TRACEY MACLEOD REVIEWS PIAZZA BY ANTHONY
Times are hard for the hospitality industry. Just how hard was brought home to me on a recent trip to Leeds. I'd been planning to stay in a smart new hotel called The Ellington, but just as I was about to make the booking, The Ellington went into administration. It has now closed, after just six months of trading.
Magazine lead times being what they are, I'm leaving it as late as possible to file this, just to be on the safe side. But I'm fairly confident that the Leeds operation up for review this week, Piazza by Anthony, will still be going by the time you read this. Because this is the latest project from local hero Anthony Flinn, who, in partnership with his father, has built a flourishing family-owned restaurant business to make that spirited city justifiably proud.
Flinn Jnr is the young chef who worked at the famous El Bulli before returning to his home town in 1994 to launch his own restaurant, a showcase for his highly evolved modern style. Anthony's was followed by a fashion-store brasserie, Anthony's at Flannels, and an arcade café in the Victoria Quarter, Anthony's Patisserie.
Clearly the family aren't wasting money on hiring branding experts to come up with fancy names. Their latest venture, Piazza by Anthony, sounds like a perfume. But it's obviously a labour of love, rather than just a name slapped on someone else's bottle.
Colonising the cavernous ground floor of the city's grand Victorian Corn Exchange, Piazza is an ambitious and elegant temple to all things foodie, containing produce shops, café, bar and private dining rooms, with a 125-seat brasserie at its heart. A £1.5m refurbishment of the building has left the subterranean space occupied by the Piazza looking stunning, with the flagstoned floor and low-lit brick walls recalling a cathedral undercroft. Above it, the Corn Exchange's mighty Victorian bone structure, newly buffed and burnished, soars up to a miraculous domed glass ceiling.
The brasserie functions through the day, opening from brunch through to dinner. At night, the ceiling dances with distant twinkling lights, like a planetarium. There's a sparkle, too, to the food, judging by the dinner I enjoyed there with a friend who works in Leeds and is still looking for good mid-priced restaurant options.
Our starters – classic moules marinières in a more-ish broth, and pigs' cheeks braised to a dark, sticky unctuousness and served with crushed potato salad – were both well made, and decent value at £5.50 a pop.
Main course options are many and varied, from grills and roasts, through classic brasserie salads, one of which teams Bury black pudding with a soft poached egg, to some interesting-sounding pasta dishes, including black spaghetti with roasted baby squid.
We both went for fish, and were rewarded with dishes of a finesse far beyond the normal standard for brasserie cooking. My roast Whitby cod was a generous treat of a dish, the thick slab of pearly fish cooked just enough to retain its texture, and served with a rich cassoulet of chorizo, carrots and black beans. Rachel's pan-fried sea bass was an altogether more delicate and summery composition, with its zesty salad of fennel, orange, red onion and tomato.
Open since last November, Piazza has clearly found a following; even on a cold Tuesday night, around three-quarters of the tables were occupied, typically by murmuring diners who seemed slightly overawed by the magnificent surroundings. If the height of the ceiling and cathedral-like scale of the place conspire against intimacy – "it's like eating in a museum," as Rachel whispered – the service could also up the warmth factor a notch or two. The young team are efficient enough, but we felt the lack of a manager or maitre d' to put a little heart into the operation.
And did our waiter really have to pounce on me for trying to hide a dessert menu in my handbag? After I sheepishly produced it, he informed us – rather sarcastically, we felt – that if we were that interested in the menus, they were all available on-line.
Just for that, I'm not going to write anything about the puddings at all. Nope. Can't remember a thing about them. Apart from the disappointment of discovering that what sounded like an experiment in molecular gastronomy – "hot chocolate ice-cream" – was actually just regular ice-cream with the milky flavour of a cup of hot cocoa. It was good, though.
A bottle of £26 2003 Rioja Reserva Conde de Valdemar brought our bill to around £40 a head. Bread is charged extra, at £3.50 a basket, but given the building's historic purpose, maybe you couldn't expect them to give the stuff away.
Overall though, this is an impressive place. To deliver food of this quality at a reasonable price in a setting this spectacular is not easy to do. Piazza may have been planned before the economic tide turned, but if the Flinns can keep the quality as high as this, Piazza should be around for the long haul.
Piazza by Anthony, Corn Exchange, Leeds (0113 247 0995)
Food 
Ambience 
Service
Around £40 a head, including wine and service
Tipping policy: "Service charge is 10 per cent optional – all of it goes to the restaurant staff. All tips go to the staff"