IT has been 12 months of restaurant chains suffering major wobbles. Yet amid all that corporate carnage it’s good to see much-loved independents expanding cautiously.
Cut to King Street, Knutsford. First Spanish wine specialists Evuna added to their duo of Manchester premises a new one in the former Smallbone store at No.46.
Now a few doors down Wine and Wallop Knutsford has opened at No.76, following the successful wine bar formula of the West Didsbury original but with a greater emphasis on food.
The Lapwing Lane site rarely veered beyond handsome charcuterie and cheese platters; here young chef Gavin Skeoch has a full la carte to deliver (plus set menus, £14 for two courses, £17 for three). Initial impressions from a succession of dishes are of a fine palate and technique at work.
Only blemish among the starters tonsil-cauterising blobs of wasabi with beef tartar (£10). Compensation, a trio of seared, fleshy scallops with lemon gnocchi and burnt apple (£12), followed by chargrilled octopus on a bed of risotto nero that was all power of darkness (£15). Monkfish curry (£16) was a little underpowered but the quality of the seafood was again evident.
Among the meat dishes duck breast, spring onion mash (£17) impressed too; as did a trial dish of belly pork and squid with wild garlic mash – a successful tweak on surf and turf. A pudding sample of bitter chocolate mousse with raspberries and hazelnut praline was summer on a plate.
Food as good as this – in such early days – deserves appropriate wine and, at the original W&W and Flok, resident grape guru Tom Higham has come up with a terrific list. On the visit the two stand-outs were the reds – a Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots from Nudant Jean-Rene, super-elegant Pinot Noir, and a Man O’War Ironclad from New Zealand, a Bordeaux blend of brooding power but approachable ripeness.
No other establishment in Knutsford has a wine offering this interesting and, one suspects, few will match this level of casual dining. It’s all about profile raising for any newcomer – King Street is lined with rival bars.
None have an interior quite like Wine & Wallop. Owner Justin Parkinson has given full rein to his leftfield design nous to transform what was Canvas Lounge, a long narrow interior opening out into a wistaria decked secret garden upstairs, just waiting for the sun to come out (which it has big time). Give it some Wallop, Knutsfordians.
Wine and Wallop, 76 King St, Knutsford WA16 6ED. 01565 228429.
