City wine bar closes after less than a year
Wine bar Ham and Friends, the sister site to popular Leeds venue Friends of Ham, has closed after less than a year.
The venue on Merrion Street in Leeds city centre shut its doors yesterday. The Friends of Ham sites in Leeds and Ilkley remain open and the Yorkshire Wine School, which was based at Merrion Street, is also unaffected by the closure.
In a statement, Ham and Friends said: “It’s with a heavy heart that we have to say we are now permanently closed.
“We gave it our best shot over the last year and would like to thank everyone who came to pay us a visit.”
It had collected a Yorkshire Evening Post award for best city centre restaurant earlier this week.
The casual dining sector is facing huge pressure with closures and restructures at Byron, Prezzo, Strada and Jamie’s Italian highlighting the problems of competition, rising costs and weakening consumer confidence.
