Happy new year to you too!
Sheaf St Cafeteria is the public café and bar of Duke Studios, a community of small creative and digital businesses (disclosure: including Rich’s business). Although it is partially geared towards the businesses inside, the Cafeteria is making an effort to appeal to the wider public as well, so it definitely qualifies for the Quest!
This place is really two separate establishments: a branch of Laynes Espresso that does coffee and food during the day, and a bar that’s open in the evenings on Fridays and Saturdays. Since the Laynes doesn’t serve beer, we’re focussing this review entirely on the bar.
The Laynes bit. Closed.
The beer selection is pleasant but quite limited. There are two Camden beers on keg, and a handful of things in the fridge including Beavertown, Flying Dog, Brooklyn, Schneider and Timmermans. Last time we were here the beer selection was different so we reckon they mix it up a bit. It would definitely be nice to see some local craft beers here in the future! Beer clocks in a around £4 a go so it’s pretty average for town.
A rubbish photo of the bar and some of the furniture.
The atmosphere here is really chilled out, with great music and really cool décor including some amazing lights and lots of different kinds of seating. January’s not the best time to assess a place on a Saturday night, but when we visited it was very peaceful and a great place to have a quiet conversation: we’ll be bearing that in mind if nearby places like The Tetley are too rammed for comfort. There are two huge shutters at the front that we imagine will be opened wide in the summer making this a semi-outdoor kind of place.
All in all Sheaf St Cafeteria is only really a destination during the day, but the bar is a rare chance for a quiet weekend drink in pleasant surroundings and we’ll definitely keep it in mind when we’re lamenting the state of Leeds on a Friday night in the future.
We're on a quest to review every pub and bar in Leeds city centre. After 199 reviews we've finally caught up and now we're waiting for more to open!
When I visited in the summer the place was buzzing. There’s great venue space with street food, table tennis, a garden terrace area and BBQ. They have North Brew co’s beers on tap. I’m going back as soon as the weather improves, it’s one of Leeds’ genuine hidden treasures.