ALONGSIDE its hard won reputation for having the worst train station to get to in the whole of the UK, Leeds now has a slightly more esteemed claim to fame.
The city is home to a pub that has recently been proclaimed number one in a list of the 100 top boozers in Britain.
The Highland Laddie came top in the inaugural list of the 100 Best Pubs in Britain, published by the Good Food Guide.
It might have only opened in April but The Highland Laddie is not some new fangled, arty farty gastro pub run by a chef and owner with an attitude, serving dishes that look more like table decorations rather than something enticing and edible.
At a time when many pubs are closing their doors due to rising costs and changing tastes The Highland Laddie is bucking the trend.
The pub, which dates back to the 1920s, is squeezed in between student accommodation blocks in between Kirkstall Road and Burley Road.
If you have ever seen the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, it always reminds me of the lopsided house above King’s Cross Station where the landlady lives who puts up the gang of robbers.
Formerly known as The Highland, the pub, on Cavendish Street, served pints for around 100 years until it closed in 2023.
But enterprising couple Sam Pullan and Nicole Deighton, who have won plaudits for their Empire Cafe in the city, saw The Highland up for sale and convinced the landlords – who had had lots of approaches to turn it into a vape shop or convenience store – to sell to them.
And now it’s garnering great reviews, calling itself simply: “A drinkers’ pub with a dining room”, serving oysters, shepherd’s pie and a selection of seasonal dishes, including a popular Sunday roast.
Drinkers stand at the bar or outside on the cobbles sipping pints while diners sit at round pub tables or on stools to sample the traditional fayre with a twist.
I first went to The Highland about 35 years ago when I was on work experience at The Yorkshire Evening Post.
All the reporters and sub-editors took a proper lunch break and as a wet behind the ears student would-be journalist I was taken along by the team which included the long-serving diary and feature writer John Thorpe (who was always referred to as ‘Lord Thorpe’ despite only being in receipt of an MBE from the monarch).
The usual YEP watering hole was a bar in the hotel next door to the Wellington Street bunker that housed the newspaper and its sister title The Yorkshire Post.
But sometimes the journalists fancied a change and we would walk under the flyover leading to the often gridlocked Armley gyratory, past the TGI Fridays diner and across a car park sandwiched between two dual carriageways.
Then, once across the road, you would walk past the vast Maxi’s Chinese restaurant and past a casino and an establishment called Winston’s that everybody had heard of but nobody ever admitted going to and then up the road next to the RSPCA dog pound where conversation always stopped momentarily because of the barking.
The pub was rough and ready with an interesting mix of all-day drinkers and professionals from nearby offices.
It is nice to see that its new iteration has kept the bar and decor and you will be welcomed whether you are there for a half a Guinness or a slap-up lunch of a schnitzel topped with two fried eggs and anchovies washed down with oysters and a crisp white wine.
Talking to the BBC after receiving the accolade as Britain’s top pub from The Good Food Guide, Sam Pullan explained his no-nonsense pitch to the owners of the building when he was trying to buy it.
“I said, ‘look, I want to bring it back to a traditional boozer with some exceptional food’.”
He’s definitely delivered that pledge.
And by the look of how booked up they are, it sounds like punters have bought into The Highland Laddie too.
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IT was nice to catch up with old friends and contacts at the opening of Chameleon Business Interiors’ new office in Leeds yesterday.
It is another significant step for the Hull-based business founded and run by Shaun Watts.
The business outlook might be challenging but Shaun embodies the entrepreneurial approach to risk and reward.
During the Covid pandemic he took the unprecedented stop of expanding his business, which designs and fits out offices and work spaces beyond East Yorkshire and across the UK at a time when everybody was predicting the demise of the traditional working environment with working from home becoming the new norm.
The reality is that many businesses now recognise that they have to make work places more attractive as well as functional for the way modern firms and their people work now.
Simply chucking a couple of bean bags in the corner and setting up a pool table doesn’t make you a trendy place to work any more.
I remember one painfully fashionable creative agency in Leeds installing a fire station pole which employees could use to descend from the upper floor to the ground floor.
That’s a health and safety nightmare in waiting.
Well it would be for me after a long business lunch.
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EVERY business event I go to these days ends up with the same conversation.
When I ask how people are doing in business there is usually a shake of the head and responses such as “It’s tough out there, no one wants to make a decision, there is so much uncertainty about the Budget.”
The only thing that everyone can agree on about the Budget at the end of this month is that there aren’t going to be any nice surprises.
The advice seems to be to business owners: strap yourself in and be prepared for a bumpy ride.
Well I’ve got some good news for you.
It seems that the Government also doesn’t have a clue yet about what is going to be in the Budget.
Last week Chancellor Rachel Reeves was giving a speech which appeared to pave the way for Labour to break its manifesto pledge not to increase income tax.
And this morning the FT and other news outlets are now reporting that income tax won’t be raised on November 26.
I’ve never known so much confusion and negativity surrounding the major fiscal event of the year.
But I always try to be positive so all this uncertainty has inspired me to rewrite the lyrics of the early hip hop tune Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang.
Altogether now:
I said a flip-flop, the flippy, the flippy
To the flip, flip-flop and you don’t stop the mockin’
To the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie
To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.
Now I would have liked to have changed a few more of the lyrics from the original song but I couldn’t find a financial or economic word to rhyme with boogie…
Have a great weekend…in da hood.