COMINGS & GOINGS
Comings...
Last week we revealed that the award-winning team behind Northern Quarter's Kosmonaut and PLY venues are in the market for a third NQ site and have put forward an application for a premises at 1-3 Swan Street (opposite the Frog & Bucket comedy club). Fingers crossed they have more luck than the last lot. Back in March 2014 plans to turn the building into a new lap dancing club were rejected by the council following objections it would create a 'low brow' entry into the city - unlike Passions and the Piccadilly Club up the way...
Kosmonaut have eyes on Swan StreetMeanwhile, the sublime Grade II-listed Barton Arcade's (main image) resurgence steams ahead with Northern Quarter burger-merchants Solita snatching the empty former Edward's shoe store on Deansgate. Solita owner Franco Sotgiu, who launched a second site in Didsbury last year and will next month open a third in Prestwich, told Confidential he was sick of all the 'shit pizza' in Manchester and, as an Italian, was going to do it properly. No pressure Franc. Solita no.4 should open by January 2016.
Bill's Restaurant, the 'breakfast to bed' chain with 65 operations around the UK, have just agreed a twenty year lease on a 2,600 sq ft unit in intu Trafford Centre's New Orleans dining quarter, alongside JD Wetherspoon's new Mardi Gras pub and the nearby Cafe Rouge, Wagamama, GBK and Zizzzzzzzzzzzzz...night, night.
Burger & Lobster, 'the most hotly anticipated restaurant to hit Manchester this year' (no one mention Hawksmoor, or Iberica for that matter) has announced its official opening date - Friday 7 August. The new 200-cover restaurant, which offers only burger or lobster (£20), will be the Russian-owned chain's twelfth and will occupy the back end of Ship Canal House on Brown Street - just off King Street. Burger & Lobster will be running a series of trail runs from 4-6 August.
New Orleans, Trafford CentreGoings...
Clearly shaken by the arrival of 'Manchester's first retro American diner', Infamous (which sounds nothing like Almost Famous), retro American-themed diner chain Ed's Easy Diner have backed out of a deal on King Street. There appears to have been some wrangling with the council over some externals, either way, the lucrative site is back on the market at £160,000 per annum. Leaving space for Polpo to make a move on Manchester?
Bailffs entered Great Northern warehouse last week, as underperforming Mexican street food restaurant, Lucha Libre, finally collapsed into liquidation. It's been a tough couple of years for the Liverpool-based brand which has struggled to replicate it's success in Manchester. However, owners say Lucha will 'be back stronger' in the city and relaunch 'in the area we maybe should've gone for in the first place'. That's the Northern Quarter, by the way...or maybe Collyhurst.
Farewell, too, to Sackville Street's Russian restaurant, St Petersburg, which has closed after nearly 20 years in business. You've probably never heard of St Petersburg, which is fair enough, we've only just got around to reviewing it. Two weeks later it closed. Not our fault, promise. We gave it a very respectable 13/20 - the meaty Russian broth was a marvel. Still, seems the new landlord, Property Alliance Group, prefer office to offal. Boo. Owners Olena and Sergei are on the look-out for a new home, if you've got one? There's a unit going spare at the Great Northern we hear.
St Petersburg is no moreSACKVILLE LOUNGE SACKED
The Sackville Lounge in The Village is up for sale. The lease for the bar - which runs until March 2024 - has gone on the market for £70k. Takings currently sit around £300k and rent 60k a year. Agents say the bar has gone on sale to 'allow its clients to change trade'. Change trade? Fills you with confidence...
WOGAN'S WOE
Now take a deep breath... put down that Cortado and avocado sourdough toast... have a sit down on this reclaimed school desk chair with boobs etched in the back. Subway - the largest fast food chain in the world with over 43,000 outlets worldwide (around 1,000 more than McDonald's) - are reportedly to open in Northern Quarter. Noooooo. Yes. The old 70s Abergeldie cafe at the junction of Thomas Street and Shudehill, which once sported an A-board outside reading 'As recommended by Terry Wogan', is to make way for the global sandwich barons. Sigh. Stinking, filthy corporate machine sucking the life from our quirky, bohem.... and so on.
STILL... THERE'S PLENTY OF BEAN
Like rats in London, you're now never more than 6ft away from a barista (coffee maker) in the Northern Quarter. The latest coffeehouse to launch in the area is Ezra & Gil (which sounds a little like a Farrow & Ball rip-off from B&M Bargains) at 20 Hilton Street - opposite Hatters Hostel. Ezra & Gil bill themselves as an 'evolutionary concept' (oh dear) in 'urban coffee' (oh my). Thank the lord, anything but another Regressive Concept in Bucolic Pop.
Oh and Incognito, the off-the-wall finger-puppet and ultraviolet spy pen shop opposite Fred Aldous in Stevenson Square have started selling toasties, crepes and pancakes with FREE coffee to boot. It's an evolutionary concept in saving pennies...
THE BURGER BUS
THE WONDERTRUCK is loose - Almost Famous burgers are 'on tour'. Sick of tables, forks and 'sitting down' (yawn), Manchester's most unruly burger-merchants have hit the road in an oversized, jacked-up American-style 7.2m Mercedes food truck. Having shifted thousands of burgers at this year's Parklife, the Wondertruck will be rolling into multiple food, drink and music events across the North West - keep an eye on @AFWondertruck
The WonderbusOUT OF THE FLAMES
Europe's first Tandori restaurant (so they say), Rajdoot, is to reopen on Albert Square following a blaze in January which threatened to put the 50-year-old Manchester curry-house out of business. Following substantial smoke damage the restaurant has been completely refurbished in de rigueur Indian kitsch and will relaunch on Sunday 19 July - read Confidential's November 2014 review here.
RajdootFOOD FEST
The 'UK's largest celebration of food and drink' returns to Tatton Park from the 17 to 19 July for the sixth year in a row. The Mail sponsored event - which welcomes over 300,000 visitors to its ten summer food festivals across the UK - will have Great British Bake Off classes, champagne tents, oyster shuckling, cocoa snffing and everything else you'd expect from a foodie festival in George Osborne's back yard. Tickets from £8.
DO YOU DIG?
Manchester city centre's summer garden festival, Dig The City, returns to the city from 31 July to 6 August, as will The Moss Cider Project bringing their pop-up orchard and cider bar with them. Visitors can get stuck into the juicing and even take home their own apple tree. Let's see you get that on the tram...
Dig The CityTHE RUMOUR MILLS...
There's whispers that the upmarket Soho House group - which started life as a private members' club in London in 1995 and now operates exclusive clubs, hotels, spas, cinemas and restaurants across Europe and North America - have again been sniffing around sites in Manchester. Back in 2013, Soho House founder Nick Jones admitted he had been looking at sites in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow for the group's first foray into the North - things then went quiet. Looks like the hunt is back on.
And check this one daddy-o. We have word that Manchester may soon welcome a new subterranean Jazzzzz club. Nice. Details are scant, but chatter hints at somewhere on the peripheries of Spinningfields. Super.
Soho House, MayfiarOH STOP IT...
Australasia's garden butter milk pannacotta buried in a box with chocolate soil. Come on now...
DISH OF THE WEEK
Albert's Chop House - Black Pudding Scotch Egg (£6.50)
Black pudding. Oh yes. Dainty moist egg. Oh yes. Mushroom ketchup. Oh yes. Leaves. Well, all right. Confidential took two Portuguese journalists on Monday and one photographer from UP magazine. We ate at Albert's Chop House. We cooed and purred over this striking looking dish with its bold flavours and rich combinations. Mushroom ketchup was a blast but the star was of course the Scotch Egg with kick-arse black pudding and the yielding egg. Definitely worth the £6.50.
Yes, yes, yesJOB OF THE WEEK
Michelin Bib Gourmand-winning Spanish restaurant, El Gato Negro, are currently in the market for a General Manager to head-up their highly-anticipated launch on King Street. Salary is £40k + bonus - see here
DEAL OF THE WEEK
Manchester's surprisingly decent new indie burger gaff, Filthy Cow, are offering 2-4-1 on all food until the end of July - just flash this tweet.
