RIGHT you lot, here we go again, Manchester's only bi-monthly food and drink digest. And lordy lord is there a lot to get through.
It was enough to make Morrisey reflect and plan a mass murder
Manchester bars and restaurants continue to spawn faster than your average Jeremy Kyle wastrel. Is it sustainable? Not at this rate. Still, we're only collecting concept food, barrel-aged whatnots and Maraba flat whites to avoid having to think about not being able to afford a house. So let's enjoy the wave, eh? On we pop...
EATS, BEATS & BOOOO-ZE
Manchester food slammers B.Eat Street will throw their final Friday Food Fight parties this weekend (stick your name on the list here). Boo. But B.Eat Street plan to push on. Huzzah. Organisers Chris Legh and Lyndon 'Imbibe Magazine's Bar Personality of the Year' Higginson (Liar's Club, Cane & Grain) have decided to pull the weekend street food events at Great Northern having served over 70,000 punters at 76 events in three locations since March 2014. 'We've taken it as far as we can,' said Legh. Now the boys, with James 'Bart' Murphy (formerly of Hula) in tow, have something new in the locker, something big, something permanent-ish. We'll get back to you...
B.Eat Street's Friday Food FightWHAT THE CLUCK?
Manchester's first fully devoted fried chicken restaurant, Yard & Coop, opened on Northern Quarter's Edge Street last week. The team behind the new brestaurant (bar/restaurant, remember?) - who've run operations from Simon Rimmer's Green's restaurant in Didsbury to Northern Quarter's trendy Terrace bar - have supposedly worked through 250 fried chicken recipes before settling on this 'super secret' crumb. Very good it is too, especially after a few shandies (they serve 'til gone midnight).
Oh, and joining Yard & Coop next door within days will be Manchester's modern French restaurant, 63 Degrees, opening in the old Market restaurant site; while directly opposite, V Rev, Oldham Street's curious Vegan rock'n'roll diner, should open once Paragon get round to finishing that sodding fourteen apartment building behind Lust, Luck, Liquor and Burn. 22 months to build fourteen apartments? Socks up...
Yard & CoopMOO MOO MISH MASH
There was another Northern Quarter launch last week as Infamous Diner threw a low-key opening party on Nicholas Croft (the diddy bit between High Street and Shudehill): launching a plane, bussing in Corrie slebs and giving away 350 free burgers. Say what you like about burgers, bubble-gum Americana or MAD's (Walrus, Rosylee, Hula) mad 'first American diner' claim, but they've certainly not scrimped on the fit-out...
InfamousThere's a new 60-cover restaurant opened in the former Kulsumah Indian in the old chapel on Chorlton's Beech Road. Mish Mash owner James Plant has spent the last three decades working around restaurants in Wilmslow and Alderley Edge, but now unable to see a Chihuahua without hoofing it, thought it time to move on. The menu is described as 'classic British cooking incorporating global flavours' which means kooky things like Mojito Chicken, Cosmo Salmon and Scarlett Johansson slapped across on the wall.
Scarlett?WHAT ELSE?
Right let's cram 'em in...
Chef David Gale will again team up with James Wrigley (The Lawn Club) to launch a new mean, green, clean-eatin' caf', Rust & Stone, in Spinningfields former Long Bar and Haig Club.
Birmingham-based high-end Indian restaurant group, Itihaas, has opened a new 'grab and go' site in intu Trafford Centre's Selfridges.
There's a new brestaurant, Cottonopolis, going into the bold, empty unit on the corner of Dale Street and Newton Street.
Cheadle's back street Indian gem, Indian Tiffin Room, looks to be heading into a prime site right by Manchester's new £25m arts and culture centre, HOME.
The Spanish continue to invade Deansgate and its tributaries as Tapeo - a new tapas place from Spanish food importer Lola Espana - looks to occupy 209 Deansgate (the old model shop opposite Hawksmoor).
Joe and Juice, Denmark’s ‘bifurcated beverage’ (that means coffee or juice) concept with stores across Europe, the U.S. and South Korea, have recently opened a new outlet in Debenham’s on Market Street.
Blackburn's award-winning Yu & You, voted 'best Chinese in the UK' on Ramsey's Best Restaurants in 2010, will launch a new site in the former Panacea club after a fire ripped through the building in 2013. Piccolino Italian will open downstairs.
Whilst we're on Alderley Edge, yet more Americana as Tomfoolery at No.34 opens on London Road in the former Alderley Rose Chinese site. Tomfoolery is the brainschild of Manzur Iqbal, heir to the Seamark shipping fortune, who appears to have spent half his fortune at car boot sales...
Tomfoolery's interior... thereaboutsANCOATS RISING
More food and drink rumblings down on Ancoats' Cutting Room Square as the House of Adventure group (Cord, Simple, Wood Wine & Deli) look to slip a new venue into the Ice Plant, a few doors down from where local micro-brewers Seven Brothers plan to open a new bar. They'll join Rudy's Pizzas on the enlivened square in Ancoats so-called wider Food and Drink Strategy - aiming to bring a 'new cluster of cafes, restaurants, craft breweries, delis and pop-up food operators' to the area over the next twelve months. Northern Quarter's more reticent neighbour has certainly perked up.
Ancoats Cutting Room SquareMEATOPIA
Northern Quarter's new premium butcher, The Butcher's Quarter, teamed up with Iain Devine (aka The Drunken Butcher) to throw his most obscene supper club yet last week. Featuring baby back ribs, chicken thighs, pork chops, lamb chops, rump steak, bacon, sausage, gammon, black pud, calves' liver, devilled kidneys and absolutely sod all veg, it was the stuff of an Arnold nirvana and enough to make Morrisey reflect and plan a mass murder. We've been on the wheatgrass ever since... Book onto one of the Drunken Butcher's supper clubs here.
BOTTOM'S UP
From Sunday 26 July Black Dog Ballroom NQ and NWS will launch Manchester's first 'bottomless boozy brunch'. To wash down the sausage, Blackdog are offering unlimited Bloody Marys and Mimosas every Sunday between 12-4pm (£14). We're not sure if this is even legal, still, it's sure to start Sunday off with a wobble.
SLEB CHEFS
Saturday Kitchen's James Martin, Masterchef's John Torode, Michelin-starred Michael Caines and TV's Lisa Faulkner (she a chef now?) will join over 150 regional market traders, street entertainers and musicians for Bolton's annual Food & Drink Festival from 28 to 31 August. Tickets here.
Meanwhile, Simon Rogan will bring together his top boys: The French's Adam Reid, Fera's Dan Cox, L'Enclume's Tom Barnes and his MD David Simms, to host a series of special dinners from 15-19 September as part of Manchester Food & Drink Festival (10-21 Sept). Tickets are £100 per person with a wine flight available at £60 per person (book here). It's cold beans for the rest of the month...
Simon Rogan: The Veg WhispererTHE RUMOUR MILLS...
Greek/Med restaurant group Olive Tree Brasserie, with venues in Preston and Lytham St Annes, are currently searching for a third restaurant site in Manchester. Olive Tree was nominated in the 'Restaurant of the Year' category at 2014's Lancashire Life Food and Drink Awards.
Looks like there's a new Vietnamese place, Ha Long Bay, heading into the old Crown Hotel on Blackfriars Road...
Ha Long Bay on BlackfriarsDanish high-end sushi gaff, Sticks 'n' Sushi, are rumoured to be looking for a site in Manchester city centre. Denmark's leading Japanese restaurant chain (with ten outlets in Copenhagen) already have sites in Canary Wharf, Covent Garden and Wimbledon.
Not only is Allied London's new Manchester Grande, the landmark event hotel at the centre of their ambitious £1bn St John's plans, to be 'modelled on the Ace Hotel in New York' - it could actually be an Ace. The Portland-based hotel chain are rumoured to be favourites to take on The Grande, which will feature a number of restaurants, bars and perhaps a top-floor members club. Ace launched their first European outpost in London's Shoreditch in 2013. Work should begin in Manchester in early-2016.
Manchester Grande plansDISH OF THE WEEK...
...goes to Iberica's beautifully simple bean and pork stew. Only available at Monday lunchtime, the Fabada Asturiana (£7) is a rich, smokey, steaming Spanish one-pot with white beans, pancetta, morcilla (black pud), chorizo and smoked paprika. Order with some hunky bread to soak it all up. Wonderful.
FabadaOH STOP IT...
Could you stomach Solita's new deep fried cheeseburger special - The Dirty Secret (£12)? We tried... answer's no...
Solita's Dirty Secret specialJOB OF THE WEEK
Trendy London Lebanese outfit, Comptoir Libanais, are searching for a General Manager to head-up their new Spinningfields restaurant. £27k to £35k - apply here
DEAL OF THE WEEK
Between 27 July and 24 August you can bag 50% off the summer menu at Smoak Bar & Grill in the Malmaison hotel. See the full menu here. Call 0161 278 100 or click here.
SmoakWANT TO COMMENT ON ANY OF THE ABOVE? SIMPLY USE '#MCRFOODDRINK' ON TWITTER TO FEATURE BELOW...
