fright just minutes before going public about their win.

The two cousins who won 2,497,823 by matching all six numbers in the weekend draw were to be unveiled yesterday at a press conference organised by Lotto bosses Camelot at the city's Macdonald Holyrood Hotel.

But moments before they were due to be revealed to talk about how they would spend their winnings to the waiting press, the bashful pair obviously had second thoughts and decided against it.

Now that's a PR scrum

AS if it wasn't confusing enough for the Edinburgh Rugby team to display the word Aberdeen on their jerseys - in a reference to their sponsors, Aberdeen Asset Management - the generous company recently organised a media lunch in a restaurant actually closed for renovation.

Apparently a Southern-based representative of the firm had booked the London branch of a popular eaterie on our own George Street, but quick thinking on the part of PR girl Jill ensured neither hacks nor Edinburgh Rugby's coaches went hungry after a quick detour 200 yards along George Street to an alternative. Steaks on the hoof, indeed!

Chop Chop makes the cut

CHINESE restaurants have a fond place in the hearts of many diners and it seems if you're looking for a top quality Chinese meal you need look no further than the Capital.

Following a nationwide search for Britain's favourite Chinese restaurant, Edinburgh-based Chop Chop has received by far the most votes of the hundreds of Chinese restaurants nominated, getting twice as many votes as the second-placed restaurant.

It is now among the top-four restaurants short-listed as finalists and will be visited by a panel of judges from China-based brewers Tsingtao, during September.

Then again, with the recently opened Chop Chop restaurant in Leith offering customers free beer - asking instead for donations as it awaited a licence - is it any wonder it has so many fans?

We join the upper crust

NEXT time football fans in the Capital are considering a rousing chorus of "Who ate all the pies?" they might want to stop themselves - because it turns out we did. Or lots of them, at least, if a survey by McDougalls Upper Crust Pies is to be believed.

The findings have revealed what it claims are the "Top Ten pie-eating cities in the UK" - and Edinburgh weighs in a hefty, but respectable, fifth.

Not a bad effort, but surely we can do better? Come on everybody, down to Greggs . . .