The Man Behind the Curtain

Trusted for 10 years

It’s fine dining, but not as you know it. The question is, who and what is The Man Behind The Curtain?Fine dining is no modern phenomenon, not by any stretch of the imagination. However, there seems to be a contemporary obsession with bringing it to diners with a new, slightly more relaxed approach.

Particularly in Leeds, there are a swathe of venues that promise haute cuisine, but in an environment that doesn’t require the same aesthetic standards of old. Think caged, filament bulbs, in lieu of chandeliers, or slates, rather than exquisitely detailed crockery.As it turns out The Man Behind the Curtain, opening under the watchful eye of rock’n'roll chef Michael O’Hare – once of York’s The Blind Swine, famous for it’s carrot plant pots and potatoes buried in ash – finds itself straddling the middle ground between the two.

Based down at Flannels on Vicar Lane, The Man Behind the Curtain makes a concerted attempt to utilise the chef’s esteemed reputation in a city that’s never lacking in new gastro ventures, alongside a distinct focus on some of the more traditional dining values that are no longer so fashionable.

As Michael himself declares, “It’s an ultra modern fine dining restaurant pitching itself at the top of haute cuisine in Leeds focusing on comfort, innovation and enjoyment.” Sounds like a good start, but where does O’Hare see the new Leeds restaurant placing itself in an ever growing market?