PEANUT Butter and Milk Chocolate Stout makes a perfect partner for Ox Cheeks Braised with Orange Zest and Star Anise. Just as a much smaller glass of La Gitana manzanilla sherry, fresh and saline, hits the spot when paired with mace-laden Potted Shrimp and Crab.
The £4.90 a pint stout, made by leftfield Somerset brewing dudes Wild Beer, evidenced little peanut butter hit in truth, but the wild yeasty, chocolatey smoothness was almost narcotic, the tangle of ox cheek has a similar sensuousness, a tribute to the care shown by the Volta kitchen.
The Burton Road bar, an offshoot of Chorlton’s Elecktrik, has always had a more interesting food presence with a terrific Sunday roast and an eclectic small plate offering in the evenings. Lunch is different. Light bites such as the Shrimp/Crab served with Trove Sourdough (£7, below) and heartier mains, such as the Ox Cheek with its cherubic mounds of mash potato for a reasonable £8.
Apart from a hanger steak with Chimichurri Sauce at £14.50 all their lunch mains are between £7 .50and £9, offering dishes such as Beer Fed Dexter Beef Burger, Sea Bass and Puy Lentils or Moorish Chickpea Stew. As an alternative at similar prices there are respectively deli, cheese and charcuterie boards.
For a while, they discounted at lunchtimes. Now they don’t and the noontime I visited to try out the new lunch menu the bar was quiet with me able to chat to the personable Ruth and Jonny, who were running the show. The low voltage enabled me to gauge the in-house food and drink knowledge (exceptional) and to blag a taste of their own six-months-aged in bottle Negroni.
This cocktail, a cult among bartenders. Volta makes theirs using one part Hayman’s London Gin, part Antica sweet vermouth with a similar measure of Campari before sticking in a bottle to age (they do the same with an Old Fashioned).
Negronis are an obsession with me at the moment. I am glad it is one shared here. Going the extra mile in bottle gave it a vanilla cream feel that slipped down a treat without losing the addictive bite of the Campari bitters.
At this point Ruth tried to tempt me with a cake from the toothsome array on the counter. I’m sure they are as deftly prepared as everything else at this exemplary neighbourhood bar. I had to resist or might have stayed the afternoon further exploring bottle-aged cocktails.
Volta, 167 Burton Road, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2LN, No 11 Passage, Manchester M20 2LN. 0161 448 8887 http://www.voltafoodanddrink.co.uk