By Neil Sowerby
THE Northern Quarter’s a bit like Chardonnay. Once everyone loved the fruity charmer, then ABC (anything but Chardonnay) kicked in and the alienated tipplers turned to Sauvignon or a spot of PIcpoul. Similarly, the city’s hippest district increasingly seems the victim of its own popularity. Not that it’s suddenly turned into Deansgate Locks but some jaded punters are shunning it and looking elsewhere.
The sheer volume of new additions, following the template of industrial design, over-priced cocktails and dirty food by numbers, has diluted its appeal. TOM likes savvy newcomers such as Tariff and Dale and Yard and Coop, while the arrival of 63 Degrees in the iconic Market Restaurant alongside the consistent TNQ kitchen certainly ups the food offering, but elsewhere is soul is being sold for a a concealed corporate buck?
Which brings us to Ancoats. The New Frontier? Maybe one day north of Great Ancoats Street will be the ‘destination du jour’. The edible acorns are planted. The ‘Northern Northern Quarter’ has its first neighbourhood all-day (7am-11pm) eaterie, The Cutting Room. It’s in the former Koffee Lock unit on the ground floor of the Ice Plant building on Blossom Street.
It’s the creation of Sophie Jarvis (pictured) and Adam Regan, a Conran and Ramsey-trained chef who is serving simpler fare at the Cutting Room – from gourmet breakfasts and sandwiches (£4.50) to Thai red curry (£10) and Tuscan bean stew (£9). The decor features vintage cameras and luggage racks. First impression is of stepping into some old-fashioned lost property office.
For Blossom Street read Cutting Room Square, focal point of rapid changes around this old Italian quarter,. Gentrification is proceeding apace with stalled apartment projects resurgent (and cool media outfits like Taste of Manchester occupying converted warehouse office space nearby). You won’t find Ardwick boasting an artist in residence – Ancoats has Dan Dubowitz who has framed five photographs on five giant monoliths in homage to the area’s industrial past.
Jarvis and Regan are also behind the more ambitious Goose Fat &and Wild Garlic restaurant, due to open in spring across the Square in the Fairbairn Building, where Guerrilla Eats kickstarted the street food revolution last year. Expect fine dining but with a casual vibe – “quite unlike anywhere else in town,” Sophie warns me.
Alongside Goose Fat and Wild Garlic will be Rudy’s Pizza, a familiar name at Guerrilla Eats’ pop-ups. The oven is in so within a fortnight Jim Morgan and Kate Wilson should be turning out their take on traditional Neapolitan pizza. Not the San Francisco style pizzas turned out by Honest Crust, where Jim formerly worked. “Our dough will prove for 24 hours, but no sourdough will be involved,’’ insists the pizza purists, whose parlour is named after their pet dog, Rudy (below, guarding the premises).
Other openings on the way may include a new venture from the team behind Manchester’s Simple, Cord and Wood Wine and Deli bars, as well as a craft beer bar from Salford microbrewery Seven Brothers an outlet for terrific indie roasters Ancoats Coffee.
And while you are waiting for all this to happen take in ‘Little Vietnam’’s eateries and shop on Oldham Road or grab a beer at the Crown and Kettlde named by the Good Beer Guide recently as one of the UK’s Top 16 pubs.
