AFTER providing Manchester with a better class of Italian cuisine for the past thirteen years, Piccolino has recently undergone an extensive £1.3m refurbishment. Having acquired the premises next door, they have now doubled in size allowing them to seat up to 200 guests. They have also added an alfresco terrace, incorporating a caviar (to be sold at cost price) and oyster bar, seating a further 40, overlooking Albert Square and the Town Hall.
An Italian copper pizza oven takes centre stage in the window overlooking Clarence Street
As ‘Piccolino’ translates as ‘teeny weenie’ or ‘little one’, their now, larger flagship restaurant has had a slight rebrand. Caffé Grande Piccolino is set to re-open to the public on Friday 22 April at 12 noon for all day dining serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.
The redesigned restaurant enhances the original features of the Victorian listed building by including Italian marble, antique brass, English oak, light blue leather seating and oversized handmade chandeliers. First impressions suggest inspiration has come from the likes of Harrods Food Hall.
An open kitchen sits behind opulent ‘fresh from the market’ counter displays of fish and shellfish, as well as meat and poultry from their own butchery in Cheshire. Piccolino specialise in hand cut Black Aberdeen Angus steaks, dry aged for a minimum of 35 days in their own Himalayan pink salt brick dry ageing room.
Most of the cooking will be done on a bespoke open charcoal and wood burning grill (pictured above), or handmade Italian wood burning oven, which uses sustainable English wood. An Italian copper pizza oven takes centre stage in the window overlooking Clarence Street, offering a bit of theatre to passer-bys in the form of busy pizza chefs and the bakery team.
Next to the pizzeria is a five metre deli area which displays an Italian salad bar, a fine cheese selection and a ’salumeria’ displaying cured meats, sausages and charcuterie. Pasta is freshly made and filled on the premises by Marcello Ghiretti using 00’ flour, free range eggs, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. Where possible, Piccolino source seasonal fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs from specialist growers and organic farmers.
Pastry chefs, under the direction of Antoine Quentin, can also be seen preparing waffles, pancakes, cakes and desserts at the pastry counter, while all ice creams and sorbets are made in house and are on display in a temptingly eye-catching gelateria counter.
To accompany the breakfast and brunch menu, Caffé Grande Piccolino have included a brand new organic juice bar area which will open from 7am on weekdays to catch those wanting a liquid reviver or a booster shot on the way to the office. Owners, Individual Restaurants have collaborated with leading nutritionists and doctors to create the menu, together with ‘celebrity juicer’ Cindy Palusamy, so perhaps we can expect a ‘Jason Orange’, ‘Bloody Mary Berry’, or even a ‘Leonardo Di Capri-Sun’.
As you’d expect, the alcoholic drinks selection is extensive and very Italian, with a variety of cocktails, Vermouth, Amari, sweet liqueurs and craft beers. An impressive wine boutique, run by in-house sommelier Gabriele Alessandroni, showcases an all-Italian wine and Prosecco selection featuring some rare vintages, as well as a range of Champagne. Downstairs two private dining and bar spaces double up as wine tasting rooms.
"So keen are we for guests to try our fine and rare selection," Individual Restaurants boss Steven Walker tells us, "we have only added a small markup, charging a fraction of the price compared to other restaurants."
We know a bloke who'll like the sound of that...
GORDO SAYS
'It's well over a decade since Gordo first walked into Piccolino on Albert Square. James Gingall was the chef then, while the owner was the legendary Derek Lilley, an ex-professional deep sea diver who had made his money and knackered his bones after fifteen years working on the North Sea floor sorting oil rigs out.
Ettore, arguably the best known and best loved restaurant manager in the game, welcomed a then 22 stone Gordo into the place. It was an instant hit, with a bar on the right and two tables surrounded by tub ruby red leather armchairs, constantly fought over by professional boozers. Friday nights saw a team of thirty or forty hard drinking lunatics and fabulously good looking women huddled round the long table by the bar, arriving at four and leaving at midnight.
Saturday mornings were a nightmare.
Individual Restaurants boss Steven Walker with Confidential's GordoThe only other places of note were The Living Room on Deansgate and Rafa's, hidden somewhere down the other end.
The food was great, with pasta that was actually edible, grown-up pizzas and crispy calamari with something called sweet chilli sauce, a dish nicked from the Bluebird Cafe - Terence Conran's gaff on the King's Road in Chelsea.
Three visits in and Gordo's best pal, Drew Smith, the mighty food critic and ex editor/saviour of The Good Food Guide, predicted that the formula of Piccs would run and run.
And so it has. Walking in yesterday with the current owner, Steven Walker, the brand spanking new £1.3m fit-out took Gordo's breath away. And lo and behold, Fatty was welcomed by Ettore... where the fuck did those years go?'
Caffé Grande Piccolino, 8 Clarence St, Manchester M2 4DW. Tel: 0161 410 0380.
Open from Friday 22 April 7am
Opening Times: breakfast from Mon-Fri, 7am to midday; brunch on Sat & Sun, 9am-3pm; lunch and dinner from Mon-Weds, midday to 11pm, Thurs to Sat, midday to midnight, and Sun midday to 10.30pm.
Find out more here or book a table online individualrestaurants.com
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