Slate NQ

Mock Tudor frontage with traditional mock Tudor neon.

Where Lounge Bar and Grill once stood, you’ll now find “Slate NQ,” a fully refurbished sleek Northern Quarter bar and pool hall. Inside is a completely different layout with the bar straight in front and a totally new look.

If you ever went to Lounge, you’ll notice a few differences.

Slate NQ is brought to you by the owners of Brooklyn Bar and Roxy, and they seem to have paid even more attention here to providing a robust beer list. The casks are all about quality Yorkshire ales and the bottle/can selection is extensive. Beyond local favourites (including Summer Wine, Bad Seed, and about a million Ilkleys), we also saw Brooklyn, BrewDog, Founders, Beavertown, Flying Dog, Camden, and many more. They seem to know that people in Leeds are into craft beer.

Put your money on the table. (But first give a lot of it to the bar just to play.)

A huge draw will be the two extensive beer gardens, especially the top one which overlooks St. John’s church. The food menu offers meaty sandwiches and artisan-type pizza (roasted artichoke, anyone?) for pretty reasonable prices, especially on Tuesdays with a 40%-off offer. Where you’ll pay through the nose is for the pool. To play on one of the four tables will cost you £9/hr off-peak and £12/hr during peak times. It’s hard to say what the going rate is since Elbow Room closed down, but we thought that sounded pretty steep.

So the beer list certainly caught our attention and we liked the new style of Slate. It will be hard to drag us away from nearby favourites like The Social and Belgrave, but pool sharks should take their cue from us and head on over. <snort>