Hospitality veteran launches Spanish restaurant

New restaurant ‘Bomba’ is aiming to bring welcome Spanish sunshine to Saw Mill Yard, at the Round Foundry and Marshall’s Mill complex in Leeds’s South Bank.

The restaurant opened its doors on Friday 14 January. The venture has been devised by Joe McDermott, who set up the original Arts Café in Leeds and Ilkley Moor Vaults in Ilkley.

Bomba has grown from a paella at-home delivery service during lockdown, to a stall in Leeds’s Kirkgate Market to this fully fledged restaurant which will open from breakfast through to lunch and dinner for eat-in, take away and delivery.

Occupying a 1,574 sq ft space with a terrace, the venue allows McDermott and his team of five – including chef Manuel and wife and business partner Elizabeth – to develop popular elements from the market menu, including Spanish breakfasts and churros con chocolate to boccadillo sandwiches and classic tapas dishes.

Paella will be made in large pans to serve individual portions at lunch and then made to order in pans for two, four or six people in the evening.

McDermott said: “We’d been looking for a venue that would allow us to move into evening service for a while and when we saw this space, in such a fantastic heritage area, we knew it was perfect for us.

“Holbeck Urban Village and the Leeds South Bank is quickly becoming a bustling community with lots of new places to live and work, it feels like the place to be, atmosphere is incredibly important to us and this area has it in spades.”

Building on the initiative created during the pandemic, Bomba will bring back its paella and tapas delivery service allowing locals to eat its speciality at home in a traditional pan, returning the pan afterwards so cutting out packaging waste.

Paul Taylor, director at Creative Space Management who oversaw the letting, said: “Bomba will be a great addition to the area, we already have some of the best independent pubs and cafes in Leeds here and this will complement them by adding something different, in a restaurant space already well known from previous owners including Matt Healy.

“This neighbourhood has attracted creative and successful people and businesses for years and with the significant investment and development around Marshalls Mill, the number of businesses and residents based here is growing all the time.”