The team behind Roland’s, The Domino Club and The Woods is to open Paper Plane in Leeds’ Grand Arcade this October.
The latest project from hospitality group Palagander – made up of partners Alexander Neil, Jonathan Neil and Tom Finnon – is billed as a “love letter to an analogue time when things were made by hand, designed to be beautiful and existed as physical objects”.
Paper Plane is not themed around any particular decade but has analogue influences such as “1970s Hollywood", "Japanese listening bars", "the golden age of air travel", vintage "film and records".
Co-founder Alexander Neil said: "Paper Plane isn't about pretending technology doesn't exist or recreating the past. It's about taking some of that care, craft and beauty and bringing it into something we're making now."
Music will therefore be played exclusively on vinyl, drinks will be made by hand and served to the table, and printed materials and physical details will be treated as part of the experience, including the bar's signage, which will be painted by hand directly on to the windows.
Bookings will be happen over the telephone rather than through an online booking system, while orders on the floor will be taken with a pen and pad rather than an a handheld device.
Behind the bar, the focus will be cocktails and whisky, with a concise cocktail menu sitting alongside classics.
The name itself comes from Sam Ross’ 2008 classic the Paper Plane.
"A lot of my favourite bars are named after cocktails, and I've always loved that tradition," Neil said. "It's a brilliant drink and one of those rare modern cocktails that's become part of the canon. The more we worked with the name, the more it seemed to fit what the bar was becoming — analogue, physical, made by hand and ultimately transient."
The space will accommodate around 40–50 guests, with an emphasis on table service.