Now he's preparing to open a new venue next door - his fifth outpost in the social empire.

Wandering around the bustling Exchange Quarter on a Friday and Saturday night it's hard to imagine what a dangerous and derelict end of town it was back in the early 1990s.

Assembly Street - now home to a string of bars, clubs and restaurants - was little more than old warehouses left to rot while Call Lane was still a red light district.

At the time Londoner Ged Feltham was still an economics student at what was then Leeds Polytechnic. But after two venues opened in the area - Cuban Heels and Arts Cafe - he spotted huge potential which was, as yet, unfulfilled.

"If you were a student in Leeds then you just didn't come into town other than to go to a club." he said. "All the pubs in the centre were so rough you just wouldn't ever dare step inside, we all stuck to Headingley and The Faversham.

"So we basically came up with the idea of creating somewhere where, quite simply, me and my mates would want to go to - and that was our starting point.

"We could see that Call Lane had some lovely buildings on it but, although it's hard to imagine now, at night Leeds looked like a ghost town by comparison to today.

"And where we chose was still a big hangout for prostitutes so we did take a bit of a gamble opening here, there's no doubt about it and we weren't even sure if it would work out."

Thankfully, it did.

There's a whole generation of young professionals who, just a decade earlier, might have left Leeds as soon as they'd graduated were it not for the exploding cafe/bar culture which the likes of Feltham lit the touch paper of on Call Lane.

Ged was just 24 when Oporto opened in December 1996 in what was an old pine furniture shop. Other bars followed in the trail they blazed like Normans and BRB which were, respectively, then a bookies and a pub predominantly occupied by ladies of the night.

It wasn't long before others followed their lead. As well as the aforementioned Normans and BRBs came Velvet, Soho (later Dr Wus) and Revolution. Just round the corner on Assembly Street arrived Fudge, Townhouse, Poo Na Na, (later Rehab) and Pitcher & Piano.

"We're really proud of the fact that we were among the first wave to create that cafe/bar feel and atmosphere." said Feltham. "But then a few new players came in and started to beat us at our own game and they looked a bit more polished than we were.

"And that's because we were essentially homemade. After struggling to get the lease for Oporto we had to scrimp and save to afford to strip it back to its original features. And it looked great, but naturally it started to look a little bit tired after a bit.

"Then around about 1999, after a few good years, we really started to suffer because the likes of Normans and Townhouse got themselves 2am licences and we were really hit hard."

Ironically many of the peers of the day have now gone by the wayside. Soho changed hands, as did Velvet which opened opposite in Hirst's Yard and more recently Fudge, Cuban Heels, Townhouse, Waterloo House, Poo Na Na and Pitcher & Piano have either been sold on or disappeared entirely.

So how did Oporto survive?

"Well, we gave ourself a bit of a facelift, eventually stopped doing food - which was VERY hard to make money on - but above all else we got a late licence which really helped us and things have gone from strength to strength since about 2000."

Over the years Ged has had too many co-managers and owners to mention but throughout he's been the common denominator developing the company throughout the Noughties.

Over the last eight years he's opened Jakes Bar and Grill next door on Call Lane, Angel's Share in Chapel Allerton and only this year The Portobello Star on Portobello Road in London.

Feltham, now 36 with children, moved back to his home city two years ago to be closer to his family but commutes to and from Leeds every week to keep an eye on the Oporto Empire.

And it's an empire which continues to grow. Next spring he plans to launch Caballo Loco (translation: Crazy Horse) in what used to be Dr Wu's, the bar next door to Oporto which closed at Christmas.

"It's going to be a stand-alone tequila bar." said Feltham. "And we're trying to aim it at a younger crowd to keep out us oldies and offer something a little bit different to Oporto.

"Ironically that was the unit we wanted when we first sat opposite in Arts Cafe trying to work out what we'd like to do as a bar - but we couldn't get hold of it then.

"Now, 13 years later, we've finally got our hands on it and we're really excited about it - and yet, believe it or not we never really planned to have all these bars, we didn't really have any kind of plan at all."

Any fears about overstretching? Particularly as the credit crunch continues to sink it's teeth into the local social scene?

Feltham said: "Of course, but we've already got the infrastructure there and we wouldn't do anything to put the rest of the company in trouble. The thing is it's always so busy on Call Lane and we're very good at operating as a city centre business.

"We know the way it works and we've never sold out so we've always kept our door policy tight and offered something with a bit of character and that's what makes Leeds unique in my mind.

"We've been lucky in this city because a lot of the independents which gave it edge got in there early so you don't have what you have in places in Newcastle where the generic chains all moved in en masse at a later date. Basically we can operate at our best within that independent, city centre market.

"One of the lessons we've learned with opening Angel's Share in Chapel Allerton, for example, is that we don't work as well in the suburbs where it isn't as busy and people expect a lot of you. I was a little bit arrogant in believing Angel's Share would be easier than it is.

"Whereas here in the city centre we think there's still a massive market to be tapped into here since the place is packed with taxis queueing all the way up Vicar Lane sometimes." He jokes. "Plus, we're very lucky with the Jakes and Oporto - we've got a very loyal clientele we just can't seem to get rid of!"