Tweet 4 a Table & Roxy Lanes

Now this was something a little different. The Cooperative Food brought its pop-up restaurant to Leeds and over two days offered Twitter users the chance to win a free meal for them and three friends – just by tweeting!

I was invited along to try it out, so found myself and two of my best eating buddies in something like a double-decker conservatory in the middle of Leeds’ busiest shopping street, Briggate.

We started with nachos covered in cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa, then had a ‘holey moley’ (barbecue pulled pork in a soft bun served with barbecue sauce, gruyère cheese and American coleslaw) and a ‘dirty dawg’ (a British pork hot dog with more pulled pork, barbecue sauce, gruyère cheese, mustard, onion rings and American coleslaw). And – as if that wasn’t enough – we ordered fries and onion rings on the side.

It was not low-calorie but for fast food – especially cooked in a pop-up – it was fresh and tasty and not greasy. Everything served was taken from The Cooperative’s summer menu.

Tweet 4 a Table, launched last year, is on a tour of the country taking in five cities and a festival over the summer. Leeds was the first location, they’re going to London, Newquay, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle next. They offer takeaways as well, and if you tweet a stupid photo of yourself during dinner using one of the props, you can win a holiday.

Afterwards, we decided to work off a fraction of our meat feast by trying out Leeds’ new bowling alley, Roxy Lanes. Now I haven’t been bowling since I was in my teens – nor had my friends – and it showed. Let’s just say there were more gutter balls than strikes. We were, frankly, terrible.

But at Roxy Lanes, that’s not really the point. It’s probably not the sort of place you’d go if you’re a serious bowler. But if you want to throw a few balls and have a good giggle in hip, industrial-chic surroundings while ordering cocktails from the bar this is definitely the place for you.

It was such a warm and pleasant evening that after our game of bowling we still didn’t want to go home, so we popped into Roast Conch for a nightcap of salted caramel hot chocolate. It gave me goosebumps as I took my first sip. It was like velvet slipping down my throat. It was like a pair of virtual arms had wrapped me up in them. It was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted, by a country mile. The mug didn’t last anywhere near long enough. (I’m so late in my write-up about this night that Roast Conch has now switched its signage and seems to have rebranded as a Hotel Chocolat café, but I reckon it’s the same inside).

As I tweeted at the time, this was a very, very good night.