THE reinvention of the ground floor restaurant and bar space at The Doubletree by Hilton Hotel follows a pattern this week. Chef Michael Clay’s imminent restaurant bar in Ancoats is named after the original name for the settlement, Elnecot. Meanwhile, the corporate suits at Hilton are harking back to the first monicker of their neighbour, Piccadilly Station, when it opened in 1842 – Store Street. Before it eventually became Piccadilly it was also called London Road (now that means something different).
Opening in September the new development at the hotel, which has also been named City Inn and Mint in previous incarnations, is twofold. Store Street Exchange will be a ‘breakfast through to dinner’ restaurant with a focus on local suppliers and uncomplicated food and drink, centred around its rotisserie and grill. Guests will be able to order a ‘whole bird’ with all the trimmings, steak cooked their favourite way, simple salads, fresh breads, quick bites and puddings.
The new design (generated image above) mirrors this informality ‘celebrating the area’s heritage, its status as a key location for the exchange of goods, and its industrial identity’.
The restaurant will have its own entrance on Auburn Street and an outdoor terrace, while element two, Store Street Craft Bar, with a new entrance on London Road, will be a standalone drinking den with a focus on cocktails and craft beers, following the trend to celebrate Manchester’s new wave of microbreweries. ToM hopes they pick the good ones!
Doubletree by Hilton, One Piccadilly Place, 1 Auburn St, Manchester M1 3DG. 0161 242 1000.