CHILANGO GO GO

First up, we hear London burrito-pushers Chilango have finally secured a Manchester site at 50 Oxford Road and should be opening sometime this April. Founded by former Skype employees Eric Partaker and Dan Houghton, in summer 2014 the pair raised more than two million quid from over 700 investors to fund their expansion via their self-styled 'Burrito Bonds'. For £10k, this not only ensured an 8% pay-out twice a year every four years, but also entitled investors to one free burrito each week - meaning investors were up a further £400 a year but down £100 on undercrackers.

Chilango

Chilango has secured a site in Manchester (image: OpenBuildimgs)


 

BOOM OR BUNDOBUST

Elsewhere, straight down Portland Street, Leeds’ hugely popular craft beer and curry union, Bundobust, have applied for a licence - curiously at 59 Piccadilly, next door to Subway on Piccadilly Gardens. The partnership between The Sparrow Bier Café in Bradford and Drighlington’s multi award-winning Indian restaurant Prashad (runner-up in Gordon Ramsay’s 2010 show Ramsey’s Best Restaurant) has proved a roaring success in Leeds since a number of sold-out pop-up events led to a permanent space on Mill Hill in 2014.

Alongside the likes of Dishoom, Shoryu Ramen and Man Behind The Curtain chef, Michael O’Hare, Bundobust has long been touted as one of 2016’s high profile incomers (read here) - should be interesting to see how they position themselves amongst the melee of Piccadilly Gardens. Will it be boom or Bundo-bust?

 

 

FIRST STREET RISING

Now HOME has bedded itself into Manchester's cultural landscape, it's good to see First Street's new owners, Patrizia Immobilien, begin fleshing out the £500m development's food and booze offering with some local talent. Following the announcement that Cheadle's backstreet Indian gem, Indian Tiffin Rooms, would be taking the prime site opposite the arts centre comes the news that Manchester's late-night den of thieves The Liquor Store, and expanding alehouse The Dockyard, have snapped up sites nearby. As have Starbucks. Yawn. Still, Manchester's new 'cultural quarter' might materialize yet...

.First Street's snapped up units  

 

SEVEN BRO7HERS BAR

We’ve just heard from Keith McAvoy of Seven Bro7hers - who runs the Salford-based brewery with his brothers Guy, Luke, Kit, Nathan, Dan and Greg - concerning their upcoming bar on Ancoats’ resurgent Cutting Room Square.

“Sorting the lease out has been a pain in the bum, to be honest,” says McAvoy, “but we’re just about there so construction should be underway pretty soon. We’re aiming for a spring opening, late April probably.

“The venue is split level with a capacity of around 200. The feel and vibe will be familiar to those who’ve attended our Brew Back Friday events at the brewery, stripped back with live music and film screenings, whilst in the summer we’ll spill out onto the square with a beer terrace. We're chuffed to be in Ancoats, opposite the Northern Quarter and surrounded by residential and other fledgling food and drink businesses in this great square, couldn't think of a better place to start."

sevenbro7hers.com

.Seven Bro7hers bar will open on Ancoats' Cutting Room Square

 

KITCHEN RESHUFFLE

Over to Leftbank Kitchens now, where they’ve had a reshuffle. Following the exit of street foodsters Mumma Schnitzel, Yakumama and Wholesome & Raw, comes the arrival of Malaysian street cuisine outfit Nasi Lemak; alongside the much-lauded ‘cheeky Cantonese’ outfit Dim Sum Su, who we hear do a mean steamed bao bun. Good. We’re yet to find a decent bao in Manchester. And that includes Chinatown.

 

ROGAN 

Meanwhile, sensing our waning taste for tasting menus, The French and its skipper, Michelin-star chef Simon Rogan, have just unveiled their first a la carte menu since Rogan took over The Midland’s fuddy reins back in 2013. Handy for those who don’t have the patience, appetite or readies for an £85 ten-course epic. Three courses from the brand new lunch menu costs between £38 and £58 and features dishes such as 'salt baked swede, smoked Maran yolk, ox tongue and truffle with a broth of barbecued beef and onion', '55 day dry aged middle white pork, yellow split peas, acidic apple with blewits, turnip and sweet hazelnut' and 'forced Yorkshire rhubarb, yoghurt sorbet, Douglas fir syrup and toasted oats'.

Ok so the portions may not be mighty, but you'll struggle to find more syllables for your sterling. Available Wednesday to Friday 12-1.30pm - menu here.

The FrenchThe French now offers an a la carte menu

 

NRB 2016

More Rogan now as the North's largest hospitality event, the Northern Restaurant Bar Show (NRB), rolls out its big swingers with the chef appearing in the Chef Live Theatre (15-16 March) alongside Pip Lacey of the Michelin-starred Murano in London and Simon Shaw of Manchester's upcoming El Gato Negro on King Street. Elsewhere the Observer's leading restaurant critic Jay Rayner, one of UK food journalism’s holy quadrumvirate, will be grilled during the NRB Debate on Wednesday 16 March - tickets here

Jay RaynerJay Rayner will headline the NRB in March

 

PANCAKE DAZE

Tuesday 9 February is Shrove Tuesday - a day for pre-Lent 'shriven' and to look a prize tosspot peeling pancakes off the deck. However, you can avoid looking a tosspot this Tuesday by buying a drink at Black Dog NWS, whence you'll receive a free round of pancakes. From 7pm, Black Dog NWS will also be hosting a pancake eating contest out on the terrace, with the winner bagging a £25 bar tab plus bowling and pool. More here.

Elsewhere, for one day only, American brekkie bolthole Home Sweet Home will team up with takeaway service Deliveroo to offer pancakes delivered right to your door. No messin'. No mess either.

Home Sweet Home pancakesHome Sweet Home pancakes

 

THE MOST ‘DOWN AND DIRTY PIZZA’ EVER?

We’ve seen and eaten some abominable, decidedly Northern, food marriages in our time. Who can forget the ‘meat pie barm’ (aka the Wigan Kebab) or the Mars bar Scotch egg from the Borders? Now those Mezcalian loons from Crazy Pedro’s are upping the ante, with a new creation they’ve christened ‘The Dirty Northerner’ – a combination of chips, cheese and gravy slopped on top of a margherita. It’s ‘everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more,’ they say. Is this gravy? We’re not sure. But you can pick one up from the late-night bar and pizza parlour on Bridge Street for £3 a slice or £15 a pizza throughout February.

The Dirty NorthernerThe Dirty Northerner
 
IBEERICA

Following the success of our recent beer pairing dinner hosted by Iberica’s three Michelin-star Executive Chef Nacho Manzano, the Spinningfields restaurant plans to host another beer pairing dinner on Tuesday 16 February featuring Casimiro Mahou – the craft arm of Spanish brewing giant Mahou. Tickets are £35 a pop and will include beers paired with dishes such as scallops with seaweed puree, Morerulo and Iberica’s silky slivers of Serrano ham. Won’t disappoint. To reserve a space email reception.manchester@ibericarestaurants.com

 
.Mahou's crafty trio

 

PINGUS TAKES FLIGHT

In the most fascinating animal kidnap mystery since Shergar, Northern Quarter cafe craft store Oklahoma had their cherished mascot, Pingus the Penguin, nicked at the weekend, prompting an impassioned twitter appeal...

 

Luckily, the liberated Pingus soon found his way home... with this note...

 

F**KIN' KETCHUP

Sticky Walnut and Burnt Truffle owner Gary Usher tells us he's nailed down a site for his third bistro, Hispi in Chorlton. Should Usher manage to raise £50k via his upcoming crowdfunding project, the bank will stump up the remaining £100k. 'Sexy Fish cost 15 million quid. Hispi will be about 150 grand. We're the Primark of the restaurant world,' says Usher. The Kickstarter project will go live in the coming weeks. In the mean time, Usher is busy letting ketchup have it...