Hello, Bar and Kitchen @ LS1! …Goodbye Reception

Hello everyone on this fine Wednesday Afternoon! Commonly known as ‘hump day’ since it’s the middle of the week however, over here at Crowne Plaza Leeds its Bar and Restaurant Opening day!!! Wahooo! We are BEYOND thrilled with the work Murray and Willis (our amazing contractors) and Falcon Chester Hall (our equally amazing architects) have put in to create this masterpiece that is now our brand new Restaurant and Bar at Crowne Plaza Leeds Hotel. Even a well-seasoned CP Leeds guest would not recognise the changes.
So what has actually happened?

On Sunday last week the contractors took down the hoarding which was hiding the Restaurant and Bar away from view, so then guests and staff alike could watch them conduct the final stages of the work. Plus, they had to put hoarding up to hide the reception area which is our next phase, but I’ll get onto that later. When you walk into the Restaurant space now you’ll firstly see a lounge area (side note: the psychedelic-esque teal carpet is temporary and will be changed in a few weeks when the proper carpet arrives…phew!) which has some contemporary shelving with strategically placed greenery and accessories (Another side note: whoever did this accessorising can you come and do this to my house please? Thank you). There is a vast range of seating styles too, we’ve got high tables next to the walls, sofas adjacent to this with a coffee table, some high tables beyond the divider and then bar stools and a long high table fit for a group of people. The lighting is pretty quirky too, the designers did right going for the low hanging bulbs, combine this with the one off ‘wow’ pieces and you’ve got a pretty distinct look. The back of the bar has got criss-cross shelving units with brass sliding panels, you’ll see these panels on the front of the bar too.

As you make your way through to the restaurant we have family sized booths and fitted sofa seating and tables round the right hand side of the restaurant. If you walk past the booth dividers you’ll see a space big enough to host a private dinner party or seat a multitude of guests for breakfast, lunch or tea. Towards the back of the restaurant there is the duck egg blue tiled breakfast buffet area with dark wood units and brass outlined hot buffet unit, this is next to the new swing doors with little windows in! Lastly, we have a huge booth area which can be booked out for a range of events from a private dinner party to pre-dinner cocktail drinking! There is also plug sockets located beneath all the tables which we find super handy for all instances, especially if you want to have a lunch meeting with clients and use your laptops, no fear of your laptop running out of charge! Last but not least we have two televisions in both the bar area and lounge area so for all you sports fanatics you can relax knowing we’ve got the biggest sports events covered.

You really have to come and see it for yourself to appreciate all the tiny details, it really is a wonder to look at. Something which I would’ve overlooked is the bar hatch, you know the heavy piece of wood that staff have to go through and shut so no guests come through the bar area… well, drumroll… it’s a soft shutting hatch. A soft shutting hatch!! From an operational perspective (plus the perspective that hearing a hatch bang isn’t a particularly nice noise to hear) this is the cherry on top of a perfect Bar, especially since none of us were aware it was getting fitted like that.

So now we’ve opened LS1 (stay tuned for later blog posts on LS1), what is next you’re thinking… could it get any better?! Yes is the answer. Reception has now been blocked off and hoarded up, it looks like a mini house has been built in the lobby and surprisingly it doesn’t take up tonnes of space. See images of the temporary reception desk to the left, bar a few teething issues, it is quite cosy for our front office team. We’ve replaced the mood boards on the front of the hoarding too so they’re up for you all to come and have a look and get a feel for the refurb still. As for the rest of the hotel, we’ve got our 5th floor rooms back and the work on the 4th floor has begun, we’re moving onto our standard and twin rooms now. We’re actually intrigued to see the twin rooms completed because we don’t have any refurbished twins yet so watch this space…

Towards the end of this month our brand new carpets arrive and the contractors will slowly but surely work their way round the hotel, including the mezzanine and the temporary carpets in the lounge and break out area to get them changed over. The ceiling in the mezzanine is being replaced and also our Headingley conference Suite is being stripped so it’s all underway now! Please admire all the pictures to the left – we haven’t had professional ones taken yet and we’ve still got to finish the ceiling in the restaurant too.

All of this means our beloved Phase 2 has come to a bittersweet end, now were all welcoming Phase 3 with open arms and hi-vis at the ready… let’s go!

#PolishingTheCrowne