The community of very decent coffee shops in Leeds seems to be expanding all the time.
Good indies are still outnumbered by the Faceless Chains, but you don’t have to walk far these days to get the real deal.
Brewbar Espresso takes a bit of effort to get to, not because it’s out of the way…it’s just very well hidden. Once you twig where it is, it’s easy…you know those massive chess boards on the paving stones outside the library and art gallery on the Headrow, by the cenotaph and the Henry Moore Institute?
Well, you’re right outside Brewbar, which is tucked away inside the art gallery’s shop. The only external clue is a chalkboard boasting, not unreasonably, “choice tunes and awesome good coffee”.
The espresso was good and rich, served short and strong in a glass.
A glass?
I don’t get that. Cups are better, and my double espresso seemed a little lost in the bottom of a far too large glass, but that aside, it was very good, and cheap at only £1.50.
Better than the Tiled Hall Cafe upstairs, and a million miles away from the Starbucks and Cafe Nero just up the road.
We’d travelled a long way, and when we arrived in Rome, it was late, right in the middle of that strange hinterland where the kids flick from being wide awake and excited to worn-out zombies within a couple of seconds.
Not feeding them properly helps to hasten the transformation, so we strode out into Trastevere in search of Dar Poeta, a pizzeria recommended by a couple of people in-the-know.
It turned out that it was just that little bit further away than we’d thought, and just that little bit busier.
What to do?
Everybody was hungry, and we’d already spent a good deal of time wandering Trastevere, upside down map in hand, looking for the right place. Do we stake a claim on the list and stand around outside with the Romans, watching Italian Grandmothers zip through the narrow street on Vespas, inches from our toes, or do we give it up and look for somewhere else?
Every parent has been in that spot…sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t.
This time it did, and I’m glad we held our nerve.
A couple of people higher in the queue gave up the wait seconds before their names were called. The waiter gave no-one a second chance, rattling through his list like a machine gun, so fast that I nearly missed the call, our very Yorkshire surname shouted out in a thick southern Italian accent. More…
I had a minor disaster the other day. I’d been away on a business trip for a couple of days, but before I went, I made a couple of batches of ice cream.
I rinsed out the freezer bowl from the ice cream maker, the metal bit that goes in the freezer and does The Business and left it on the work surface above the dishwasher. It turns out that granite conducts the excess heat from a dishwasher really well, and the bowl must have heated up more than it should have, splitting the rim and letting a truly odd bright blue gunge leak out.
Replacement bowls seem not to exist, so that’s another piece of kitchen kit in the bin, but maybe an opportunity to buy something a bit more Rolls Royce
-like in the ice cream making department.
Before disaster struck, I managed to do a little experimentation… More…
Costa have started to claim that they’re voted the UK’s favourite coffee shop.
I don’t believe that for a second. I’ve had their coffee, after all.
Those canvassed have probably never been to the likes of Laynes, La Bottega Milanese or Opposite in Leeds, or perhaps Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool.
Bold Street Coffee is another independent through and through, in the same mould as the trio from Leeds, and it’s equally good.
Great coffee – rich, fruity espresso with a dynamic punch to it, paired with good, homemade food from a short menu, served in a simple and very cool room by friendly people.
It’s really everything an independent coffee shop should be, right down to the vinyl records played through an old Yamaha amp, the type from years ago when amps sounded warm and a little bit retro. Why I sold that old Sony amplifier of my dad’s when I was at university, I’ll never understand, but anyway…
More below…
Interesting little book, this.
Alex Mackay’s Everybody, Everyday
is the latest in what seems like a very, very long line of cookbooks aimed at helping people feel more confident in the kitchen, and cook better food more easily asa consequence.
There’s nothing wrong with that, and many of these books have some excellent ideas that cover several important bases: quick, nutritious, easy, cost effective.
This book isn’t an exception, and it has a few twists to it, too.
Jamie Oliver fell into a slightly obvious trap with his Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals
when people started grumbling that some of the recipes took far longer than half an hour to concoct. Oliver was on the right tracks, though, and Mackay’s book feels like it picks up the thread, deftly side-stepping Jamie’s time-bound albatross.
Mackay’s take on everyday cooking centres around the idea of “heroic ingredients”, a handful of solid base ingredients that can be dressed up any which way you want. He takes six ingredients – baked chicken breasts, baked salmon fillets, roast aubergines, pork chops, pasta/risotto and burgers – and presents six different ways of preparing each, in such a way that each recipe sets a different tone and provides a different twist.
More…
