A NEW bar is set to open in the Northern Quarter. This will occupy the former Nickleby's pub site in June 2014.
Work has yet to begin but plans for the bar already include an 'indoor living wall' and a corrugated iron bar'
'Combining rustic charm with fresh produce', Allotment aims to be the perfect lazy summer location. Owners Gavin Williams and James Kennedy intend to create 'a welcoming and homely atmosphere, leaving you with a lovely warm feeling and a desire to return.'
The new venture will be located in the former Nickleby's Pub location on the cusp of Dale Street and Little Lever Street. Work has yet to begin but plans for the bar already include an 'indoor living wall' and a 'corrugated iron bar'.
Allotment will occupy the former site of Nickleby's Pub
Both the food and drinks menus will reflect the outdoors theme of this bar with locally sourced fresh produce (of course, what else?) making its way into dishes such as steak and ale pie, fish finger butties, Beef Wellington and steak sandwich with sautéed apples and red onions.
The menu will also offer a sharing option called the Picnic Basket Platter, which will aim to 'recreate the excitement and anticipation experienced as you open up a picnic hamper to reveal the treats inside'. Eh?
Allotment will continue their outdoor living theme through to their cocktails. Instead of the typical spirit sections, the bar menu will offer a rosemary section and a thyme section. Alongside cocktails, beers from around the globe will be available with Heineken, Amstel, Birra Moretti and Krusovice on draught, with cask ales from Southport Brewery and Caledonian Deuchars.
"Our cocktail menu is planned to make people take a step out of their comfort zone. Encouraging them to drink something they've not necessarily had before," says owner James Kennedy.
The editor, Schofield, recalls a visit to Nickleby's fifteen years ago.
"I went with some mates on a Northern Quarter pub crawl. The idea was we'd only visit un-gentified traditional pubs. We measured these by the stickiness of the carpets. Nickleby's was run down with no proper ale just fighting lagers, seats with holes in them and a general air of anger and menace. It was a shocker, but not as bad as the Gullivers on Oldham Street where a Glaswegian tried to sell me his wife for a fiver."
Clearly Allotment despite its weird semi-rural name on one of the most 'urban' of streets will be an improvement.
Work is scheduled for May with an opening date in early June.
Follow them on Twitter at @AllotmentBar for more information.
