Popular LIVIN'Italy Dough House in Leeds city centre announces permanent closure

LIVIN'Italy Dough House announced that it would permanently close on Wednesday, May 5.

The Cloth Hall Street restaurant opened in 2019 as a sister site to the original LIVIN'Italy deli and bar in Granary Wharf.

Unlike the original site, the Dough House focused on a more 'tapas' style menu with a selection of Italian street foods, pizza slices and cocktails.

Guests could even order a 20-inch pizza to share or indulge in their bottomless pizza slice deal.

The new site proved popular with people in Leeds, who enjoyed its focusing on coming together and sharing food.

Sadly, the owners announced that the restaurant will not reopen on May 17 - when indoor hospitality is allowed to reopen - due to issues with the lease.

The owner said: "There is no easy way to say it, so here I announce “Dough House” on Cloth Hall Street (Corn Exchange) has sadly & suddenly found itself without a home and won’t be opening back as planned on the 17th of May.

"Only two years on, the last of which was obviously troubled, we find ourselves forced to permanently close our sister venue after having lost the premises to our landlord.

"It has been a great ride and a hugely successful one too, which adds to the frustration of having to part with a venue that gave us so much satisfaction pretty much from the day we opened its doors in 2019.

"It was a brand new concept, put together based on our strengths and experience, never seen or tested before and as always, we all thrived as a team on the thrill of pioneering something new, exciting and 100 per cent Italian!

"It has been an honour to have been able to share this journey with you.

"You supported us from the get go, all the way to the very end, by flooding our booking system with requests just a few weeks back… for that, I will be forever grateful!

"I am so grateful for its success and your overwhelming support, I wish I could tell you we found a way forward, or relocated elsewhere but the reality is that the current economics affecting the hospitality industry have done a number on us indie restaurants, one we could certainly not anticipate and caused irreversible damage for no fault of our own.

"But as someone once said: “If you want a happy ending that depends, of course, on where you stop your story...”

The owner continued: "Ultimately we consider ourselves extremely lucky to this date, to have managed to offer a position to all of our Dough House remaining staff, leaving no one behind and still be able to count on such an amazing following and fall back on what is a solid base, one that never ceases to surprise us by smashing our expectations every time.

"Even today after nearly a decade, our little venue on the Leeds Riviera which you seem to love so much, is looking the best it has ever looked and with now a truly amazing team behind it, I am confident we’ll be able to make yet again, another step forward in the right direction.

"Expect the very best of “Live Life More Italian” coming next to the Leeds Riviera."

The Granary Wharf site will be remaining open.

Some of the Dough House dishes and cocktails will be added to the menu.

The staff will also be focusing on their new twice baked pizza at home' range which they launched with Arrow Fresh during lockdown.

People with vouchers should contact [email protected] to have their vouchers moved to LIVIN'Italy at Granary Wharf.