GOURMET kebabs – ToM likes the sound of Bab, latest venture from the NQ’s Pen and Pencil folk. They are even throwing in a ‘Berlin-style’ basement dive bar called The Honey Trap below the 55-cover eaterie at 14 Lever Street, just off Stevenson Square – quite appropriate when you consider the doner kebab was invented by a Turkish exile in the German capital back in the Seventies.
Not that Bab is going down that late night greasy stomach liner route. The proposed menu is replete with sumac and ras-el-hanout, labneh and pomegarnate, all the Levantine flavours familiar from the city centre likes of Comptoir Libanais and Suri.
It helps that the delicious looking dishes were photographed by the excellent Carl Sukonik. Meat from the open chargrill kitchen obviously fetaures heavily but cauliflower and octopus (separately) will also come hot from the coals.
P&P co-owners Dan Pollard and Kevin Connor describe Bab as a ‘grown-up’ restaurant and the food offering reflects this: starters of charred baby octopus with thoum, herb salad and sumac, radicchio and pomegranate salad, and ras-el-hanout lamb bonbon with date chutney; mains of lamb adana with feta and pistachio labneh,herb-marinated hanger steak with cumin cauliflower puree and molasses chilli sauce, and homemade paneer with roast carrot puree, pickled currants and crispy shallots.
“This new concept, completely different from what we do at The Pen and Pencil, is all about the food,” said Dan. “Everyone’s eaten a kebab, often on the way home from boozy nights out! These though will be special – fresh, vibrant and full of flavour. There won’t be a greasy döner in sight.
“Our chefs have spent the last six months creating the menu, we’re going make our own bread, our own paneer and have some amazing cuts of meats and fish with home-made marinades and sides. I can’t wait to get open and show it to Manchester.”
Bunkered away in the basement will be the ‘no airs and graces’ Honey Trap Club, where customers can look forward to shots of whisky, ‘dirty cocktails’, a juke box and pool table.
“I’ve spent time in Berlin recently and love their bar scene, so have created Honey Trap Club with it in mind,” added Dan. “There’ll be no dress code, lots of debauchery, dancing on tables – literally anything goes.”
Both venues are due to open in November.
