Q&A: Long-standing Leeds bar offers beers, bands and vegan bhajis

HOW LONG HAS OPORTO BEEN IN LEEDS?

The bar has been here for 22 years in November and it’s a long-standing bar in Leeds. We’ve just grown and grown.

We’re a city centre bar that specialises in live music. We usually have bands on around three or four night a week.

We’ve got good connections with the music industry and when it comes to music, we try to keep our fingers on the pulse.

WHAT TYPE OF FOOD AND DRINK DO YOU STOCK?

We had a refurb just before the summer and aswell as a spanking new bar, we now we run a vegan pop-up which sells quick but tasty food.

It’s doing really well and we are quite conscious of our carbon footprint.

We sell onion bjajis and vegan kebabs - it’s dirty, naughty food but 100 per cent vegan. We also stock around 25 different types of beer.

We always try and branch out.

WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMERS DO YOU GET?

There’s a core group of people who have been coming for around 20-odd years and then we’ve got older customers and also students.

It’s a nice mixture of people.

We try to create a social environment.

WHAT MAKES LEEDS SO UNIQUE?

I moved here 12 years ago for college and I’ve also found Leeds to be a city where something is always going on.

It’s a nice size and there’s such a variety of people and places here.

The bar scene, especially, is tight-knit.

Oporto is on Call Lane and is open seven days a week, until late.