A popular cafe-bar, housed within an independent cinema complex.

The Venue
The Showroom Cinema lies within Sheffield’s Cultural Industries Quarter, an area populated by numerous recording studios, workshops and offices dedicated to creative industries such as film and music. The Showroom cafe-bar stands within the larger Showroom & Workstation building and sits at the very edge of the Quarter, on the end of Paternoster Row facing the train station.

Although labelled as a cinema a great many of The Showroom’s visitors, perhaps even the majority, venture there solely for the classy cafe-bar which occupies the front and side of the building and is reached directly through its main doors. Inside is a spacious bar, offering numerous tables and sofas, as well as stools along the window, with the bar at the far end of the room. The bar’s open layout and variety of seating areas make it equally suited to drinking, dining or chatting over coffee.

The People
The Showroom’s cafe-bar is popular with bohemian types, professionals, cinema-goers and many workers from nearby offices. The bar offers free wireless internet, as well as numerous plug sockets, meaning that in the daytime you’re virtually guaranteed to see a whole host of folk strewn around the place working on their laptops. In the evenings, the bar offers a laidback, toned down atmosphere and is popular with young people. It's a busy bar that does a large trade in tea and coffees, although service can sometimes be slow but this is perhaps the only downside to an otherwise excellent bar.

The Food
The Showroom offers a deli counter, serving baguettes and other savouries, as well as a full menu of hot and cold food. Prices vary from around the £4 to £5 mark for light bites like nachos, omelettes, paninis, and homemade soup, up to £6 to £8.50 for more substantial dishes such as risottos, salads, pizzas and the numerous specials offered daily. The food is of excellent quality and includes numerous vegetarian options and choices for the health conscious, with ingredients sourced locally where possible.

The Drink
The Showroom is distinctly upmarket in both offering and price. Beers on tap include Staropramen, Eiken Artois and Peeterman Artois, as well as a few more typical offerings such as Stella, Boddingtons, Strongbow and Guinness Extra Cold. These latter beers are priced at £2.60 to £2.80 a pint, with premium beers upwards of £3.

If students show their NUS card they are offered a discount on certain pints. A number of interesting European beers, such as Belle Vue Kriek (a Lambic beer with cherries and elderberry) and Fransiskaner (a German wheat beer) are offered in halves only, and make a novel alternative to the more conventional lagers available elsewhere. A similarly varied range of bottled beers is available, priced between £2.80 and £3, and a good selection of wines are available at between £3 and £5 a glass. Cocktails and a very considerable range of spirits are available at prices similar to the wine.

The Last Word
A classy, laidback bar attached to an art house cinema. It's a great venue in its own right, whether drinking, dining or even looking for a different atmosphere in which to work.

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