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The Piazza by Anthony


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Just seen a press release for Anthony's new plans in Leeds. Hats off to him, wish I had finance like that!!

From the press release:

‘The Piazza by Anthony’ aims to deliver a new concept that will serve a much more diverse customer profile. The menu will cater for all tastes from coffee and sandwiches through to a full al a carte menu. It will include a 125 seat brasserie situated in the central open expanse together with a more casual café - ideal for quick lunches. A new bar lounge will feature with contemporary glass curtain walling that will also showcase the kitchen and serving areas.

Occupying a huge 13,200 sq ft area The Piazza by Anthony will also feature a series of retail shops where customers can purchase hand made breads, chocolates and cakes as well as self made measures of aromas - something that Anthony expects will also appeal to other local chefs. Each of these retail units will also serve the Brasserie – a unique concept where Anthony’s businesses can support each other and produce the freshest daily produce for on site consumption or take away.

In addition, Anthony has confirmed that he plans to open a private lounge that can be used for exclusive masterclasses and other private events. Further space remains secured for exciting additions in the future.

Woww :cool:

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the corn exchange is a great building that has been crying out for re-development, sounds very exciting, tony did say he had a new project that was just about to be signed but this is a little bit bigger than anything else they've ever talked about!

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news...eeds.4148083.jp

you don't win friends with salad

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the corn exchange is a great building that has been crying out for re-development, sounds very exciting, tony did say he had a new project that was just about to be signed but this is a little bit bigger than anything else they've ever talked about!

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news...eeds.4148083.jp

Bloody hell... Hugely impressive and ambitious. Yet still the bugger won't cross the Pennines!

I can only assume he must have some shadowy property baron or something backing him financially.

Where has Bapi been lately?

Cheers

Thom

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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Wonder how the local goths will react to that?

Do they actually mean the lower-gorund floor where the current bars are? No, presumably the actual ground floor. But if Threadneedle are re-developing the whole space as a boutique foodie place, he's just being brought in as a name I guess?

Oh yeah, and terrible headline!

Edited by BertieWooster (log)

It no longer exists, but it was lovely.

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i'm not well placed to speak seeing i don't think i've set foot in the place since it was last re-vamped in the early 90's. From memory there's a big ground floor with a mezzanine level up above, i would assume that anthony's have the ground floor and the mezzanine level will be split up into units.

I would suspect as the big name in leeds they have been approached by the developers to act as the cornerstone tenant of the site. Might have some more info later.....

you don't win friends with salad

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An academic friend of mine who studies issues of public space complains that the Goths are now sometimes ‘moved on’ for simply hanging around their old haunt (geddit?:wink:) of the Corn Exchange...

I’m probably alone here, but while I like the idea of the planned foodie-heaven in the abstract, I’m a not thrilled at the sanitisation of space this entails (of Goths, alternative subculture shops and the like) – particularly given the potential of the splendid nearby covered market to host quality food stalls…

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I’m probably alone here, but while I like the idea of the planned foodie-heaven in the abstract, I’m a not thrilled at the sanitisation of space this entails (of Goths, alternative subculture shops and the like) – particularly given the potential of the splendid nearby covered market to host quality food stalls…

Speaking as someone who has between 500 and 1000 goths outside his venue every weekend, I agree in theory. Unfortunately, the hair dye in toilets, the all-day drinking (and vomiting) and the fights make one tend to disagree in practice.

Gary, there was a lower ground level as well which had bars in it. Dunn if it still will have

It no longer exists, but it was lovely.

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Speaking as someone who has between 500 and 1000 goths outside his venue every weekend, I agree in theory. Unfortunately, the hair dye in toilets, the all-day drinking (and vomiting) and the fights make one tend to disagree in practice.

Gary, there was a lower ground level as well which had bars in it. Dunn if it still will have

Not that I condone violence in any way, shape or form but the one where people were beating each other with their skateboards was my favourite.

Cheers

Thom

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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Speaking as someone who has between 500 and 1000 goths outside his venue every weekend, I agree in theory. Unfortunately, the hair dye in toilets, the all-day drinking (and vomiting) and the fights make one tend to disagree in practice.

Ah, I see your point. I don't have Goths scrapping outside or borrowing my toilets; but we did have a Sea-Shanty festival outside the door recently - another form of needless pollution and public bad-behaviour???

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hurrah for world domination by the Flinns! Was in the Corn Exchange a couple of weeks ago and was thinking what a waste of a beautiful space.

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I can only assume he must have some shadowy property baron or something backing him financially.

Where has Bapi been lately?

Spending a shitload of our son's inheritance at Sat Bains last night :smile::sad: And bloody good it was too.

But hell, I bloody wish I had that sort of dosh to throw at him-they are on fire and no doubt it will work out very well for them. Very good luck to them.

Will quiz Mr Flinn on his meglomania at the Taste of Leeds do tomorrow. :smile:

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well tony makes the plans for the piazza sound relatively straight forward, but they are in no doubt it's a very big make or break project. On the plus side it's essentially making standalone units of skills they already have in bakery & pattiserie plus sandwiches / deli /shop which shouldn't be beyond them, neither should running the restaurant!

They've got the entire ground floor (not the basement bar) it's such a good site i'm sure they would have liked to get 'anthony's' moved in there too but not the space to do it properly, but it will be real wow factor place when it's completed, 6 months is the timescale......

you don't win friends with salad

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  • 2 weeks later...

had a tour round the corn exchange site on saturday afternoon after a very pleasant lunch at anthony's. I've got mixed up as to what exactly is in the site at the minute but i think i can reasonably remember what's going in now! If you don't know what the place looks like inside then this probably won't help much , but if you do it might give you an idea of what's going on!

As it stands there are two mezzanine gallery levels that circle the building so the only full floor space is effectively the basement, but it's open, if that makes any sense, you walk through at ground level and then down to anthony's. The building is undergoing re-furb around the few tenants still in there and the roof already looks spectacular, think the roof of the new st pancreas station with small lights on all the beams.

at the minute it's hard to envisage how it will all come together but the plans seem fairly well advanced as tony seems to know exactly where eveything is going down to the pot washes, the main kitchen for the brasserie will be behind glass in where the old nightclub 'innards' were so there'll be some theatre from there, then in all the existing arches in the building will go meeting room/private dining room, offices, a cheese shop, an aromas/ ingredient shop - think MG ingredients rather than onions , a substantial bakery and a sandwich / rottisserie for take away/eat in. Given the brasserie will be 125 cover the menu is likely to be more crowd pleasers with anthonys attention to detail rather than simplified anthony's dishes and the existing 3 units will all remain open, the new place will act as a supplier to them though, utilising the bakery and kitchens effectively.

All in all , exciting time, even talk of october opening subject to the vagaries of such a project but at least they have the support of the council planners (it's a grade one listed building) and the landlords so it's feasible given landlords and planners usually cause the most disruption!

you don't win friends with salad

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Had another tour around the piazza on friday, it is certainly taking shape now and attracting a lot of attention and passers by wandering in for a nosey.

When i last went it was an empty unit and a plan of where it was all going, now it is structurally pretty much there, with the kitchen extraction in (a very cool vented ceiling of sort normally seen in 5 star hotels) and waiting for the big range to go in, which will be all plancha's with seperate sections for fish/meat etc and no frying pans.

restaurant area looks like it will be a pretty stunning space on an evening, the roof is like a mini st pancreas station, studded with lights (at £75 a pop supposed to last 25 years!) and the fabric of the building has been sympathetically restored by the landlords to the original spec.

although tony is keeping the menus under wraps it's going to be a casual offering rather than fine dining - given there's 118 covers easy to see why! and prices are expected to be keen, taking on the bar & grills/living rooms etc i assume.

nice private dining rooms, sizable bar area plus a big rottiserie and open kitchen means it should be a buzzy place.

opens november 24th i believe.

you don't win friends with salad

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Blooming heck Gary, has AF got you on the sales team, thats a class description!! I have to ask (sorry) who's going to be doing all the cooking? Surely Anthony can't be in four places at once!! Or can he?!!!! I imagine AF is starting to get a tad nervous. From a blunt point of view, I personally wished AF had concentrated fully on his flag ship restaurant before branching out, but hay. Leeds definately needs a quality mid market gaff. Not been the same since the loss of Pool Court, York Place dumbing down and the demise of the Calls Grill. Does anybody ever now bother with Brasserie Forty Four? That place was the pits when I last visited a year or two ago.

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Blooming heck Gary, has AF got you on the sales team, thats a class description!! I have to ask (sorry) who's going to be doing all the cooking? Surely Anthony can't be in four places at once!! Or can he?!!!! I imagine AF is starting to get a tad nervous. From a blunt point of view, I personally wished AF had concentrated fully on his flag ship restaurant before branching out, but hay. Leeds definately needs a quality mid market gaff. Not been the same since the loss of Pool Court, York Place dumbing down and the demise of the Calls Grill. Does anybody ever now bother with Brasserie Forty Four? That place was the pits when I last visited a year or two ago.

no, i've only got to know them through going to anthonys a lot :laugh: I was just nosing in there after lunch at pizza express with a couple of colleagues when we saw Anthony snr and he offered us a tour round.

there's a chef recruited already and restaurant manager too, they're all getting stuck in with the refurb at the moment, much like the early days at anthonys when they all got stuck in painting and decorating, i thought it was unusual to see female electricians doing the cabling at the piazza when i eventually realised it was tony's sister Holly, usually FOH at flannels helping out on her day off!

Tony still at anthony's in the evening and when it's all up and running i'm sure that's where he'll spend his time, don't worry i'm usually pestering them to change the menus so i can go back!

i still go to york place regularly and the cooking is very good, it's actually not that dumbed down and there's a few of the old dishes creeping back in, its just a lot cheaper and must be one of the best quality/price places in town.

oddly enough some colleagues are going to 44 tonight, but only because the guests are staying at 42 the calls, otherwise they'd be at No3.

you don't win friends with salad

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