THE waiting and the teasing are over. We can all now finally feast our eyes on the inside of the Mackie Mayor and, if the whole 500 cover operation under the great glass dome is still a work in progress until at least the weekend, it’s already a great place to fill your face. Which ToM duly did on the opening soft launch day (Tuesday, October 8).
Fears were that it would prove a mere copy – no booking, canteen style long bench dining, baby buggy and dog-friendly of the operator’s phenomenal Altrincham Market Hall, but there’s a zestful tranche of new traders tweaking the formula and the space itself is more dramatic than 180-capacity Altrincham, keeping some existing graffiti, adding some quirky touches such as a mural of Theresa May as the head of the Gorgon Medusa (no Perseus, isn’t Jeremy Corbyn).
It’s good to see among the trader line-up such Alty stalwarts as Reserve Wines, Blackjack Brewery's Jack in The Box bar, Wolfhouse Coffee, Little Window, Honest Crust and Tender Cow alongside newcomers to us Baohouse, National 7 and Fin, the latter offering a ‘whole, day boat caught’ fish – a real treat for our landlocked city.
The Reserve Wines selection, with drink-in and take-out prices (plus quality draught wines) is a particular boon – as you’d expect under the stewardship of telly wine guru Kate Goodman (below).
The Mackie Mayor building, of course, was built in 1858 as the meat market, part of the whole Smithfield wholesale market complex. It closed way back in 1972 and later uses as a skate park and the like were fragmentary.
Now thanks to the canny entrepreneurism of Nick Johnson and Jenny Thompson’s Market Operations, it has been transformed into a food and drink destination set to transcend their much-acclaimed Altrincham debut venture. How it adjusts to the hipster urban demographic will be fascinating to see.
Nick himself was caught prowling the restored Grade II listed Swan Street premises, now crammed with folk, like some ringmaster at the latest circus in town. And the fun has only just begun.
