WHEN Manchester-born Robbie Bargh, founder of restaurant and bar consultancy The Gorgeous Group, was tasked by international hotel group Starwood with finding an operator who could help bring a cool, creative, indie vibe to its mammoth £25m Palace Hotel makeover, Bargh didn’t have to look far.
A regular at West Didsbury’s award-winning Volta since it opened in 2013, Bargh recognized that its owners, ex-globe-trotting DJs Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford (The Unabombers), possessed the minerals to return this iconic but tired old dame – once described by CR Reilly as looking rather like ‘a tall young man in flannel trousers escorting two charming, but delicate old ladies dressed in lace’ – back to its former glory.
Thus, with only one suburban restaurant and one cafe-bar (Electrik in Chorlton) under their belts, The Unabombers faced the daunting prospect of filling 10,000 square feet of prime city centre space with an inclusive all-day drinking and dining ‘experience’.
Up rolled the sleeves and out came ‘Volta at the Refuge’ – a palatial Victorian-tinged hall of tiled columns, glass atriums and big armchairs, featuring a 139-cover restaurant with open kitchen, a 40ft long lobby bar, a leafy ‘Winter Garden’, a den-cum-pool hall, and late-night subterranean ‘events space’ (which we’re not allowed to call a club because it scares the hotel guests).
Volta at the Refuge (at the Palace) opens in September and promises to be a 'game-changer'.
