By Neil Sowerby
THERE’S me mourning for the loss of my favourite London restaurant, Racine in Knightsbridge – Francophile chef Henry Harris has sold up because of a “changing demographic’ in the area – when another stalwart nearer home, Room, shuts up shop.
The lights went out on the first floor of the Old Reform Club at the top of King Street where only a fortnight ago head bartender John Jones was introducing me to his revelatory Smoked Chipotle Mezcal Negroni. In truth, most of the dining tables were empty and cocktail experimentation was never likely to save a place which always suffered from a schizophrenic are we a restaurant/are we a bar? division of identity. Room’s signature playful deconstruction of classic dishes had suffered after the departure of long-standing chef Paul Taylor and there had been some kitchen hygiene issues publicised in the summer.
It’s an ironic departure when you consider the activity around it on the swaggering slope that is that section of King Street. Across the road the Gotham Hotel, with restaurant, is being created above Jamie Oliver’s in Edwin Lutyens’ monumental Midland Bank building, while further down late spring should also mark the arrival of Burger and Lobster to Ship Canal House.
Impressive edifices both but neither has the history of The Reform Club. This riot of Venetian Gothic turrets, panels and pillars, culminating in the vast oak-ceilinged dining room, was built in 1981 as an HQ for the Liberal Party in Manchester.
My first encounter with it began in 1998 when it first opened as a restaurant/bar – the astonishingly decadent, Bernard Carroll-designed Reform (main picture), vast velvet drapes spooling across the floor, chandeliers, grotesque paintings, hand-cast brash ashtrays and salt and pepper pots (all nicked within a fortnight of opening).
In his 2013 cookbook/memoir, Crispy Squirrel And Vimto Trifle (buy it here) launch chef Robert Owen Brown, captures it most vividly:
“A brigade of chefs that gave me their all, hard working, aggressive, caffeine-fuelled monsters. Each with their own demons, all dancing to the beat of my drum. Waiting staff? Girls in high heels and mini-dresses so tight and short that serving food decently was almost impossible. A client base of footballers, movie stars, gangsters and their entourage. A Spice Girl ordering poached fish and steamed vegetables with a jug of aged balsamic to pour over it. She was on a diet. When she ordered two crème brulees she wasn’t. Then there were others who just came to stare. Champagne delivered by the pallet load.
“It was a place where I learned the power of the press. We sold caviar, a lot of caviar, touching 500g a week. I received a phone call one day asking about who was buying it. My response was ‘footballers and gangsters and none of them care what they are eating.’ It was live on Richard and Judy – whoops. I also recall a very famous footballer in the kitchen toilet with two ladies of the night. The amazing, wonderful Reform. The beautiful love child of Francis and Bernard Carroll. Thirty espressos to get you up and through the day and three bottles of Rocheberg Chenin Blanc to get you back down again.”
For myself I vividly recall one evening there with Monica Lewinsky, on tour to promote her “kiss (or whatever it was) and tell” memoirs and curtained off with an entourage of heavies while she picked at her veggie main.
Even though we’ll never see the likes of Reform again (nor the equally louche Lounge Ten on Tibb Lane, now downsizing into a burger bar called Filthy Cow), I’m sure the premises will be snapped up by some restaurateur in the febrile expansionist world of current Manchester dining.
Elsewhere across the city, other doors have been slamming shut in the New Year. Taurus on Canal Street has suddenly announced on its Facbook site that their landlord has closed them down for a fortnight to attend to “vital sound abatement work”, while multi-award-winning Aumbry up in Prestwich is now an empty shell being transformed into the latest Solita with no word yet when or where its chef Mary-Ellen McTague will open up her own restaurant in the city centre, as pledged. Her 4244 pop-up tenancy at Teacup in Edge Street, NQ, is now over and she and her team have taken a 
">tenancy at Cuckoo bar (in Prestwich, where else?)
On the flipside, it’s good to know that by the summer the long-empty Brasserie Blanc site on Chapel Walks will house Simon Shaw’s wonderful El Gato Negro (also now shut in Ripponden) and the likes of Steve Pilling and David Gale will be arriving on the reviving Spinningfields waterfront with new, very different, ventures. Watch out for some cool street food developments down there, too.
Oh and there’s the little matter of highly-anticipated London incomers such as Iberica (The Avenue, Spinningfields and Hawksmoor (The Old Courthouse, Deansgate).
STOP PRESS:
Mary-Ellen McTague has announced via Facebook that she and business partner Kate Mountain are to do a series of events that combine music and food. Their first event will be a celebration of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, to be held around International Women's Day (March 8). If anyone has a particular interest in Delia Derbyshire and would like to be involved as a performer/ DJ/ artist/ chef, please contact Mary-Ellen.