GORDO and Franco Sotgiu, co-owner of dirty food pioneers Solita, were having a steak cook-off earlier this week when Franco let slip that the contract for his new restaurant on Deansgate (first announced on Confidential in July) had been completed that morning... and IT WASN'T GOING TO BE DIRTY FOOD!
If Sotgiu pulls the New York steakhouse off, Gordo won’t just be a fan, he’ll be moving in and elbowing Hemingway off his stool
Blimey.
The new, as yet unnamed steakhouse, is located within Squire Leahy’s Barton Arcade; a site fast turning, with the imminent arrival of Liverpool's Catalonian outfit, Lunya, into a quality food destination.
Franco has just returned from another reccy around New York City having finalised his plans. He repeated the statement, a 'PROPER NYC STEAK HOUSE'.
Now Franco sometimes, like Gordo, can’t help telling porkies. But the obnoxious Fat One has been eating at Gallagher’s, Keens and Peter Luger in NYC for over thirty years; he knows that British steakhouses are pussies compared to this lot. So Gordo gets stuck into Franc...
Gordo: "Real grown-up waiters in white jackets and aprons?"
Franco: "Yup"
Gordo: "Whole Prime Rib roasts on a trolley?
Franco: “Yup”
Gordo: “With pan gravy?”
Franco: “Yup”
At this point Gordo starts to believe what’s coming out of Franco’s mouth.
Sotgiu's new steakhouse should launch in Barton Arcade in early-2016 (subject to planning)“The point is Gordo,” says Franco, “the current crop of higher end steakhouses in the North West are frightened of going the whole way. The only one that gets close is getting a name for being white table cloth expensive without the white table cloths.”
Gordo thinks Franco has got an interesting point, especially about not going the whole way. The beef available now in the UK is generally better than the USDA beef in the States; forty years ago it wasn’t. It’s a fine time to think about NYC service coupled with an English product.
A young Gordo was simply blown away with his first visit to New York, walking into Gallagher’s (see below), the hairs on the Fat One's neck stood up. He knew he had found his home.
“The service,” Franco babbles on excitedly, “is going to start at the front door with valet parking - you'll spot our staff a mile away.
"We're planning a Himalayan salt ageing and cutting room in the basement, somewhere you'll be able to come 60 days before dining and pick your rib, label it, even watch it mature.
"We'll have a 100-cover, old-school NYC steakhouse downstairs, a 30-seater terrace out in the arcade and a cocktail bar on the ground floor, but only serving fifties and sixties classics; somewhere Dean Martin, Aristotle Onassis, Norman Mailer and Ian Fleming would feel right at home.
"The whole place is going to be a throwback to 1959," says Franco, "ceviche, tartares, carpaccios and jumbo shrimp cocktails, with sensible price points."
Sotgiu will model his steakhouse on NYC institutions like Gallagher'sGordo goes again...
Gordo: "Table lamps?"
Franco: "Yup".
Gordo: “Dover Sole?”
Franco: “Yup”.
Gordo: “Raw Bar?”
Franco: “Yup, we're also going to serve a dish all the rage in the US right now - every tried a 'Poke'?
Gordo: "Steady on..."
Franco: "...it's a Hawaiian raw tuna salad - they're going nuts for it."
Franco, some few years ago, pitched Gordo on dirty food. He talked of mountainous burgers slathered in heart attacks, of bacon dripping popcorn and fries covered in melted cheese, mayo, tomato sauce, chilli and flatulence.
This he delivered in spades. Gordo wasn't a fan, but by the Gods, Manchester was and still is.
If Sotgiu pulls the New York steakhouse off, Gordo won’t just be a fan, he’ll be moving in and elbowing Hemingway off his stool at the corner of the bar.
Sotgiu hopes to launch his new steakhouse, subject to planning, in February 2016.
Keep an eye on @SolitaNQ for updates...
