NO, this isn’t the secret speakeasy bar in the bowels of the Corn Exchange belonging to restaurant/bar newcomer Alston Bar & Beef; it’s the rather beautiful 60-cover main dining room, enhanced by Manc street artist Tankpetrol’s mural of bees, flowers and dripping honey.
Ahead of the VIP opening party on Wednesday, November 8, a soft launch is introducing folk to the Glaswegian operation’s promising blend of 35 day aged Tweed Valley beef and more gins than you can shake a swizzle stick at.
Whether they make it behind a certain curtain into the speakeasy inner sanctum is up to them. ToM sweet-talked the staff into guiding us towards this cosy bolthole and, aided by some good value G&Ts curled up like kittens there the other night. Our pictures don’t do it justice, but here they are…
Whether it will rank with the city's best hidden cocktail dens we'll have to see – the likes of Peggy's Bar, 17 Below, Smithfield Social at Bluu and our own personal fave, Science and Industry at Cain & Grain.
Alston Beef & Bar is an offshoot of a hugely popular operation under Glasgow Central Station, offering eight different cuts of beef including fillet, sirloin, a chateaubriand and 500g T-Bone. Each has been selected from the top one percent of Scottish beef from the Tweed Valley and dry hung for 35 days. Maybe at long last a real meaty rival to Hawksmoor.
Alongside there’s a 60-strong range of gins, featuring its 10 rotating in-house ‘cold-compound’ gins using botanicals foraged in and around Manchester. Their British hedgerow gin features rowan berries, haw and rosehips from Crescent Meadow, Salford.
Even closer to home, honey from Manchester Cathedral's rooftop beehives is used in Alston’s Cathedral Bee's Knees cocktail.
The 160 cover venue is reached via a dedicated entrance on Cathedral Street venue Ring 0161 804 5555 or click here to book your table.
