THE NORTHERN Restaurant and Bar Show 2015 - the largest show of its kind outside London - has just kicked off at Manchester Central.
Confidential will be on the ground bringing you the best of the show
For two full days (17 & 18 March) nearly 300 of the North West's finest fork, cress and bamboo skewer salesfolk and exhibitors will try shift as much stuff to as many industry bods as possible, inbetween darts to the free prosecco cart and back past The Cheese Man.
Successful restaurateurs tell not so successful and aspiring restaurateurs how to be more like them; Michelin starred chefs perform Michelin star turns; ruddy-faced brand ambassadors sling out samples and recall nasty tales of whiskey fungus; while Mr Thom Hetherington - Master of Ceremonies - liberally hands out back-slappings to the great and the good of eating, drinking and sleeping in the North.
All in all... bloody good fun.
Hetherington has to be commended; he's turned what was, not too many years ago (before it was his show, mind you), a half-empty room of miserable Diageo salesmen into an industry calendar highlight; a 50,000 sq ft hall packed topped to bottom with nearly everything you could need (and many things you don't) to open and run a bar, restaurant, pub, caf', you name it.
Confidential will be on the ground bringing you the best of the show so make sure to keep an eye on the live social media wall below...
