IN a week when a North West textile firm announced it is investing £5.8m to bring cotton spinning back to Greater Manchester it seemed quietly appropriate to check out a new bar/ restaurant called Cottonopolis. I admire the chutzpah in using the city-built-on-textiles’ 19th century sobriquet for a very contemporary bar with fresh Czech tank beer and Japanese cuisine. But didn’t the whole world flock to Manchester back then in the halcyon days of Free Trade, just as it does now?
Riches to warm a cotton baron’s heart have been lavished on this former textile warehouse on the corner of Newton Street and Dales Street, but it doesn’t scream ‘look at me’. Owner Nick Muir, a trained architect, tells me an outside sign is on the way. For the moment the only clue to its presence is the windows etched with that proud Manc symbol, the worker bee (I’ll refrain from saying they match the buzz inside).
The handsome Grade II listed interior boasts many of the trappings of Northern Quarter post-industrial conversions – exposed brickwork, cast iron columns and the like – but it has a rare warmth to it.
You sit on quality beige leather banquettes against high windows and revel in the glorious space of the place. You find the same airiness in Foundation Coffee in Lever Street. No one can eavesdrop on your gossip. After dark the copper lantern lighting lends a fine intimacy too, somewhat shattered by the sound system.
In a neat touch, to show solidarity with the ghosts of past workers, Nick and his team have left the scuff marks on the floor made by their clogs. Today’s toilers are in the open kitchen and the food they are producing is a revelation. One dish we tried is up there with best I’ve tasted all year, yet it is just a simple take on the lamb cutlet.
Lamb Nasu, at £9.50 the dearest item on a menu of orientally inclined small plates, comes as three trimmed chops that have been marinated in miso and then grilled (ask for pink) and served with aubergine nasu and charred lime. I had to google nasi and came up with “Nasu Dengaku gets is name from the Japanese spring rice planting celebrations, where dengaku performers play stilt games and various miso dishes are served on pairs of skewers meant to resemble the stilts.”
Our Nasu dish was deep charred, sticky perfection, even if no stilts showed. We made do with chopsticks, only succumbing to asking for a fork for one later dish as we tackled an uncompromisingly Japan-meets-Manchester menu, created by two veterans of Australasia in Spinningfields – head chef Joe Grant and sushi chef Alastair Long.
]It is divided into four sections – Ice, Fire, Steam and Oil. The cutlets came, naturally, from Fire, as did Squid and Wakame, scored and robata grilled, the chilli and onion salad dressed with an ink mayonnaise – a cephalopod treatment both dainty and punchy for £7 – and Blackened Mackerel (£5.50), which had been treacle cured then blowtorch. Again extraordinarily healthy-feeling and delicate, though perhaps overwhelmed a tad by pickled ginger and mooli with chilli jam.
Ice hosts sushi, sashimi and tartares. Intriguingly, our yellowfin tuna and Welsh seabass (respectively £7 and £.50 for five pieces) were each served on industrial blocks of ice wedged into wood. Fabulously fresh again. Also from Ice, a seared Beef Tataki with onions three ways (ponzu, spring onions, crispy shallots) was the least interesting of the dishes.
Drinking by the glass we’d gone for a Pfaffenheim Co-operative Alsace Gewurztraminer, fruity with restrained spice but ultimately too much residual sugar, so I switched to Runaway’s ever-reliable IPA from a bottle list reflecting the current Manchester craft beer boom (Ticketbrew Jasmine, Squawk Pale Ale, Chorlton Sour, all a fiver or under). There is fresh Czech tank beer stored in 880 pint copper tanks, though the Heineken-owned Krušovické is not patch on the similarly imported and stored Pilsener Urquell over at Albert’s Schloss.
On to Steam and neat but standard gyoza prawn dumplings (£6), then, up a notch soft shell crab baos – Taiwanese steamed buns – with an umami-rich brown crabmeat mayo (£8). Finally, representing Oil, came tiger prawn tempura (£8), crisp and ungreasy with a spicy avocado sauce. Somewhere among this elemental array we put away some excellent kimchi coleslaw (£3).
Puddings we declined. Next time for the yuzu meringue pie or black sesame ice cream. Same goes for the cocktail list devised by the talented Jamie Jones. Mine will be a Sea Meets Skye (£8), mixing Talisker 10, Belsazar white vermouth, Honjozu sake and sea salt.
Cottonopolis Food & Liquor, 16 Newton Street, Manchester, M1 2AE. 0161 236 5144. http://www.cottonopolis-nq.com
