Bar Review East of Arcadia

Tom Goodhand visits Market Town Taverns' newest pub in the up-and-coming suburb of Meanwood

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Bar Review: East of Arcadia

Things are definitely on the up for Meanwood. While the north Leeds suburb has traditionally been over-shadowed by the student hub of Headingley to its west and the well-heeled Chapel Allerton to its east, the area’s seen a huge surge of interest since Waitrose opened its first Leeds store there.

The so-called Waitrose effect seems to be evident already in Meanwood. Within little more than a month of the supermarket opening, Market Town Taverns opened their newest pub, East of Arcadia, or East as it seems to have become known, in the now-modernised site of the former colossal Becketts Pub.

Sitting as part of the new Becketts development, East of Arcadia (a reference to MTT’s popular Arcadia pub just 10 minutes walk away in Headingley) sits alongside an estate agents with some swanky wooden-clad new flats above. The pub feels very modern, with huge windows across all the external walls, plenty of lighting and, most unusually for a pub, it feels just so clean.

The decoration is in-keeping with many of MTT’s other pubs, with plain, neutral colours on the walls and floors, and then plenty of vintage framed beer posters dotted around to remind you that East of Arcadia is indeed, a beer drinker’s haven.

Again, following the path set by most of the chain’s other pubs, East specialises in real ale, while also boasting an impressive array of wines and a decent selection of beers from around the world. The real treat though is in the hand-pumps. There are seven of them on the substantial bar, with most of the beers coming from quality local breweries. Leeds Brewery‘s Leeds Pale and Ilkley Brewery‘s Mary Jane are seemingly the two regular pale ales. Even these two beers don’t manage to be as local as the cask of Brewer’s Reserve from Ridgeside Brewery, which is brewed less than half a mile down Meanwood Road. His Brewer’s Reserve is a heavy, sweet and dark mild which comes in at 5% abv. Other breweries well represented include Knaresborough’s splendid Rooster’s, Ossett Brewery and Sheffield’s Kelham Island.

A decent boozer was clearly in demand for Meanwood. Friday and Saturday nights see East crammed to the rafters with a diverse range of local residents – everything from young students to old-timers – while midweek the atmosphere is a little more laidback, with many people popping in for what looks like a quality menu focusing both on pub classics (pie, fish ‘n’ chips and the like) and fancier stuff on their regularly changing specials menu.

East of Arcadia delivers pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a Market Town Taverns pub: quality ales, a laidback atmosphere, no music and decent grub. No wonder the people of Meanwood are flocking to it.

Posted on Wednesday 8th December 2010

East of Arcadia

607 Meanwood Road, Meanwood, Leeds, LS6 4HQ

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