THREE words defined 2014. And two weren't even words: '#', 'emoji-heart' and 'burger'.
The restaurant is said to be a cross between 'farmyard-industrial' (two words usually applied to tractors) and 'Soho-neon' (two words usually applied to brothels)
On average seventeen burger restaurants an hour opened in Manchester last year (or something like that). Many sounded the death knell for the gourmet burger, we'd reached 'peak-burger', they said. Even the stats appeared to back them up, research published last year by industry consultants Horizon estimated that burgers were down almost 20% on restaurant menus.
In which case, come 2015 and you'd be forgiven for thinking we'd turned a corner. Well, far from it. Love 'em or sick of 'em, the gourmet burger trend still has plenty of legs.
Filthy Cow
Six (yes SIX) new burger restaurants are set to open in Manchester in the coming months, and they're just the ones we've had wind of.
Byron Burger will open two new sites at the Corn Exchange and Piccadilly Gardens (in the former-Kro unit), Burger & Lobster will open on King Street this March, Solita are poised to open a new restaurant in Prestwich while American-outfit Five Guys will launch their second Manchester operation in Ashton.
On top of that, US burger chain Shake Shack (first opened in the UK on Covent Garden in 2013), London-based burger-trendies MeatLiquor and 50s-themed Ed's Easy Diner - which has nearly 40 restaurants across the UK including one at Cheshire Oaks - are all rumoured to be flirting with Manchester sites, including the empty former-Monsoon site on King Street.
Filthy Cow is the latest such-operation to announce an early-2015 Manchester launch at the former-Lounge Ten site on Tib Lane, and their marketing guff certainly ain't scrimping on hyperbole.
Filthy Cow will open in the former-Lounge Ten
'Wildest meat fantasies', 'carnal burger desires' we can just about swallow, we've been chewing on that since patty-porn trailblazers Almost Famous first appeared up a creepy NQ staircase in 2012. But 'change the face of dining in Manchester once and for all'? C'mon now folks. That's just silly (marketing is via a London firm you say? Ah).
So what's Filthy Cow's story?
Opening to the public on Saturday 28 February, Manchester's latest gourmet burger brand is the creation of young entrepreneur Jordan Gallimore, who we're told has been 'working undercover' in the kitchens and out front of house for numerous other burger bars in the city, doing her homework. Gallimore has gall. We like that.
Gallimore's concept is backed by Crewe-based groundworks and landscaping business owners, Steven and Lisa Higginbottom.
Filthy Cow
The restaurant is said to be a cross between 'farmyard-industrial' (two words usually applied to tractors) and 'Soho-neon' (two words usually applied to brothels), but basically means exposed brick, exposed piping, provocative neons, graffiti and a gagged-cow in wellies chained to a JCB by udder-clamps. Maybe.
The 1,200 sq ft restaurant will contain twenty tables with room for 70 bottoms plus a private dining space with 'help yourself' bar (risky) for another fourteen.
The menu is 'short and punchy' - what this means is four burgers: classic, cheese, beast and veggie (£6 to £7.50), three sides: fries, onion rings and slaw (all £2.50) and two desserts (from £3). Beer and wine start from £4.
For those 'in the know', there'll also be a 'speak-easy takeaway service' served on the sly through a 'secret hatch'. Hmm.
Another Manchester burger bar thrown into the fray it is, the 'benchmark for memorable dining in Manchester' it probably ain't. Unless that gagged-cow is workable?
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