Bartender's Choice

Bartender's Choice Claudio 'Nino' Antonino, The Maven

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

Sometimes you have to work a little bit harder to get the finer things in life. And unless you know exactly where you’re going, you might find yourself walking up and down Call Lane for some time before you manage to find The Maven. For starters there isn’t even a sign outside, in true Prohibition speakeasy style. But if you’re a cocktail lover, you’ll be pleased you got here in the end. After making your way in through the inconspicuous exterior, you head up an old staircase and into this unexpected, classy little hideaway.

The man behind The Maven is…

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Bartender's Choice Dan Smithson, Smokestack

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

You’re standing at a bar. Grizzly old timers smoke cigars and drink neat rum either side of you; wisps of smoke carry mellow jazz through the air. The bartender places a tumbler of spirit in front of you, followed by a bowl of sugar and a lime. He leans forward, pulls up his sleeves and reveals words tattooed across his forearms: Chacun Prepare Sa Propre Mort. You mix your own drink and hand over the cash.

This might have been the scene at a backstreet bar in the Caribbean, many years ago. The phrase Chacun Prepare Sa Propre Mort means…

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Bartender's Choice Dean Pugh, Mr Foley's Ale House

Where the stars behind the Leeds bars reveal their favourite drinks – this month, Summer Wine's Diablo IPA

"It’s one of my favourite beers at the moment," says Dean Pugh, manager of Mr Foley’s Ale House, as he sips at a half pint of Summer Wine Brewery‘s Diablo. "Whenever I need a good hop fix it works really well."

Dean is showing us one of four beers available on the keg lines that were installed quite recently at Mr Foley’s Ale House. "We started at the beginning of the year with the BrewDog taps," he says. "That sold really well, so we expanded that into the British keg beers. We took some of the…

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Bartender's Choice Wesley Harrington, Massey's Bookseller City Bar

Where the stars behind the Leeds bars reveal their favourite drinks

Wesley moved from London to Leeds in February this year – not to open a new bar, but to become a helicopter pilot. "When I came to Leeds, I was working on Call Lane," he says. "I’m one of those types of people – I’m new to a town, so what better way to do it? Get a part-time job, get involved with a bar. And next thing I know I get to know a few people, and that assisted me in opening this place, as it gave me a proper feel of what Leeds is all about."

As it…

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Bartender's Choice Andy Gilpin, Call Lane Social

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

"Wray & Nephews – the daddy of all strong rums," says Andy, bar manager at Call Lane Social. He’s busy preparing the ingredients for a special and very potent cocktail he’s about to serve us. "We’re going to light that rum in a bit," he adds.

We’re upstairs in Call Lane Social’s tiki bar, a characterful little hideaway that has a unique and intimate feel to it. It is in fact the only tiki-themed bar in the city, Andy tells us, serving up a small but well-formed range of tropical cocktails with rum very much at the forefront. "I’m…

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Bartender's Choice Tom Houton, Escobar

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

"It’s a great indie venue. The only reason I wanted to take a job here is because of the reputation that we had in Wakefield, with all the big bands that we’ve had, and the atmosphere when I used to go there. When I used to live in Wakefield this is the bar that I basically just used to live in, and when I’d just moved back to Leeds and I found out this was opening up, I was like ‘I want a job here, really badly’," enthuses bartender Tom. "Every person in Wakefield always wanted to work in

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Bartender's Choice Ben Dakin & Matt Warrener, Empire

Two of the bar team at new bar/music venue Empire tells us about the beer and cocktails behind the bar

Recently opened just beyond Leeds Bridge on the south side of the river, Empire have been pretty cheeky with this Bartender’s Choice – putting forward two bartenders and two drinks. But then, this bar is really two venues in one: upstairs is, as Matt Warrener (curly hair and pint) puts it, "a nice little Call Lane-style cocktail bar with a great selection of beers, a very intimate atmosphere"; downstairs is a 250-capacity music venue.

The choices the two ‘tenders put forward could hardly be further apart either. Matt’s picked a pint of rich, dark local ale and Ben’s gone for…

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Bartender's Choice Cherie Middleton, Brooklyn Bar

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks - this month, Original Daiquiri

We have a dilemma in the choice of cocktail for Brooklyn Bar‘s Cherie Middleton. "It was either an Old Fashioned or an Original Daiquiri, but Old Fashioneds just take too long – I didn’t want to encourage people to buy them," she jokes.

Cherie has been at Brooklyn since it opened and is passionate about her rums and whiskeys. When it came to her choice of drink, she knew she wanted it to be a classic, but just wasn’t sure she could decide between the two.

"I’m a massive rum drinker," she says. "I’ve made quite a few cocktails…

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Bartender's Choice Mark Crossley, Milo

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

We all know Leeds has a thriving bar scene, but once in a while it does no harm at all to check out what’s going on in other cities. And if you’re going to head somewhere else, it might as well be New York. Mark from Milo recently headed out there with his girlfriend Sam, who works for Mojo. “We did all the normal stuff, the sightseeing and everything,” he says, “but we hit a lot of the bars. We went from one end, doing the dirty dive bar thing, and then the proper upmarket ones.”

Like any true pros,…

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Bartender's Choice Jonathan Grasty, The Shed Bar, Mint Juelep

Where the stars behind the bars reveal their favourite drinks

Finding a drinking hole quite as laid back as The Shed Bar isn’t easy in Leeds. Situated under a captivating rail arch with an electric atmosphere, if a mixture of modern rock, indie and classic rock’n'roll is your thing, then this is the place to be.

“Its all about the party atmosphere,” says Jonathan, operations manager at The Shed. “That’s what we’ve tried to create and that’s what we want to capture. We encourage people to have a good time, put a bit of Rage Against The Machine on and we’re straight up on the bar tops, it’s a great…

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