IT’S a helter skelter spring and summer ahead for city centre openings, so if my checklist below is incomplete forgive me – and please invite me!
But let’s start with a farewell – to Village stalwart Eden Bar. You know the one, formerly Metz, with the barge outside, reached by footbridge across the Rochdale Canal. Now it has closed with the loss of 18 jobs. It’s the second big shock along Canal Street with the recent death of Velvet co-owner Mark Cain.
The middle stretch of King Street has long been in the doldrums as a retail hub, but it now looks to be taking lessons from Spinningfields and starting to reinvent itself as a bar restaurant destination. Early days yet but the owners of Didsbury's Chalk Bar & Grill (pictured above) are set to open Quill in the former Duo unit at No 20/22. Expected on stream by April, it aims to bring the "highest quality British cuisine and an impressive drinks offering in a sumptuous and relaxed bar environment".
Leap over Cross Street to King Street and developments are more frenetic. Tim Bacon has snapped up the glorious Reform Club site abandoned by Room at the top of King Street. It which will be transformed into the new Grand Pacific by mid-summer, offering Asian-inspired small plates and a creative drinks offering.
Opposite the mighty Gotham Hotel is rapidly taking shape in the above Jamie Oliver’s Italian place in Edwin Lutyens’ monumental Midland Bank building. Check out the cute Art Deco inspired promotional movie for what the owners are calling the “sexiest hotel in Europe” , due to open in April with 60 boutique bedrooms and a sixth floor restaurant called Honey. What sort of grub they plan to serve up remains top secret. TOM expects the rooftop bar, Brass, to be a major draw.
Not so the offering down the road in another iconic building, Ship Canal House. Burger and Lobster does exactly what is says, majoring on imported Nebraskan beef and Nova Scotian lobster. The chain has six outlets in London, one in Cardiff and another in the pipeline for New York, which should open before the Manchester one, whose planned April launch is likely to be delayed. It’s a fresh challenge for those hooked on the Radisson Edwardian Hotel’s Steak & Lobster! It’s another big space – 167 covers across the ground floor.
The two highest profile London imports, Iberica and Hawksmoor, launch on consecutive nights, Match 4 and 5, respectively at The Avenue Spinningfields and The Old Court House, Deansgate. Here’s my verdict on Hawksmoor, the ‘ultimate steakhouse’, which has a a soft launch fortnight immediately prior to opening.
Iberica with an amazing roster of Spanish hams and wines is equally promising.
The rejuvenation of Spinningfields Left Bank will feature a fine dining restaurant from ex-Hilton exec chef David Gale and a new pub from Damson’s Steve Pilling along the lines of his Dockyard at Salford Quays – Pub of the Year in the 2014 Manchester Food and Drink Awards. Also imminent on this riverside stretch is Scene, an 150 cover ‘Indian street kitchen and bar’. The three projects will respectively occupy the former premises of chains Zizzi, Cafe Rouge and Strada, which makes TOM very happy.
It will be even happier when Kitchens Leftbank finally kicks in here, too. This competition to encourage food and drink entrepreneurs was shelved ahead of its September 2014 launch but is expected to kick off this spring. The plan was that six small-time vendors, who pitched the best, would work out of empty units for six to 12 months to win one full-time residency courtesy of Spinningfields developer Allied London. A terrific grass roots initiative.
Much-loved Mexican chain Wahaca is the highest profile newcomer to the Corn Exchange, which is set to reopen its doors in July 2015 as a self-styled ‘food mecca’. Italian restaurant Vapiano, Cabana Brasilian Barbecue, The Cosy Club, Vietnamese street food specialists Pho and Bar and York outfit Kitchen Banyan will take up units inside the Grade II listed building, alongside Byron Burgers, which already has an outlet on Deansgate.
There will also be five outside-facing restaurants – Corn Exchange stalwarts Salvi’s Deli, which will be much expanded, and Tampopo, plus Pizza Express, Zizzi and Eclectic Grill.
Finally, on the bar front you can probably expect half a dozen new ones to sprout in the Northern Quarter before summer arrives, particularly in the fallower eastern end towards Piccadilly Station, beyond which an equal number of craft breweries is probably gestating as I write this. The undoubted star brewers, if you believe the (justified) hype will be Cloudwater. It wouldn’t surprise me to see their initial, wholly seasonal brews, featuring in the fancier new places in town.
Two bars to especially pin your hopes on. First, in March, the eagerly awaited, much delayed Ply, in Stevenson Square is a new venture from the Joe Fearnhead’s Kosmonaut squad, who are also brewing their own Alphabet beer. Ply is having a genuine Neapolitan pizza oven reconstructed in the premises. Expect NQ Pizza Wars when Solita warlord Franco Sotgiu opens his own wood-fired operation promising (you guessed it) genuine Neapolitan pizzas.
And finally work is well under way to convert former shop premises on Piccadilly Station Approach into The Piccadilly Tap, the kind of connection-missing craft beer lair commuters have long been missing. It’s from the folk who run Euston Tap in London. Expect 30 actual taps. Cheers, guys!