The Crowd of Favours, Leeds

Much better looking on the inside than the outside, this is a neat two storey bar. Well described below by PSM which saves me the trouble. The bar was buzzing on my Friday evening visit and my pint was in very good condition. I suspect Ms CAMRA will love it, so I've no doubt I'll be coming back here.

The Crowd of Favours is an unusual, modern bar operated by the Leeds Brewery, housed in a former fish and chip restaurant in a rather unfashionable part of town. The bar presents a smart, if somewhat bland, image on approach, but once inside, there are a few interesting features that make it stand out a bit. On the left hand wall for instance, there is a large, slightly surreal, graffiti-style piece of art covering the entire wall. The exposed floorboards appear to have been retained from the restaurant and the rest of the ground floor has been fitted out with a mix of seating options, much of which looks like reclaimed furniture, which seems to be in vogue with this sort of bar at the moment. The large, open right hand end of the room had more standard seating options and looked like it would be the obvious choice for anyone hoping to enjoy some food. The room has been decorated with a lot of old pictures and various bits of brewerania, which is also a theme in the large, open plan cellar bar downstairs. This space has plenty more seating, an upright piano and exposed brick walls and I thought it was quite aesthetically pleasing. Food is served most of the day and a quick glance at the menu revealed most mains around the £10 mark, which seems to be par for the course in Leeds Brewery pubs. Two banks of hand pumps offered four Leeds ales - Pale, Gold, Best and Gathering Storm - and three guests in the shape of Collingham Winter Warmer, Sonnet Ultimate Sacrifice and Red Willow Heartless with the last clip reversed. The Heartless was in good condition and went down very well. I was also quite happily enjoying the Winter Warmer until Ray, not unreasonably, pointed out that I was drinking his pint. Sorry Ray! I think I marginally preferred this pub to the Brewery Tap although they both have their good and bad points. This place seems to have a lot going for it, with live music, quizzes and a cinema night and provides an interesting counterpoint to the neighbouring Duck and Drake.

The Crowd of Favours has an L shaped bar area with seating to the right and stairs down to a basement bar that has exposed brick walls and some more seating. My recent Friday visit was not long before an advertised funk and soul disco that takes place in the basement bar. There was some low background music playing and I didn’t notice any television screens. I think that I counted eight hand pumps alongside some standard and premium draught products. I had a decent pint and the atmosphere was fairly good. I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit here again, but I would have no problem popping back in for a pint if passing.

This is a well run pub and is well worth a visit, plus it's right next door to the Duck and Drake. We visited here with the few remaining PG members and the pub had a good atmosphere, especially when us lot got in there. I was quite full to the top at this point and went for the Leeds Pale. The downstairs had settees and was trendy in décor. The majority of the people downstairs were drinking wine. The service here was good.

Leeds Brewery's latest pub/bar in the city, partly housed in an old chippy. The front is a long thin room in the usual trendy grey paintwork with the counter at the back. Two banks of four pulls serve a range of Leeds Brewery beers on one bank with guests on the other. The counter itself is a glass fronted bookcase. To the left is a small alcove with punk style decor including a Betty Boop like mural. At the back is a rather pubby sitting room in a faux 1930s style and complete with four more pulls serving the core Leeds range. Given the style of decor and that bars of this type were often known as four ale bars this may be a visual joke. There is a downstairs as well but I didn't explore it on this occasion.

Official site of The Crowd of Favours - www.crowdoffavours.co.uk