North Bar, Leeds

Definitely the best place for a drink in a row of rather dubious-looking bars, with a sort of cafe-bar feel from the modern decor. Some 20 keg taps included a fair selection of craft and a few European brews, while three handpumps offered Best and Mary Jane from Ilkley, in very good condition. There are a few benches on the pavement outside.

Modern Bar - which may or may not be your thing. Large amount of Keg on and three cask. Thankfully, the bar staff pointed out the the 6% Neipa I initially chose was - and brace yourselves - £9.40 a pint. Put me off the place completely, before any of its hidden charms had been revealed.

Official site of North Bar - www.northbrewing.com

Official site of North Bar - www.northbrewing.com

Covid Special Table service only, track & trace via their wi-fi login, all carried out with aplomb - if you have a smartphone, also card only payments. Sanitizer on every table, although it’s the cheap soapy stuff that doesn’t evaporate and leaves your hands sticky for ages. Outside tables and slimline benches take up some of the road outside.

Had a small make over, not too drastic just reupholstering of the benches, lots of slatty bits at front and on the ceiling, clean walls and dangly prints. 20 keg taps, 3 pulls and a load of bottles.

Very full and very noisy on Saturday afternoon. Narrow long place with the bar on the left. Decent selection of real ale and craft beers. Amazingly easy to get served, I must say.

The North Bar's website speculates as to whether this was Britain's first 'Craft Beer' bar and, given that it opened back in 1997,it certainly has a strong case. The bar has spawned several other venues in and around Leeds and has been refurbished in the last week or so, which renders my description obsolete before I've even written it. The pub has a shop conversion layout, with a long, narrow interior which has a seating area to the front and the servery mid-way into the room on the left hand wall. The room is bare boarded with bench and standard seating down the right hand side and small tables with regular chairs on the left. The walls have been decorated with some colourful French and Eastern European movie posters and opposite the bar there is a large mural listing countless different varieties of beer. There is also, for no discernable reason, a photo booth here as well. Beyond the bar, a smaller section houses a few more seats underneath some particularly garish wallpaper. Loads of flyers for various events in Leeds and across Yorkshire were piled up on a long shelf at the front of the pub, but all of this has been removed in the refurbishment in favour of wooden slats that run up the wall and across the ceiling. There are four hand pumps on the bar and whilst my Sunday afternoon visit meant I was too late to catch the Beavertown brews that the rest of the PuG group enjoyed on Friday night, I instead got to pick from Kirkstall North Prototype, Ilkley Pale, Burton Bridge Top Dog Stout and Blue Bee Nectar Pale. I opted for the latter which was in pretty good shape, if not the most memorable beer of the weekend. The usual eclectic keg range and extensive bottled beer selection synonymous with this type of bar was in evidence. One thing that came across was the staff's enthusiasm for good beer, with one barman getting particularly excited about the recent delivery of some bottles from an American brewery I'd never heard of. I think it was this obvious passion for their products that won me over to this place, as the bar itself isn't anything to get too excited about. This was the last pub I visited after three longs days drinking around Leeds, so I may have been a little jaded by this point, but I'd be keen to revisit the next time I'm in town.