Sunday 29 June 2014

The Hop, Saltaire - Pre-Opening Event


Throughout my ten months or so of blogging, there have been a rare few events held in my hometown of Bradford, with Leeds seeming like the event place to be.

So when I was contacted and asked if I would like to attend the pre-opening night of The Hop in Saltaire, I jumped at the chance to get myself onto the guest list.

The Hop is housed within the building which was until very recently known as The Old Tramshed - a very popular haunt for a whole host of people of different ages.

I even found myself in there on a few, slightly intoxicated evenings.

But I know that a few people, one in particular being a work colleague of mine, were a little worried as to how a change would affect things they formally liked about the place - such as the menu.
My colleague is a regular dine-out-with-friends kind of a lady and was known to regularly visit the place you see.

However, I've put her mind at ease, now that I've had a real nose around, and she is certainly ready to embrace The Hop and all it has to offer.



Myself and Kel popped along to the opening on Thursday evening and were welcomed at the door with a couple of drinks vouchers and a gentle push towards the bar with an encouraging word about sampling some of the real ales that are now on offer.



Being driver for the evening, I stuck to the boring old soft-drink options, but Kel decided to try a couple of the ales out...

...purely for research purposes of course...



And she seemed quite pleased with her choices I must say.

I entertained myself by having a little mooch around the bar, and decided that the decor is classic and quite "homely".


This little book-nook-area certainly appealed to the book geek in me that's for sure.


It's so classy - I love it.


The dining area upstairs has a welcoming, warming feel to it too.

I could certainly see myself eating here.

One of the main additions to The Hop, is the huge, fantastic pizza oven in the new Pizzeria cooking area.



As well as offering amazing (and oh how they were) freshly made pizza, The Hop has also decided to keep a more traditional, "meal-y" type menu too - complete with all important dessert options...my work colleagues will be pleased.

I have to say though, with pizza as fresh and yummy as the ones I managed to sample on the evening, any other type of menu would be totally wasted on me (apart from those desserts!), but I think it's great that The Hop do offer different options to suit most people.

They even have a kiddies, which is always useful to know.


I tried the meat board too, which was amazing...


As were the meatballs...


In fact, everything I snaffled was extremely tasty and very fresh, but I have to say my absolute favourite pizza was one that I threw down my neck so fast that I didn't even manage to photograph it, but it was fantastic - a spicy meat topped piece of amazingness.

And apart from all of the yummy food and lovely new surroundings, there was another aspect of the building which certainly had people buzzing.

The raised stage overlooking the whole of the bar area which is ready to host lots of live performers is a fab idea.


It is easily visible by everyone - no matter how busy the bar will undoubtedly get at times - so it is the perfect place for performances to take place.

I certainly heard a lot of people praising it anyway.

The atmosphere throughout the evening was really relaxed and everyone was enjoying themselves:

The Hop was certainly "hopping" that's for sure.
(please excuse my poor attempt at having a little bit of a witty moment!)

Now that The Hop is open and up and running properly, I think we need to get a few of the blogger ladies together and book ourselves in for one of the many food-and-entertainment-nights already planned for The Hop.



They sound like a whole lot of fun that's for sure
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