Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

A chef-owner well known to Harrogate food and drink fans has been praised by the UK’s leading food critic for breathing new life into one of Leeds’ most historic and characterful cafes.

After relaunching the Empire Café - which has been a dining room since 1884 - Sam Pullan, formerly of The Bear at Carriages in Knaresborough, has been hailed by Jay Rayner BBC TV's Masterchef for "doing God’s own country proud".

The head chef and co-owner first took a lease a couple of years ago at the site located just off Briggate in Leeds, which had been called La Strega.

While planning to open a café with partner Nicole Deighton, he pulled back the old shopfront to discover a fading red and gold sign for the Empire Café.

Owner of Leeds' historic Empire Cafe Sam Pullan pictured The Bear at Carriages' beer garden in Knaresborough. (Picture National World/Gerard Binks)

It's a name that references the Empire Theatre, one of the great music halls of Leeds, which opened nearby in 1898.

The end result of the renovation has found favour with Jay Rayner, The Observer's restaurant critic, Masterchef regular and host of BBC Radio 4’s popular food panel show The Kitchen Cabinet.

Writing in The Guardian under the heading “Doing the good things”, Rayner praised the Empire Café for "doing God’s own country proud".

Early blueprints for the cafe’s location at No.6 Fish Street not far from the market at Kirkgate, go as far back as the 17th century.

The new-style Empire Café bar boasts a reasonably priced menu from breakfast baps to large plates with “proper Yorkshire hospitality.”

Information: https://www.empirecafeleeds.co.uk/

Former chef-owner of Carriages in Knaresborough hailed by The Guardian for reviving historic cafe in Leeds