The BBC 6Music DJ laid down the beats at the opening of new cocktail bar & restaurant
Not often you see the BBC Breakfast team out on the tiles, but when a sleek new £1.2million cocktail bar and restaurant opens in their front yard, even the Beeb's early birds can find time for a few bevs.
Steph McGovern, Charlie Stayt and Mike Bushell joined faces from Coronation Street, The Smiths' drummer Mike Joyce and many a media luvvie (hold on, no Cheshire Housewives... but there was free booze?) for the launch of Alchemist MediaCityUK, DJed by BBC 6 Music tastemaker Mary Anne Hobbs.
The futuristic-looking venue - clad in Alchemist-brand gold and described by one attendee as 'looking like something from the Dubai space programme' - can be found on the bund crossing Dock 9 and features an impressive angular blackened steel bar and waterside outdoor terrace overlooking the studios, The Lowry Theatre and Imperial War Museum North.
Simon Potts, Managing Director, said: “This will be our eleventh Alchemist in the UK and a significant one for the brand. This particular building has a unique and visionary design aesthetic as befitting our location, and the team are really looking forward to welcoming everyone who works and lives in this vibrant waterside community.”
Open from morning ‘til night, seven days a week, it’ll offer the full range of Alchemist menus: from breakfast, lunch and dinner to the ‘molecular’ cocktails the brand has become renowned for - including classics such as the Smokey Old Fashioned and new additions like the Battenberg (you won't be sipping them through straws mind, the Alchemist recently banned them for environmental reasons - oh the luvvies will bloody love that).
MediaCityUK Alchemist Bar & Restaurant, The Bund, Dock 9, Salford Quays.
Photos by Ben Blackall