IT was a night of double delight for Manchester’s cocktail kingpins with a special degree of satisfaction for one Lyndon Higginson. At the influential Imbibe UK national awards his latest NQ project, Wolf At The Door, scooped the Avant-garde Drinks List of the Year gong, while the Liars Club group he co-owns won Group Drinks List of the Year.
Wolf At The Door on Thomas Street has only been open for two months but boasts one of the most creative bartenders around in Adam Day (leading the celebrations above with Wolf team Lyndon, Dan Morris and Bart Murphy).
The Avant Garde Drinks List award rewards bars with imaginative menus that are pushing the boundaries around the country. Another local contender in the category was Cottonopolis. But Day’s season-mirroring Aspiria menu trumped their Japanese inspired offering.
The Liars Group are an established favourite but the Group Drinks List of the Year award is serious recognition of work that goes into producing an authentic but crowd pleasing drinks menu across multiple venues. In this case, the variety that is Crazy Pedro’s, The Liars Club, Science + Industry, Cane & Grain and The Bay Horse Tavern.
A jubilant Lyndon Higginson told us: “The response we’ve had to Wolf at the Door has been incredible. We really wanted to offer a menu that showcased effortless yet quality drinks. Creating drinks with a modern approach but using traditional methods and only the best ingredients.”
As for The Liars Group: “We started it with one thing in mind, to be different and to create concepts that are interesting and far removed from what everyone else is doing. At first, people genuinely thought we were mad, we’ve obviously exceeded expectations and our concepts have a global following – not bad really.”