A new wood-fired restaurant and bar Galleria, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, has just opened doors at Armley Road cultural venue and 1, 000 capacity multi-use event space, Project House.
I had a chat with Simon Stevens on opening day. Simon is one of the co-founders and directors of Project House and Galleria. I wanted to find out about Galleria, the venue and what we can expect from them.
What is the concept behind Project House and how does Galleria fit in?
“Project House is a cultural space. A lot of the directors come from a live music background, so we wanted a space that we could use ourselves and that was also different enough to the other venues of this size in Leeds. We, as promoters, have always worked with interesting artists. It’s not necessarily super mainstream, more left-field artists who want to perform in an interesting space, not necessarily the Academy or the university venues, which are great but for very different reasons. We wanted to create somewhere that was unique, where we could put our own stamp on it.
The two parts of the business are symbiotic. Galleria feeds into the event space for weddings, corporate parties or trade shows. It exists as a restaurant in its own right, but we wanted it to feed into the event space, so we can cater for all those larger events.”
Can you tell us a bit about the menu?
“We’ve got a daytime or a brunch menu, which has some of the usual staples – really good pancakes, an amazing breakfast sandwich and the stuffed hash browns. The evening menu revolves around flatbreads as the main thing. The brunch menu includes those flatbreads. That’s what our take on the breakfast sandwich will be made of – the flatbreads that are coming out of the woodfire oven. So, there’s a bit of a crossover between the two.”
And what’s the philosophy behind the menu?
“We have chefs that we’ve worked with before – Andy Castle and Connor Mckno from Ox Club. We’ve got Chris Allsop who was restaurant manager at the Reliance for years, which was one of our favourite restaurants to go to. And even the feel of the Reliance, you could go for a drink after work, or you can go and have an amazing meal in the back as well; that was definitely something that we wanted to try and recreate here. Chris has been a great person to get involved in that respect. But the result, the philosophy of the restaurant is very produce-driven and working with really good local suppliers… to create an amazing menu.”
If you had to sum it up, what are the three things that set you apart from other venues? Why should people come here?
“Oh my word, it’s a really good question. I think the menu is great. That should be enough to drive people out. The feel of the place – it’s kind of hybrid restaurant and bar and coffee spot, which is probably trying to do too many things all at once, but we wanted to create somewhere that’s really cool to hang out during the day as well. There’s going to be workspace available to come down and keep it nice and relaxed. That’s the balance that we really try to strike – amazing food that’s not too exclusive so that it’s accessible for everybody. We’ve tried to cater to people who work at Castleton Mill and want to come in for a coffee. We want to cater to real restaurant fans that might usually go to Ox Club or some of the more top end restaurants in town. The menu has to be good enough to draw those people out of the City centre, but it also has to be accessible. We don’t want it to be too fine dining that excludes a big group of people.”
After spending some time in Galleria, I believe that Simon has indeed managed to “pull together a really great team of people to work with.” Everyone I interacted with was fantastic. My plus-one and I didn’t even have to think about our order, as a member of staff explained the menu and helped us choose within seconds, according to our dietary preferences.
The food itself was incredible – tender wood-fired chicken, meat and veggie flatbreads, a crispy butterhead lettuce salad and my personal favourite, home fries with garlic aioli dip. We’ll be back to try the stuffed hash browns and pancakes for breakfast!
Before lunch, we also had the chance to try the coffee (sourced from local coffee roasters North Star). As a coffee aficionado, I was impressed that I could immediately tell the difference between the cappuccino I chose and the latte my friend ordered (the cappuccino milk was slightly more textured, but still poured into beautiful latte art with chocolate on top). Most importantly, both tasted amazing!
The Galleria bar also offers a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, including classic cocktails with a Galleria twist – maple old fashioned, caramel espresso martini, pear & sage daiquiri and non-alcoholic negroni, among others.
In a dining landscape increasingly dominated by new chain restaurant openings in town, Galleria stands out as an independent alternative that strikes a fine balance between restaurant, bar and café. The attention to detail, quality and accessibility have made the hybrid between the three possible, without compromising the quality of any, within the multi-use space of Project House. Whether you are after a relaxed coffee or brunch spot, lunch workspace, a great evening meal or post-work drinks, you can’t go wrong with Galleria.
Galleria is now open for:
Coffee and pastries from 8 am Monday – Friday
Breakfast and lunch from 9am Thursday – Saturday & 10am on Sunday
Dinner from 5pm Thursday – Saturday
Armley Rd, Leeds LS12 2DR
0113 821 4029
