First ever cheese restaurant in Leeds to close its doors

Homage 2 Fromage. Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe.

The popular Homage 2 Fromage pop-up café at the former LAB bar will melt its last fondue on Saturday, April 16.

Homage 2 Fromage founder Vickie Rogerson said: “It is a shame as it’s been very successful but also uber exciting, as we’re hoping to move it to a different venue in the city as it was so popular.

“We have been pretty overwhelmed by how popular our cheese café was and we know some people are going to be sad to see it go, but we hope the city will support us when we find new premises to open on our own.”

Homage 2 Fromage teamed up with the Jones Bar Group to set up the site at the former LAB bar at the Merrion Centre in October last year.

The restaurant served fondue, raclette, mac and cheese, tartiflette, pizzas and cheese boards.

Vickie added: “We’ve learnt one very important thing...the people of Leeds really love cheese!

“We’ve been overwhelmed by everyone’s enthusiastic cheese-eating support and we hope we can open a new restaurant in the city soon.”

Homage 2 Fromage co-founder Nick Copland added: “We went into this process having never run a restaurant before, and not knowing whether anyone would even come, so we’re proud to have created a restaurant that was so popular.

“To thank everyone, we’re going out with a bang with a big cheese party on April 16.”

Matt Jones, managing director of the Jones Bar Group said: “We’ve really enjoyed working with Homage2Fromage and we’ve all learnt a lot about cheese.

“We wish Nick and Vickie lots of luck in their future cheesy adventures.

“We will be turning the LAB into a new pop up Motown-inspired ‘all you can eat’ pizza parlour for six months opening towards the back end of April.”

Homage 2 Fromage is a Leeds-based cheese club that was set up four years ago by Nick and Vickie, with its first event launched by Blur bassist and cheese aficionado Alex James.

The informal night has grown into five regular events in Leeds and other northern cities, attracting more than 300 people every month.

Tickets for the farewell Cheese Feast party will be available soon.