The Swine Bistro will open on 4 April on Otley Road in the town of Headingley and will have 35 covers, more than double the size of the couple’s original restaurant.
The restaurant, which has more than doubled its covers to 35, is now open for bookings for tables serving its first customers from Friday 4th April 2025.
The move followed a successful crowdfunding campaign the team at The Swine Bistro ran last year where it raised £42,000 from around 400 people, smashing its original target of £25,000.
Executive chef Stu Myers and new head chef Kirsty Cheetham have developed an expanded menu while staying true to the original restaurant’s culinary roots with its terrines, black pudding, homemade sausages and pies still featuring.
The menu will change seasonally with weekly specials, with highlights on the launch menu to include pork and pistachio sausage with lentils watercress, and mushrooms; venison, harrisa and sherry sausage, chickpeas and chard; ox cheek and oxtail pie; guinea fowl, bacon and leek pie; and twice baked Comte cheese souffle, hazelnut, sage and fennel.
Desserts include custard tart and rhubarb ice cream; and raspberry frangipane and vanilla ice cream.
The expanded space in the restaurant has also allowed the team to put together a bigger wine list that will include natural wines from Wayward Wines and Latitude Wines as well as local beers from Ilkley Brewery and Horsforth Brewery.
“It’s taken a huge amount of time and effort to realise our dream to revamp what was previously a hairdresser into a fully functioning kitchen and restaurant,” says Jo Myers.
“It’s been a wild ride but we’re excited, and slightly nervous, to finally open our doors. “We love the vibe in Headingley and the time out has allowed us to have fun with our menu as well as take part in lots of essential taste testing of ingredients and drinks from our brilliant local suppliers.”
In addition to the Headingley restaurant, the team has transformed its former North Street site into a bakery. Here development chef Paul Bullock and his team will produce The Swine Bistro’s homemade bread and desserts.
Bullock also developed the restaurant’s Here Comes The Bun ‘bread-led’ sandwich offer, which will evolve into a takeaway offer from North Street in the coming months serving salt beef bagels, banh mi, hoagies and steak sandwiches.