REFRESHING the brand is one of the hardest feats to pull off in a food and drink climate fickly chasing the next trend. When Hawksmoor conquered Manchester you could be forgiven for thinking there were no other meat joints (sic) in town.
After 11 years Grill On The Alley was being taken for granted; ditto its younger sibling Grill on New York Street, a situation not helped by confusion over the parent name Blackhouse Grills. Not that standards had diminished. Far from it. Still time for a wake-up call – a spring clean of the interior and a timely reminder of the quality of the beef on offer in the nee menu (whisper it softly, they also do fish rather well).
Owners Living Ventures have not gone for a radical refurb at Grill On The Alley – new lighting, a much-improved bar area, the resident piano moving up from the basement. Expect a similar re-fresh after New York Street closes for a fortnight in May.
ToM dropped by for a sneak peek to check out the various cuts of beef, lovingly carved by the group’s butcher and came away with a copy of their in-house guide, the ‘Book of Beef’.
Classic cuts are mixed with a more premium selection including English Galician, Wagyu, an Australian fillet and the Big Boy cuts the restaurant is famous for.
There is also the introduction of ‘The Butchers Block’ – Himalayan rock salt aged beef, cut and weighed at your table, undoubtedly be the new talking point. We gazed at the custom-made pink salt chamber that ages and imparts flavour to some seriously good sirloin.
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What grabbed us most, though, was the Galician-style beef (above) from deepest Devon. It was the Spaniards who promoted the trend of allowing milk cows at the end of their working life to roam free and grass-feed. Result gloriously tender meat inside the carapace of deep buttercup yellow fat.
Our serving came with mini mash filled Yorkshire pudding with red wine & shallot sauce and was matched with an unusual Uruguayan red, Garzon made from the Tannat grape (£35 a bottle but well worth it) from a terrific red-driven wine list but with a quality white range to accompany the likes of seared sashimi tuna, whole baked seabass fillets and Grill stalwart, lobster.
Blackhouse MD, Scott Grimbleby, told us: “We are really excited about our refresh in Grill on the Alley and Grill on New York Street. Our new food and cocktail menus are the biggest change we have seen for a number of years in Blackhouse and part of a bigger plan to refresh the brand, maintaining the restaurants position as the ‘old favourite. Somewhere our guests can hunker down, chat freely, feel comfortable and really enjoy the great food, drink and experience.”
Grill On The Alley, 5 Ridgefield, Manchester M2 6EG. 0161 833 3465.