A new wellbeing cafe with a focus on improving people's mental health has opened in Leeds.
Called Better Days, it's located inside the Grand Arcade and sets itself apart from other bars and cafes in the area by offering dedicated (and free) classes in improving wellbeing.
Better Days offers free support to everyone who visits and, according to owner Vicky Fytche, is the only place of its kind in Leeds.
Waffles with strawberries, bananas and blueberries / Image: Better Days
The cafe also organises walks and talks out in Leeds in the day, as well as hosting self-care and mindfulness sessions upstairs: teaching customers new breathing techniques, and leading gratitude and mindfulness sessions.
In-house wellness coach Kayleigh Bradshaw is on hand throughout the week to chat with guests, she also hosts weekly wellness classes above the cafe to help spread positivity and good vibes.
A pornstar martini, made perfectly at mental wellbeing cafe Better Days / Image: Better Days
The mental wellbeing cafe and bar serves up pizza, pancakes and cocktails throughout the week and does boozy bottomless brunches, waffles and charcuterie boards on the weekends.
The food and drink here looks brilliant, ranging from perfect pornstar martinis to big boards of cheese, olives, antipasto and cured meat.
Every Wednesday to Friday between 6 and 9 pm, Better Days also run a deal on their pizzas where you can get a pizza and a pint for £10 - a winner in our books, considering the dearth of offers in Leeds since the pandemic.
And on Thursdays, they host a live open mic night with a host of different singers, poets and musicians taking turns on the mic.
A cheeseboard and charcuterie board at mental wellbeing cafe Better Days / Image: Better Days
According to the restaurant, these events have made a huge difference in breaking down barriers and bringing people together in the cafe.
"Music, honestly brings people together so much, we have strangers meeting, making friends and singing together for the first time," said the restaurant in an Instagram post.
"We have people who arrived in week 1, really quiet, now chatting away and staying until close with new friends!"
Better Days is open Wednesday to Sunday, from midday to 7pm.
Find the mental wellbeing cafe inside the Merrion Street Grand Arcade in Leeds.
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Georgina Pellant -
9th July 2021 
