The 212 Café & Bar

A new occupant in this corner of Brewery Wharf.

It seems that new bars are always opening in Leeds faster than we can keep up with! (A great problem to have, mind you.) The latest of these is a small and funky bar/café on Brewery Wharf. Locals are spoiled for choice on this little wharf, but 212 looks like it will fill in a niche nicely, as it’s sufficiently distinct from Yum Yum, Azucar, Oracle, and another new resident Twisted Kitchen.

Two turntables and a microphone. And a coffee machine. And a couple of taps.

It’s a café-by-day/dance-club-by-night, bringing in lots of different DJs on the weekends. We also see that they’ve started a board games night on Tuesday and make themselves available for yoga classes on Mondays when they’re closed. Perhaps they’ll fill a bit of the gap as a community space that was left when Dock Street Market closed.

I like it here!

With hardwood floors, standing-room-only vibe, eclectic furniture, graffiti-style mural on one of the pillars and the persistent aroma of incense, it’s certainly New York inspired, though I found it a bit more 718 (Brooklyn) then 212 (Manhattan). They offer a simple menu of pies, salad and baked treats, along with a full range of coffee and tea.

Not a bad deal on pie and a pint.

While beer is certainly not its main focus, we were pleased to see Asahi and Whitstable Bay on keg, along with Punk IPA and Vedett in the fridge. Not loads to choose from, but enough to keep us happy if we want to enjoy the chilled out atmosphere and friendly service. We’re very happy to see the arrival of this place, and we suspect it will do well!