WE all wondered where Mary-Ellen McTague would reincarnate her much-missed Aumbry in the city centre, but in our wildest dreams few of us would have anticipated it relocating to the rock-centric Roadhouse (see above).
The iconic if somewhat worn music venue that spawned the likes of Elbow and hosted the White Stripes in their rock infancy shut down last week, causing musos of a certain age major misery. Guy Garvey described it as his “spiritual home”.
The Roadhouse’s stalwart co-owner, Kate Mountain, had striven since 1999 to keep it going, latterly combining it with her involvement as business partner at Aumbry in Prestwich until that was forced to close last summer. She and Mary-Ellen have since organised culinary pop-ups, notably as 4244 in Teacup and at Cuckoo in Prestwich.
That itinerant life will cease and the heart of Manchester will gain a major independent culinary presence. Mary-Ellen, who wrote a column for the Guardian last year, exclusively revealed to the paper today (Tuesday, May 24) she plans to reinvent the Northern Quarter venue as a bar restaurant, different to Aumbry with a new name yet to be revealed.
The work will cost “less than £2m” she told the paper, and will aim to recreate the welcoming, “non-stuffy, non-formal” atmosphere at Aumbry. Unlike the Roadhouse, it will have windows, she revealed.
“What we could do at Aumbry was very much dictated by the space. Whatever ideas we had for the menu were restricted by the crappy equipment. We’ll have a bit more freedom in the new place. It’s probably going to be similar in terms of historical stuff and locally grown stuff.”
Mary-Ellen got her first cheffing job at the basement club on the corner of Newton Street while she was at university. Later she worked for Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck, which seems a far remove from the riotous rock roistering for which the Roadhouse is legendary. The venue, which officially closes on June 1, was also one of the great hotbeds of musical creativity in the city and will be sorely missed.
During five years hugely successful years, Aumbry twice won Restaurant of the Year at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards and she won Best Chef twice. But landlord issues drove them away from their Prestwich site.
Mary-Ellen (see below) is creating a High Tea In Wonderland in Manchester Museum this summer as part of the Manchester International Festival.
