Mr Frothy

The annual Leeds Loves Food festival is always a great chance to sample some of the local culinary delights on offer from Yorkshire and beyond. If you didn’t manage to make it along, we did the hard work of tasting our way across Millenium Square, and have blogged the highlights for you.

Cocktails were popular across the festival with a number of bars and restaurants mixing up drinks for the punters. Azucar were complimenting their spanish food offerings with a number of cocktails, and we enjoyed their Caipirinhas. These were much better than the cocktails we sampled in the actual Azucar bar recently. Both the Jakes Bar and Grill and the Latitude bartenders were shaking up proper cocktails and exchanging banter with the crowds. Latitude were selling some decent rums and running a number of interesting tasting sessions. They run regular tasting events that are well worth checking out. The Epernay Champagne bar is one of Leeds’ best kept cocktail secrets, and although their stand at the festival was a little unexciting, a visit to their bar down at the bottom of the Carriage Works is highly recommended. As is Aglassto next door.

Epernay

Real ales were well represented and some samplings from the Wensleydale Brewery went down a treat. The Falconer session ale was a particular favourite, easy drinking but with a hint of citrus on the finish. Perfect for a hot afternoon. Just round the corner, the recently revived Kirstall Brewery Company were showcasing their new ales. They’ve only been brewing for 9 weeks, but have already scored a “Beer of the Festival” award from the Skipton Beer Festival for their Black Band Porter. The mobile pub come ice cream van that is Mr Frothy, was parked up next door and serving up Kirkstall’s ales. Great stuff.

A number of stalls selling interesting drink ingredients caught our eye. Despite it being a temperance bar, Mr Fitzpatrick’s range of old fashioned cordials looked like interesting cocktail ingredients. We tried the Cream of Soda and the Sasparilla which were both delicious. We were a little disappointed to find the Cream of Soda didn’t mix too well with a slug of Whisky. It didn’t exactly curdle, but perhaps we were working against the grain… Raisthorpe Manor had brought along their range of Yorkshire made liqueurs, including a fresh raspberry gin liqueur and a delicious sloe port that has to be tasted to be believed. Highly recommended.

Mr Fitzpatricks

Of course we also enjoyed some of the food offerings at the festival and stocked up on some goodies to take home with us. A number of stalls were selling quality sausages and despite the mighty Lishmans of nearby Ilkley being in contention, our favourites were the Wild Boar and Apple from Supreme Sausages. The Spanish style Salts Deli won us over with their range of moreish pastries. Their tiny shop just inside the entrance to the Radisson Hotel in the Light is easy to miss but well worth a visit. Finally, we were big fans of The Yorkshire Forager‘s Hawthorn Berry based sauces, which you can pick up on their excellent website.

Market Town Taverns has been quietly building a reputation in Yorkshire for quality pubs that provide a decent alternative to the hugely commercial pub chains that in places seem to have a stranglehold on town and city drinking. The ten pubs of the ‘Taverns group focus on quality beer and wine, most play no music and (most importantly) there are no TVs. One of the most recent Tavern openings was Veritas on Great George Street in Leeds. I’d heard the food was a little more special than the usual fair in other Tavern pubs, and recently got the chance to try it out.

Niche Nosh is a catering company based at the pub that gives the venue something a little extra special. As well as doing event food they provide meals and a deli counter alongside the usual quality drinks to be found in a Market Towns Tavern. Starting with a pint of Ruby Mild from the Rudgate Brewery, I was quickly tempted by the delights of the deli counter and ordered a spread of nibbles that arrived on a Lazy Susan. Locally sourced, and put together with a lot of care and attention, the deli selection was outstanding. Cheeses on offer included the award winning Yorkshire Blue, Barncliffe Brie, both blue and white Wensleydales and a goats cheese from East Yorkshire. Other highlights included rich onion chutney, cold pressed rapeseed oil from Collingham and some tender, perfectly cooked cold meats. The service was excellent and the staff were happy to stop and discuss the menu and make recommendations. 7 items from the deli menu came in at just over a tenner.

The only thing needed to round off a perfect meal (apart from a portion of rich sticky toffee pudding) was a pint of Ilkely Brewery’s citrusy Mary Jane pale ale: a close second only to Thornbridge Hall Brewery’s multi-award winning Jaipur IPA.