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Pub Review: Distrikt, Duncan Street, Leeds
THE directions were a little disconcerting. "You know Duncan Street, right? It's that bit between the end of Boar Lane and the Corn Exchange. There's three sort of aluminium-fronted units on the left, then there's a ginnel, and we're down there, underground."
They could have added "next to a load of dustbins" for good measure, because when I follow the directions, that's exactly where I end up. An A-board on Duncan Street and an industrial metalled sign are the only clues I'm getting warm.
Mind you, Distrikt is so worth finding. For my short ramble through the Leeds twilight zone is shortly rewarded with a memorable evening of good beer, great tapas, dazzling jazz and sparkling conversation. All in the same room where I once used to try on school trousers and cricket whites. If they'd said "We're in what used to be Rawcliffe's basement," I'd have got here a whole lot sooner.
Rawcliffe's was the place for school uniform, indeed it may still be, somewhere else. But for generations of Leeds kids the big store on Duncan Street was the place you came for caps and ties, sports kit in regulation school colours, blazers, badges and boots. Just as the famous city cycle store Watson Cairns became the Hogshead nearby, so Rawcliffe's has become Distrikt – or at least the basement has, though only a row of pillars remain from the original. The upstairs is now those aluminium-fronted units which presumably perform some useful retail function by day.
Even from binyard level, the soft sound of jazz pulls you closer, through the open door, down the twist of stairs into a long, low-ceilinged room where you emerge stage right, next to the band.
They're a nameless trio it transpires, though individually they have names, of course – Jonathan on sax, Matthew on guitar, Agne on vocals – all Leeds College of Music students, whose interpretations of pieces, some familiar, some not, provide a gently insistent backdrop to the evening. Good too, always there to fill a gap in the conversation, but never over-intrusive – and Agne is a star in the making.
Mind you, I start by heading down the room to a short, coolly lit bar whose front is sculpted into a wave, for no good reason as far as I could see. Across the top is a choice of beers which should appeal both to a mainstream and a specialist clientele. For the former there's Staropramen and Guinness and the ubiquitous Becks Vier. For the latter there's a trio of interesting Belgians – Vedett, Liefman's and the lovely Duvel Green, which happens to be my beverage of choice on this occasion. It's a lovely dry, not over-harshly bitter lager, and deceptively easy drinking at 6.8 per cent ABV.
I soak it up with tapas, a really choice selection put together by enthusiastic young chef Paul Behnke. There's baby squid with chopped chorizo (4), some sticky ribs (4) and chicken wings (3.50) and some beautiful melty meatballs and cous cous (4), though the best for me is the soft yielding scallops (4), served with a gentle celeriac puree and a sharper dressing of apple and lime pickle. And while we've already had way too much Paul insists on us having his signature dessert, sweet roasted strawberries with a liqueur cream. A good way to finish. He comes over to chat – and immediately goes into mock-rant about the fact Distrikt sell his tapas at half price on a Wednesday evening: "I put so much love into the food, but we're almost giving it away."
He calms down. "I know, I know. We've only been open six weeks and we need to get people coming in."
He's clearly passionate about his work – and talks about a dream of Distrikt opening a bigger venue in town: "Then I can maybe get a proper-sized kitchen."
For now though, he's working minor miracles in Spanish and Middle-Eastern fusion food from a galley the size of a large wardrobe.
There's more. He's planning a new menu featuring foods foraged from woodlands, wildlands and hedgerows. "It's something people haven't done since the end of the war," he said, though I re-tell a story of gathering cockles and marsh samphire from the Wash when I was a child.
"That's exactly it," he goes on, talking of a menu where nettles and seaweeds and rose bay willows all feature.
It's ambitious, and interesting and different, and will certainly appeal to an eco-conscious clientele. "I just don't want to do what everyone else is doing."
And how does he manage in his tiny kitchen? "It's all about timing. It must look like I'm running around like a mad man at times, but it all works in the end."
Paul's rethink of the menu is symptomatic of a bar which took too long to open. The refit took months and the staff were so absorbed with getting the look right, which it is, and getting the place open, that only now, now they've hauled themselves over the line and got Distrikt up and running, do they have time to draw breath.
Paul's changing the food, boss Jonathan is having another look at the beers, the bartenders are going to start a cocktail menu.
The website www.distrikt.co.uk is well worth revising too. Its introduction ends with the memorable words: "Distrikt will never cease to be uneventful or to say the least not worth paying a visit". Which, once you've untangled the multiple negatives you'll realise is no recommendation at all.
Which is a shame, because it's a whole lot better than that.
And the fact they now have time to make these tweaks is good news.
Because it means a great little bar is set to get even better.
s.w.jenkins@ntlworld.com
FACTFILE
Host: Peter Hall and Jonathan Simons
Type: Cool underground venue
Opening Hours: Noon-12.30am daily
Beers: Becks Vier (3), Staropramen (3.30), Leffe (2.10 / half), Vedett (2.20 / half), Liefman's (2.25 / half), Duvel Green (2.40 / half), Addlestone's cider (3.50), Guinness (3).
Wine: Good selection of wines available by the bottle or the glass
Cocktails: Menu starts next week.
Food: Lunchtime sandwiches until 3.30pm; interesting choice of main courses, snacks and tapas served from 5pm-late. Half-price tapas on Wednesday evenings. Foraging menu starting soon.
Children: Not particularly suitable
Entertainment: DJs every night; live music Wednesdays.
Beer garden: None
Parking: City centre car parks and on-street areas nearby
Telephone: 07944 891851
Email: distrikt@live.co.uk
Website: www.distrikt.co.uk
EP Nov 28th 2009
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