Wax Bar and Juke Joint

Went here for a cheeky pint whilst waiting for the other half to finish work.
As I’m not a big lager drinker, the barman recommended a Wyldwood Cider (£4.20) which went down a treat (and was served in a chilled glass — nice touch). Ended up buying a second one due to the £5 minimum card spend.
Was only in there an hour but the atmosphere was nice and relaxed.

Probably my favourite recent discovering in Leeds.
Small bar, open turntable and a large selection of records, fully working jukebox, limited but well chosen spirits and bottled beer selection, quick and friendly staff.
A good bar is all in the details, and Wax nails the details perfectly, sticking to the ‘juke joint’ theme through using boomboxes for spirits shelves, tape assemblies for lampshades, spelling the name out in tapes, it all ties together perfectly without being quirky for the sake of quirky.
The advantage of the size of the place is that even on a quiet Monday, ten people can create enough of a buzz to make you want to drink in there all night.

The Wax bar is becoming one of my favourite bars in Leeds. Whether its straight from work to have a catch up with a friend or on a night out. The Wax bar is in a prime location, theirs always a good atmosphere and a wide selection of beverages.

Before Christmas my Dad came up to stay with me for a night as I was to travel back to the homelands with him, since I had the cat in tow. I didn’t particularly want to risk 4 hours of wailing on the train and I don’t drive, so fortunately my folks were able to help out. As he was only making the journey to take me back we decided to dedicate the day to some last minute Christmas shopping, a few drinks and something really special for tea. We’d pretty much finished up our last minute efforts and it was high time for a beer to get our appetites going.
We almost popped into Sela, only I’d remembered this bar had recently opened, and there was the window seat available — we like to watch the world go by. So, in we went, and I’m really pleased we did. The décor in here is really cool –old cassette tapes make up the lampshades, there’s a proper old school juke box and the bright orange paint makes for a happy space to sit in.
They’ve no draught beer, but in place of that comes a number of fairly special bottled lagers and beers. We started off with a Brooklyn and stayed for a Mexican beer, which I’ve forgotten the name of. The bottles were fairly big bottles, amounting to nearly three quarters of a pint for in the region of £4 –not too bad, as that’s pretty much the standard, although my Dad did keep telling me it made for an expensive pint. (He’s not so much the beer connoisseur, so would have been happy with a cheap pint.) In any case, if I’m having one or two and going out for the atmosphere and quality, this is certainly one of the places to call upon. I sense that they will be somewhere to partake of a few cocktails as well, but I’ll update as and when I find out!
Our only criticism was that as soon as it hit about 6pm, and a handful of customers had arrived, the music became much louder. I guess I understand that there are many bars along the street, and so they’d want to attract custom, but it felt a little early for ‘banging tunes’ and we weren’t able to talk with ease after that, given the volume. (And it’s always been a bugbear of mine that bars do this — but that’s just a personal opinion.) Since we’d chosen to drink here *because* we could hear each other chat, it was a little frustrating — but in any case, it coerced us into finishing our drinks and moving out for dinner.
Regardless of that, the chap serving us was truly lovely and it’s a really friendly place to go. With a selection of fine drinks and some really quirky decoration it’s a great place to grab a drink and have a good catch up. I shall be back!

Wax bar and Juke Joint opened on Thursday evening, and I mean evening… They were planning to be open for 9pm but final 5 minute warning announcement that they were ready was announced on facebook at about half 9! It seems there was a stressy race to the finish, but I wasn’t surprised that the place was soon rocking.
Just to give you a picture of the place, solid bar, boom boxes for back bar shelves audio tape lamp shades and and a wicked Wurlitzer juke box (why its called a juke joint!) which needs a bit of work doing on it but it still looks the part to get them started!
With some great guys behind the bar and a really friendly atmosphere this will be a welcome addition to the Leeds bar scene!
If you are having trouble finding them, theyre next door to Sela bar!