Foundry Wine Bar, The

One of the more cheering aspects of regeneration of old properties is the salvation of buildings that only a few years ago would just have been swept away without a second thought being given to their possible re-use. For once in a way common sense has prevailed at this site in Leeds, before it was too late and some semblance of the past is being retained.

Needless to say it was once a foundry, but now the loudest sounds can be attributed to entertainment, laughter and people enjoying the atmosphere. Two Leeds United supporters took it upon themselves to open a wine bar and a restaurant in the heart of the award-winning Round Foundry development in Holbeck, and this addition to the social scene is the result.

An eclectic menu offers duck liver pate with Cumberland sauce, half a roast pheasant wrapped in bacon, with bread sauce, followed by treacle tart with ice cream. Portions are, to put it mildly, generous. Mark Palmer, restaurant critic for The Daily Telegraph felt that John Major's vision of a classless society was perhaps not as improbable as some had thought, and much of this has to be due to Bill Richardson, one of the enterprise partners who is a natural 'people' man, widely loved and revered in those parts.

Naturally the matter of liquid refreshment, this being Yorkshire and home to Timothy Taylor and other notable brews, is well attended to. Nothing is done by halves.

As Robert Cockcroft, writing in the Yorkshire Post, put it, "It's the sort of stuff that Jeeves would advise Bertie Wooster to enjoy at his London club".