I nipped into The Arch earlier on for two reasons. One was the ever burning desire to find places in Leeds to quaff a coffee/tea & munch on some chocolate/cake etc without having to resort to the ubiquitous and (let's be honest here) blandly samey generic multi-national coffee chains that so many people seem to think are the only options when in a city/town centre. (In their defence - they frequently are..but let's save that rant for another time..)
Yes Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Costa Coffee etc - I mean you.
*waves rather crumpled copy of "Socialist Worker August 2004" in the air threateningly* ; )
The other reason was that I'd walked by here several times before & thought it looked interesting. (There was also a third reason - the desire to increase my blood sugar levels after a few, erm, swift halves in the pub after finishing a rather dull Friday at work & then several more vinos in my flat singing along & waving an unsuspecting pet rabbit around to the eternal and ever chirpy strains of the one and only Steven Patrick Morrissey..but enough about my Friday nights in..)
The decor in the cafe is nothing special, if I'm absolutely honest (it would be an even poorer review if I wasn't..). It's a bit plastic and modern looking really, but you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover (unless it's published by Mills & Boon, in which case it will provide you with a pretty good idea of the "plot"). However, the staff are friendly, the prices are reasonable (not insanely cheap, but it is in the heart of Leeds city centre) and the coffee & the Rocky Road cake very enjoyable.
I paid £2.95 for a cappuccino & (a rather delicious) Rocky Road cake, which I suppose is a bit cheaper than average.
The main reason I'm really recommending this cafe is that the proceeds go to helping Age UK, which in my opinion is a good enough reason to go in there and support them. It's not a trendy place at all - there are quite a few elderly people in there (as to be expected) but personally, given the choice of some polite OAPs having a gossip about War Bonds, Neville Chamberlain and the ever increasing cost of Brylcreem (all right, that was a tad stereotypical..I think they were actually discussing Justin Bieber, "iPods" and the Harlem Shake..three things I personally know absolutely nothing about) or sitting in a bog standard find-me-anywhere-in-the-world-and-possibly-on-Saturn-too corporately bland coffeestuffs emporium surrounded by hipsters all perusing their "iPods" or suffering mothers & squealing children (presumably crying about not having an "iPod") I know which I'd prefer : )
And best of all - the proceeds go towards helping elderly people. Did I mention that part? ; )
*retires now to the strains of Pulp's classic 1997 number 8 hit "Help The Aged".
All right : ) read more