TIME WAS, that a street feast involved a kebab swimming in a brine puddle of despair after one too many shandies.
"It's been a fairly long five to six days to get the place ready in time. We were perhaps a little ambitious with our plans in the time that we had, but we managed to drag it over the finish line somehow."
Now street food has turned festival; exotic and imaginative grub in polystyrene trays washed down with obscure craft beers and voguish cocktails in abandoned rough-and-ready industrial units sound tracked by some of the city’s hippest DJs.
Restaurants don't cut it anymore, neither does the pub, this greedy new tribe - the militia of this indie street food movement - want it all and they want it in one place; food, booze, beats and larks. If not in the blazing sun than at least under a rusty, dripping roof. Brick and dust.
Manchester's food slam darlings, B.Eat Street, are leading the charge.
Having knocked Castlefield about with the hugely popular Friday Food Fights (which drew upwards of 20k people in twelve weeks) in the wonderfully cavernous Upper Campfield Market Hall, the boys from B.Eat Street launched their latest 'turbo charged food event', Up In Your Grill, in Northern Quarter's Brownsfield Mill on Friday 20 June.
A street food tray (£7) with jerk chicken from LoveFromTheStreets was a winner
Up In Your Grill will see ten weekends of Northern Quarter summer block parties until mid-August, with a spacious exterior sun terrace hosting five alternating 'street food heroes' and DJs perched high above the crowds in an Anderson-shelter-cum-guard-tower.
Should the days and nights turn gloomy, inside the lengthy bar sits cocooned in the belly of Brownfield, a shabby, crumbling yet warm space with a mess hall filled with long tables and benches for hundreds of bottoms (each event is licenced for 499 people), and an auxiliary DJ area should the party need to escape inside.
Co-founder of B.Eat Street and Up In your Grill organiser, Chris Legh, told Confidential after the event: "Last night was a lot of fun. It was great to get open.
"It's been a fairly long five to six days to get the place ready in time. We were perhaps a little ambitious with our plans in the time that we had, but we managed to drag it over the finish line somehow. The team have been amazing.
"It's fantastic to create something that allows people to enjoy Brownsfield Mill, it's such an amazing space that's sat empty for so long.
"The food guys really delivered, we were packed out from opening the doors. We're really pleased with the opening event and can't wait for all the plans we have over the weeks to come. As ever, we'll have a few surprises in store."
Up In Your Grill: out on the terrace
Franco Sotgiu, owner of Northern Quarter restaurant Solita and B.Eat Street confidant, said: "A fantastic night overall. We had a few issues with sound and water but that's inevitable for debut events of this type.
"The venue's been really well received, with the sun out the terrace was full with people from 5.30 until late, a perfect opening night crowd."
(By the way, built in 1825, Brownfield Mill is a Grade II-listed former aviation factory for A.V.Roe & Company (Avro). Sir Edwin Alliot Verdon-Roe set up the plant with his brother Humphrey in 1910, there they produced some of the earliest British aircraft including triplanes, biplanes and monoplanes, making Brownsfield perhaps the oldest aircraft factory in the UK - save that one for the party).
Anyway, less of the guff, here's how it looked:
Up In Your Grill, Brownsfield Mill, Tariff Street, Northern Quarter, M1 2FJ
Open Fri 5pm-midnight, Sat 2pm-midnight (until Sat 23 Aug)
Free before 7pm, £3 after.
Line-ups and more info @beatstreetmcr
