Below Stairs

Below Stairs A cocktail bar with the friendly welcome of your local. We try to create and tell stories with our d
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We try to create and tell stories with our drinks whilst keeping things nice and simple.

23/05/2026

Handbag Snacks! Our ode to the small joy of getting a little treat retrieved from the bottom of a handbag, maybe a Werthers, perhaps a Campino, anything but a Murray Mint, that can stay in the handbag thank you. We steep Werthers Original in scotch to make a Butter-scotch base for the drink - which also has amaro, Cocchi Americano vermouth and a pinch of salt - then combine the Scotch-infused sweets with a caramel, set it into bite size treats, and wrap it in gold foil to use as a garnish for the drink.

25/04/2026

Ice. It’s not the most exciting thing in your glass when you’re drinking a cocktail, but you don’t realise how important it is to use the good stuff until you’re drinking a weak glass of cocktail squash because somebody’s used poor quality stuff.

We use a technique called directional freezing - the moulds are insulated on all sides except the top, so the cubes freeze from the top down for 24-48 hours, forcing air and impurities through a hole in the bottom. Less impurities mean a clearer ice cube which just looks ✨nicer✨, but less air means denser ice, which means it melts a lot slower, which means the drink tastes as it should all the way down.

Larger cubes have a greater volume to surface area ratio which also means they transfer their coldness without melting - and the added bonus it they provide a handy platform across the surface of the drink to rest garnishes on - like a little housemade butterscotch candy that comes with Handbag Snacks.

11/04/2026

Licking the Spoon - a rum punch with La Hechicera and Havana Club 3yr Old, Raspberry liqueur, Vanilla, Maple and Cream Soda. Clarified with Coconut milk to give it a cake-batter-y mouthfeel.

Once the coconut solids have done their job, we whip them into a smooth raspberry cake frosting, served on a spoon for you to, well, lick. Part of our current Small Joys menu.

04/04/2026

Lab report: How we make our in-house carrot vodka, the key element to unlocking Smell After Rain, a drink that was in Mannie’s head for ten years but never quite nailable.

Distilling the carrots from a bright orange smoothie into a crystal clear spirit in our rotovap lets us extract geosmin from the carrots, which imitates petrichor - the earthy, almost sweet scent that rises from the warm ground when rain hits and evaporates off of it.

Small Pleasures come in all forms - the menu categorises them into Little Treats, Moments, and Nature, but there’s so ma...
26/03/2026

Small Pleasures come in all forms - the menu categorises them into Little Treats, Moments, and Nature, but there’s so many feelings and emotions tied to the Small Joys that link seemingly unrelated experiences. Nostalgia is a big one. Call us sentimental

Standing on a stool in the kitchen licking the spoon clean while baking, being given a sweet from the bottom of a grandparent’s handbag, being surprised by a bunch of spur of the moment flowers. Rose-tinted memories brought back to life by Licking The Spoon, Handbag Snacks, and Supermarket Flowers. Part of the soon-to-be-changing Small Joys menu - get them before they become a distant memory…

Spotted a few new faces around here recently, so for the benefit of the uninitiated, here’s what to expect from your fir...
19/03/2026

Spotted a few new faces around here recently, so for the benefit of the uninitiated, here’s what to expect from your first visit to this current iteration of Below Stairs…

15/03/2026

We don’t only do cocktails - we serve all sorts of beers, available in any colour you like. As long as it’s black.

TOP 50 BABY! 🎉🎉—This evening (Tuesday 10th Feb) team Below Stairs are taking on London and heading down to attend the Uk...
10/02/2026

TOP 50 BABY! 🎉🎉
—
This evening (Tuesday 10th Feb) team Below Stairs are taking on London and heading down to attend the Uk Top 50 Cocktail Bar awards to celebrate another year being selected for the list!

Not to mention we’ve also been shortlisted for Sustainable Bar of the year - it’s gonna be one heck of a night and thought that it was only right for the whole team to head down and have a wee boogie

We reopen on Wednesday the 11th so come by then for a drink and tell us how much you missed us

Address

12 South Parade
Leeds
LS15QS

Opening Hours

Monday 4:30pm - 2am
Tuesday 4:30pm - 1am
Wednesday 4:30pm - 1am
Thursday 4:30pm - 1am
Friday 4:30pm - 2am
Saturday 4:30pm - 2am
Sunday 4:30pm - 1am

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