In this edition: restaurants going downhill, dancing monkeys and bespoke gin...
SUMMER SUPPER WITH ROB
(10/08) That Robert Owen Brown Chef one is certainly keeping busy since the closure and subsequent flooding of the Mark Addy. Fans and followers have been enjoying his cooking at various local festivals, events and pop ups. Next, he’s teaming up with Cheshire based food event organisers Inca Pop Ups for a supper club at Ancoats Coffee Co on Friday 26th August at 7pm. The five course menu will include dishes inspired by late summer such as truffle mushroom soup, smoked duck, octopus with heritage tomatoes and classic berry bursting summer pudding.
Tickets are £35, with a £5 deposit required. It’s BYO with a corkage fee.
MAGIC MONKEY MOUNTAIN MOVES
(09/09) Fifteen foodies will be embarking on a four-day hike in the Ethiopian Simien mountain range to raise £100,000 for Action Against Hunger in October - including food critic Ruth Allan and acclaimed chef Mary Ellen-McTague, who are hosting a party at First Chop Brewing Arm on Saturday 13th to raise funds. DJs already confirmed include Drunk at Vogue’s Greg Thorpe and Pasta Paul. Revellers can also expect some surprise live acts, restaurant voucher raffle, karaoke, and of course some great grub and ale, with McTague hosting a BBQ alongside meat experts Fazenda.
First Chop Brewing Arm, Trinity Way, Salford, M3 5EN (2pm-late; Tickets £13.33 from eventbrite.com)
SNOW-GO FOR AVALANCHE
(09/09) An avalanche is a speedy flow of snow down a sloping surface which usually accelerates rapidly, growing in mass and volume. And so it is with the Booth Street Italian restaurant which opened only to the bailiffs yesterday. Its closure is a significant downward slide for the company, which in May 2014 reported a remarkable £2m turnover in its first year, with multi-million pound expansion plans on the horizon. The restaurant has been gathering lukewarm and inconsistent reviews recently, but the business side – now managed by property developer Rashid Jamil – has seen six directors depart in as many years, including Narhisa Rashid who resigned only last month. Fortunately Manchester is not currently short of decent Italian restaurants such as Rosso, Piccolino and Salvis, so we continue to reluctantly report on survival of the fittest.
FREE PARTY, FREE BOOZE
(08/08) Manchester bar/club/gig venue, Deaf Institute, is eight-years-old this month, so to celebrate they’re throwing a ‘club night birthday bonanza’ with FREE entry, FREE booze and a wealth of DJs including So Flute, You Dig? And Girls on Film. There’ll be confetti cannons, complimentary cupcakes and ‘vibe providers’ (which we think is a trendy word for speakers) in what is being billed as ‘the greatest party the place has ever seen’. You can download your free ticket here.
RIVERS OF GIN
(08/08) City of Manchester Distillery, home to a brand new super premium ‘Three Rivers Gin’, opens in a railway arch in the resurgent Green Quarter this week.
It will be a new cultural visitor attraction where groups can visit to learn about the intriguing history of gin, tour the working distillery, enjoy G&T's and cocktails and even create their very own full bottle of gin to take home.
Manchester Three Rivers Gin is produced by hand in small batches by master distiller Dave Rigby using a 450litre custom made copper pot still named “Angel”. It’s been described as a “well-balanced gin made with a combination of 11 botanicals. Subtle perfume on the nose precedes a particularly smooth mouth-feel with mid palette sweetness derived from vanilla, cinnamon, almond and oats. Finally cardamom gives way to a satisfyingly long, spicy, black pepper finish.”
Bottles are available to buy from Hanging Ditch and Grape to Grain. Gin experiences can be booked via www.manchesterthreerivers.com
OH WELL
(07/08) Poet, broadcaster and Manchester University chancellor, Lemn Sissay, has sparked more worry amongst residents after suggesting yet another old Manchester boozer has been slated for the wrecking ball. Sissay wrote on his blog: ‘I've just heard the distressing news that Hardy’s Well in Manchester is to be demolished along with the much loved eponymous poem.’
Following a chat with a drinking buddy and the pub’s landlord in 1994, Sissay was challenged to produce a poem about the pub, one which the landlord would famously have painted across one side of building facing the junction of Wilmslow Road and Dickenson Road (the story goes that the two-storey high poem caused so many fender benders that the council were forced to introduce traffic calming measures). Now Sissay is appealing for another building owner along Wilmslow/Oxford Road to adopt the Landmark Poem. ‘The building may be condemned but the poem is not,’ writes Sissay.
The 200-year-old boozer – which has changed hands multiple times in the last few years – is reported to have closed for good last month following reports of bad ale and ‘LOUD europop’.
FREE BEER, FREE BEER, FREE BEER
(05/08) Czech beer Kozel - who recently launched their eponymous beer bar (main image) on Deansgate's new boozy back-alley, B.Eat Street - are offering users of its 'Pint Finder' app free beer across the city this weekend. Simply download the app, show it to staff at bars including the Crown & Anchor and The City Arms, and claim TWO free pints. Download here
NOODLE PIZZOODLE
(05/08) Those Crazy Pedro folk are selfless. They’re always conjuring up ways to save people from having to decide what to eat, avoiding difficult choices by simply stuffing all manner of meals on top of their pizzas. Remember their ‘Dirty Northerner’ pizza with chips, cheese and gravy topping? Or the strangely popular Gregg’s inspired ‘Dreggs Pizza' topped with sausage rolls, baked beans and brown sauce?
Well now they’re targeting those who can’t decide between a Chinese take away, Pot Noodle or Pizza with their recent Pizzacarnation ‘You’re Off Ya Noodle Mate’, a ‘heady concoction of noodles, chicken, sweetcorn, mushrooms and soy sauce.’
Available as a special throughout August, ‘Off Ya Noodle’ is £3 a slice or £15 for a whole 16-inch pizza. The pizza joint will also continue its infamous Happy Hour deal: Two-for-one cocktails from 5pm to 9pm, 16” pizzas for £10 and single slices for just £2 (Sunday-Friday).
MFDF HIDDEN BANQUET TICKETS
(04/08) The first of Manchester Food and Drink Festival’s ‘Hidden Banquet’ series has been announced, with tickets for the inaugural event going on sale on Friday 5th August at 9am. “Innovation by Aiden Byrne” will take place at London Road Fire Station on Friday 30th September, with a very special menu designed around the innovative Mancunian spirit which brought the world’s first computer, the first inter-city railway link and, of course, Factory Records.
Each banquet in the series, in association with Allied London, will take in a remarkable location, headed by a different, leading local chef, and will be themed around the most iconic aspects of Manchester’s heritage, identity and contribution to the world.
Diners lucky enough to get one of the coveted tickets will be in for a totally unique experience at the old engine room of the London Road Fire Station - a space that hasn’t been open to the public for nearly 30 years.
There are 200 tickets for the 7-course banquet priced at £125. A further 20 “Chefs Table” tickets will be available at £200. Tickets are available here.
RETURN OF THE MAC
(03/08) Confidential understands that grubby old Back Piccadilly boozer, Mother Mac’s, is to change hands as the landlord of the last three decades, Les Dagnall, retires and hands the pub over to Ian Maugham, the landlord of the nearby Crown and Anchor. The pub – one of the Norther Quarter’s last bastion’s of cheap cooking lager and pork scratchings - is to be done up as is the way of boozers in the Northern Quarter. Some will moan, some will not, but as Confidential’s Editor-at-Large puts it: ‘Mother Mac’s is the sort of pub for which gentrification can’t come soon enough’. The pub will close in the coming weeks for a re-lick.
Elsewhere, the fate of the Abercromby pub was sealed last week following the (not so open) St Michael's development event, whilst we also understand The Old Grapes pub on Little Quay Street - once owned by Corrie star Liz Dawn - is to close to make way for developments at Sunlight House.
SHINDIGGER'S SHINDIG
(02/08) Manchester’s local ‘gypsy brewing collective’, ShinDigger Brewing Co, have teamed up with Reform Radio to launch Shindigger sessions, their new events branch “expressing the ethos of ShinDigger beyond just beer; through music, cool spaces, collaborations and positive vibes!”
The inaugural event will be a block party held at Red Bank Co in the Green Quarter on Saturday 6 August (from midday), featuring a line-up of funk'n'soul DJs, street food, cocktails, Shindigger beer and maybe even some sunshine out on the terrace.
Tickets are £4 early bird / £6 standard - available at shindiggersessions.co.uk
GROWN-UP SLUSHIES
(02/08) Luck Lust Liquor & Burn in the Northern Quarter has undergone a sweet new restyling. The downstairs bar (which now looks like an actual bar and not a corridor to the restaurant upstairs) is now ready to open its new sneaky side doors with a fresh face and a frozen margarita machine. BeautifulDrinks have developed a brand spanking new cocktail menu and brought in a boatload more beers, alongside a new bar menu and a few DJs to get things cracking come sundown. lucklustliquorburn.com
BUBBLE BUBBLE
(02/08) Back in April we revealed that Soho’s oyster and bubbly hangout, Randall & Aubin, is to launch a branch in Manchester later this year. Co-owned by telly chef Ed Baines, the first Randall & Aubin franchisee will be James Storey, a hospitality veteran of 32 years. They’ve secured suitable premises on Manchester’s Bridge Street, in the Rankin Style furniture store, and have finally submitted their premises licence application. If all goes well, this hip bar and restaurant - which serves top quality seafood and champagne along with a driving beat of eclectic indie music - will be opening sometime this September.
PICNIC PROTEST
(02/08) Hot on the heels of our report on the closure of historic Manchester public house, The Abercromby, to make way for the new St Michael's development, another eighteenth century former pub in the Ancoats conservation area is to be demolished to make way for the construction of 199 apartments and commercial units.
There has been an ongoing effort to get The Smith's Arms on English Heritage’s List of Buildings of Special Architectural interest. In what must be the politest, most British demonstration yet, Manchester Shield, a civic conservation group, will be swapping sweary slogans for sandwiches by inviting everyone who cares to come along to a picnic protest on Sunday 7 August from 2pm at Second City, Blossom Street, for one last public attempt to save the building. A number of notable local figures are expected to attend including Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who obviously wouldn’t be able to perform without The Smith’s Arms... he’d have to use his legs.
DOES MANCHESTER LOVE COCKTAILS?
(02/08) August 8 to 14 has been designated as the city’s first-ever week-long cocktail festival, Manchester Loves Cocktails, with over thirty of the city’s bars and restaurants taking part. Inspired by his successful event across the Pennines, Leeds Loves Cocktails, founder Nick Fox, a leading drinks creator and cocktail enthusiast, has put together a programme of over forty one-off events including tasting dinners, masterclass sessions, competitions and parties to celebrate the art of mixing drinks.
Events include a takeover of El Gato Negro by the team from The American Bar at The Savoy in London with Portobello Road Gin, a whiskey cocktail pairing dinner at Tariff & Dale in association with Woodford Reserve, and a Bourbon Masterclass and Blues Party at Fitzgerald with Hudson Whiskey. Other participating bars and restaurants include Hawksmoor, Cane & Grain, Mojo, Gorilla, Trof, Crazy Pedro’s, Cottonopolis, The Alchemist and Pen & Pencil. Participating spirit brands include El Jimador tequila, Bacardi rum, Ketel One vodka, Tanqueray gin, Montelobos Mezcal, and Licor 43.
To gain access to the events and to buy cocktails at the discounted price of £4.50, attendees must buy Manchester Loves Cocktails wristbands for £10. Wristbands can be bought from www.lovescocktails.co.uk
CINEFEAST
(01/08) James and Richard, the Bangers and Bacon boys who recently won the year long competition to bag a permanent space at The Kitchens on Spinningfields’ Left Bank, are planning to launch BeastRo on the same site in six weeks or so.
Until then, they’ll be popping up at various events such as Cinefeast: a pop-up cinema and immersive food experience at Cork and Bull, in Old Granada Studios on Quay Street on Friday 26 August at 7pm.
They'll be screening the film Chef, starring Jon Favreau, which follows the titular character as he attempts to rediscover his love of cooking through Cuban street food which he serves from a truck during a road trip across America. Expect a menu of spicy delights inspired by the film, with either a three course food truck menu served in a tray including the famous Cubano sandwich (below) and icing sugar dusted beignets (£25), or a full 7 course ‘El Jefe’ menu, recreating dishes from Chef’s restaurant in the film.
Ticket prices vary, and are available www.eventbrite.co.uk
CAT CAFE IS OPEN
(01/08) It wasn’t just a bit of furry feline fun, The Cat Cafe on High Street is now actually open for business. This pay as you stay coffee shop and relaxation space will be home to eleven resident former house cats. They’re operating a 50/50 pre-booking and walk-in system for customers who must also sign a disclaimer as they enter, agreeing not to use flash photography, pick them up or feed them Quavers.
A limit of twenty customers has been set to reduce feline stress and prevent over-crowding. Visits cost £12 per hour of cat time (billed on exit to the nearest five minutes) and include unlimited hot and cold drinks. Snacks such as cakes, muffins, popcorn and biscuits will also be for sale. Walk-ins cost £1 for every 5 minutes, so if you’re meeting someone there who’s running late, it’ll cost you, but no worries, you can always bask in the calming effects of cat-stroking. They are open seven days a week from 9am to 7pm and will have classes such as Cat Yoga... no sorry we're done here.
...just try make me do yoga
BOCADILLO THRILLO
(01/08) Award-winning Spanish restaurant, Ibérica, has introduced a range of charming Spanish sandwiches to its bar and deli menu - molletes and bocadillos. Just in case you didn’t already know, bocadillos are a typical Spanish sourdough baguette with a choice of fillings from Spanish omelette to chorizo. Traditional molletes are a warm, bouncy homemade toasted bun filled with Iberica’s renowned hams or air cured beef. These fancy continental sandwiches are now available to eat in or take away from £3.50.
CHOP'D
(01/08) The build-your-own-salad bar that’s dropped an E and leaked a P is planning to open its first branch outside London on Manchester's Cross Street very soon. Initially formed in Leadenhall Market in 2004, the healthy, London-based company now has twelve stores across the capital, selling over 20,000 salads per week.
Chop’d (main image) prepare and serve a range of fresh salads, soups, wraps and stews made from carefully sourced seasonal ingredients. Customers can pop into the store and create their own salad from a range of fresh ingredients or can choose one of the pre-prepared salads from the counter. Those who know what they want in advance, can pre-order via the click and collect service.
