Inside The Kitchen At Nell’s Kampus

“Did you put any flour on that dough?”

“Eeeeeeeeeerm….would you believe me if I said yes?”

What…a…fucking…div.

I have, with varying degrees of success and failure, been making pizzas at home for over three years now. The full gamut has been run; Neapolitans of various hydrations, chunky Sicilian bois, Roman Al Taglios and crispy, blistered New Yorkers. I’ve had more dough in my fridge than a high level cocaine trafficker and not once, in all those attempts at perfectly recreating the finest pizzas I’ve ever pushed into my mouth, from New York to Naples and back to Manchester, have I ever forgot to flour the fucking dough before pushing it out.

Then again, I have never undertaken this process in an actual fully functioning, professional kitchen while the head pizzaiolo oversees every stretch, prod and saucing. Frank Pinello, Marc Vetri or Anthony Falco are yet to personally judge one of the margheritas or pepperoni squares I’ve produced off the back of their recipes. Yet here I stand, at the prep bench of the new Nell’s Pizza, mishandling 800g of hyperactive flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt while the main man, Jonny Heyes, grimaces at my most rookie of fucking errors.

The reason I find myself on the other side of the counter on this shockingly sky blue Thursday afternoon is to not only enjoy a tour of the new Nell’s location, within the burgeoning red brick and concrete garden neighbourhood of Kampus, but to be given a hands on education of what exactly goes into transforming a small selection of basic store cupboard ingredients into, in this writer’s humble opinion, the best pizza in Manchester.

Art

Fully bedecked in official Nell’s regalia – crisp white tee, navy apron and matching baseball cap which, thankfully, rests more than comfortably on my meatball of a dome – I look the part for an afternoon of discovery, mentorship and, unfortunately, one instance of almost concussing a co-worker with a pizza peel.

I won’t lie, as Jonny calls us over to his prep bench, ingredients all laid out in front of a table top dough mixer, there is the undeniable potential of a Mr. Miyagi – Daniel LaRusso/Mickey Goldmill – Rocky Balboa dynamic building. Only involving the mixing, pushing and topping of pizza dough and not catching flies with chopsticks or punching the ever loving shite out of a side of beef. That this potential is rapidly obliterated by a litany of cack handed errors on my part only further serves to intensify the drama of us reaching our final destination of removing an inch perfect, almost two foot wide disc of Manchester made New York majesty from the top deck of the colossal Nell’s oven. Probably. I dunno, I was too busy playing out the entire afternoon in montage form in my head the entire time.

A wild idiot appears at the dough mixer

Anyway, weird cinematic fantasies aside, what’s obvious when Jonny begins directing us through the embryonic steps of the dough making process is just how much care, craft and nuance goes into Nell’s product. The temperature of the secretive flour blend is taken, then measured against the temperature of the air in the kitchen to decide how warm the water should be. Jonny insists that absolutely nothing is eyeballed and must be measured out with utmost precision. A soul crushing blow to my usual ‘that’ll do’ attitude.

Everything but the salt is added to the mixer, which then begins to put its hooks to work, binding together the gluteny goodness and opening up all those precious air pockets. When Jonny adjudges the mass to be suitably solid, he leaves it to rest and informs us we have some focaccia to attend to. Fucking Yes.

What I must mention at this point is that the mixer used for our little afternoon stint in the Nell’s Kampus kitchen is by no means what will be put through it’s paces come opening day. That will be a job for the behemoth that lies in wait behind us, which is comfortably gargantuan enough to bathe a fucking silverback gorilla in. Jonny confesses that he is yet to use it and, in all fairness, it’s hard to blame him for being pensive, given this fucking thing looks like it could transform into one of Optimus Prime’s mates at a moment’s notice.

And it’s not only the mixer that has been seemingly gassed full of steroids, either. The triple decker oven, procured from ‘the Swedish Pizza Mafia’ according to Jonny, is about the same size as some of the one bedroom flats available in Kampus. This isn’t just an oven, it’s a fucking mothership. You could slide a dozen pizzas in there and still have enough room for a game of 5-a-side. This thing is monstrous and only emphasises just how big the scale of Nell’s new operations are.

The confidence in the product and the demand for it since Nell’s initially launched as a pop up inside Common at the beginning of 2020 is there for all to see in their new digs. The restaurant and bar area is a sprawling buzz of Brooklyn pizzeria, Copenhagen infused comfort and ’70s shopping centre concrete and colour. Never mind about swinging a cat, there’s enough space in here to helicopter a Bengal tiger around your head. Not that you’d want to, like. There’s a Photo Booth leading towards the pass and slice bar and, even on a pre-opening afternoon, it’s easy to visualise this spot being packed to the rafters night after night. Who wouldn’t want to spend a couple of hours around a tableful of mates as you all take down 22 inches of immaculately prepared dough, marinara sauce, fior di latte and Cobble Lane pepperoni? Or maybe some of the aforementioned, newly added focaccia that has made it’s way onto the menu here.

Well, back to the kitchen and, if any potential customers could witness the battering I’m giving a square of wet dough, they actually might have more than a few reservations. As Jonny effortlessly dimples his focaccia with uniform regulation, I prod and poke a scatterbrained atrocity of wounds into my mixture, which leaves the dough looking like someone gave a mouse a gram of speed and a miniature pogo stick and let them go fucking ballistic.

“Bloody hell, you REALLY got into that corner, there” reviews Jonny, observing my over enthusiastic handiwork. But this isn’t the only sheepish moment I will endure. I am then informed to ‘tease’ the olive oil across my blank canvas, which I take as an instruction to do that little chef flourish of half obscuring the oil’s exit from my bottle with my thumb, so as to generate a performative drizzle of extra virgin into the pan.

Big fucking mistake.

“What’s that?! We’re not having any Jamie Oliver nonsense in here” exclaims Jonny, horrified. “Tease it out means lash a load on there. Don’t be shy.”

Kill me now. Seriously. Kill me stone dead and throw me in that big fucking oven and then into that mixer.

A crumbling of oregano is scattered atop the dough with, thankfully, minimal fuss or error and into the top deck they go. The oregano, by the way, is an on-the-day alternative to the usual rosemary that will be used.

We peek inside to see the two pans bubbling and rising as they bake. The aroma of freshly, expertly baked bread wafting our way like a big, warm Italian tidal wave. It’s unerringly comforting and briefly makes me forget my horror show of an oil pour.

As our first doughs heat up, Jonny treats us to one he made earlier, a bit like Blue Peter, only with Mediterranean baked goods instead of a Tracey Island made out of old cornflakes boxes.

The focaccia is sliced into identikit fingers, all open crumb invites to dip into pots of freshly prepared marinara and chilli dipping sauces. As an appetiser, it’s an extraordinary triumph in simplicity. Fantastic bread combined with an abundance of flavour from the sauces. Within half a bite I’m picturing enjoying a portion of these with a pint and a big, daft smile on my face. Which is what every great dining experience should be, to be honest.

Attention then turns to our focaccias from earlier and, while Jonny’s may be the neater effort, my own avant garde creation makes for a more rustically charming result, it has to be said. I privately chalk that up as a personal victory for myself and revenge for being compared to Jamie Oliver and make my way to the business end of the afternoon – The 22 inch New Yorker.

So, yeah, alright, upon first attempt I MAY have forgotten to flour the dough upon plopping it onto the prep bench. Unforgivable and all that, alright, let’s move on. I was over eager and basking in the glow of a focaccia prep that was, quite frankly, the work of a bread based prodigy.

Second time lucky, my 800g newborn is floured appropriately and so the method of stretching it out to size begins. I was dreading this.

Jonny’s demonstration was the work of an accomplished sensei. Going back to my earlier Mr. Miyagi analogy, this is the bit where he catches the fly with the chopsticks. Or like that doctored YouTube video of Ronaldinho casually knocking a football repeatedly against the crossbar from the edge of the box. It looks SO easy, but when it comes down to it, this is a practice that requires steady and accurate hands. I feel doomed.

Laughing so I won’t cry I just about manage to push out the dough a fair amount into a decent looking circle. Then comes the slap. Not Jonny delivering one to my chops for disgracing his kitchen with my mere presence (I would 100% not have blamed him for that, either) but slapping my dough between my hands (grow up) until the elasticity of the base eases it’s way into the appropriate size. Upon seeing that no holes have appeared and the crust is reasonably even, the relief waves over me. That was, and I’m not being dramatic, my Everest. Many a home cooked effort has been hurled in the bin followed by a tirade of swear words upon the stretching out going horrendously south. But no emotional breakdowns are necessary, here. Instead of taking a bottle of red wine up to the shower, I’m sliding my almost two foot masterpiece down the bench to be sauced up.

I spiral a ladle and a half of house Marinara sauce over the disc of dough, which earns me a ‘not bad’ from Jonny and my first tear is almost shed at hearing those words. Much like how Alex Ferguson’s former players will tell you how him saying ‘well done’ to them would be enough to make them run through a brick wall, ‘not bad’ is the level I will always aspire to reach at any task. No one likes a show off, do they?

‘Not Bad’

Wind fully in my sails, I scatter across grated mozzarella and then a further flourish of fior di latte with all the confidence and pizzaz of a bloke who’s been in this game for 25 years. Jonny then demonstrates how to effectively work the peel in the oven, showing me his rotation skills. This is not another ‘not bad’ moment, but rather an ‘absolutely no fucking good’ endeavour, which finishes with me finally landing my pie towards the back of the middle deck and, instead of politely acknowledging Jonny’s assistance, I decide now will be the perfect time to showcase some ill advised kung fu manoeuvres, spinning all five feet of the peel around, blissfully unaware that Beck, who has been heroically filming and photographing the entire experience like a champ, is only four feet away from me. My audition for any future reimagining of ‘Enter The Dragon’ immediately goes horrendously wrong and a hard working colleague is left with the wrong end of a pizza peel bouncing off her temple.

A myriad of terrified apologies (and lots of mockery aimed in my direction) later and out comes the pie, the crust beautifully leoparded and bubbled, crimson red marinara punctuated with golden mozz. If I were not in the company of others, I would have probably christened her with a full name and everything, but instead I must now put my severely lacking geometry skills to the test and slice my pie into eight equal triangles.

LOL.

Narrator: He did not slice the pie into eight equal triangles.

Manchester’s Next Top Pizzaiolo, hard at work

“Now, if you were to receive this slice and the person you were with received THIS slice, would you be happy?” queries Jonny, perplexed at just how badly I’ve judged the carving up of my creation. There’s no two ways around it, one slice is your postcard New York slice – It will overflow a paper plate without any issue. The slice next to it, however, looks like it’s lost little brother. Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in ‘Twins’ and you’re on the right lines.

Fortunately, no one is being served this pie other than the four of us currently standing around it and there’s enough correctly sized slices to go around.

Top: A Proud Parent. Below: Your friendly neighbourhood big lad eating on the job

It’s so easy to take the quality of Nell’s pizza for granted and our taste test only further reaffirms that point. The dough is crisp without being brittle, offering exactly the right amount of chew, with the precise amount of fresh baked flavour coursing through it that only accentuates the immaculately sourced toppings above. There are no gimmicks, only quality. One bite and the words of world’s handsomest pizzaiolo, Lucali legend and Brooklyn King Mark Iacono spring straight to mind, when appearing on David Chang’s much acclaimed ‘Ugly Delicious’.

“Italians invented pizza. Italian Americans perfected it.”

This New York style is undefeated. Neapolitans may have the history and the old world romance behind them, and there is no denying that much of the best pizza in the world can still be found while wandering the back streets of Naples (and in many Neapolitan based joints across the globe), but the evolution away from soupy slices towards a foldable, by-the-slice, ubiquitous street food is one of the rare instances where America has actually managed to improve something rather than, y’know, making it a hundred times fucking worse.

Jonny surmises that his slice is a little sauce heavy, but this is clearly just his way of coyly expressing how it is in fact the work of a seminal culinary artist who’s stylistic temperament knows no bounds. Or he’s politely telling me to leave his kitchen and never, ever return.

All that’s left to do now is remove the earlier prepared dough from the mixer, a task that is left to me and the two clumsy shovels that masquerade as a pair of hands. Fortunately the mix is removed without incident and is stored away for what will be a 48 hour prove before it blossoms into another masterpiece.

The entire article was nearly just this picture on it’s own, ngl

That Nell’s is already flying solo away from Common after a little over a year of pandemic ridden panic and mayhem is proof of how beloved an institution it has already become in Manchester. This week it’s been nigh on impossible to scroll through insta feeds and stories without stumbling across at least half a dozen posts at a time from early visitors, deliriously chomping through their way through arm length slices. This is a pizzeria that is going beyond just being somewhere to get a great slice and is now cultivating it’s own culture, much like the classic establishments it was influenced by in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

I depart with three cling filmed sliced of Margherita, cradling them like a proud parent while eagerly planning a multitude of visits over the coming months; Working lunches with a couple of slices, family dinners, boozy Christmas jaunts, you name it, it’s happening here for the foreseeable and, given the anticipation building around this week’s opening, I’m supremely confident that I am not alone in hatching such plans.

At The Table with Amma’s Canteen: A story of love, family bonds & tossed salads

This is part of a series by Heidi Elkholy (@saltfatacidheidi) called At The Table that highlights Manchester’s rich and diverse neighbourhoods, celebrating food, culture and community. Previous feature: HQ Nigerian

Being around owners Ganga and Saju is like coming home during your uni Christmas  break: there’s warmth, knowing comments that push all the required buttons for the  inevitable bursts of laughter, and mock-outrage. It’s something special, and it’s exactly what you can expect when you visit them at Amma’s Canteen.

‘When it comes to our dishes, we choose what we enjoyed growing up’. 

Amma means ‘mother’, and so it’s not a great leap that the super-popular Alleppey fish curry is based on Ganga’s mum’s recipe. Wild to think we’re not just eating a curry, we’re eating a dish passed down through generations, where the nuances of flavour and trial and-error seasoning means everything is exactly how it should be. Saju’s family’s side  also features on the menu, with recipes from his mother and aunts. It’s like being invited  to the table at a family reunion and stuffing your face with delicious, nurturing love. The  recipes from Kerala, Chennai and Madras come straight via the family WhatsApp group.

As well as the menu being an homage to the women in Saju and Ganga’s lives, the  restaurant floor is very much a family affair. Their daughter would work front-of-house  before going to university, and the small team of floor staff have to go through every item  on the menu for their staff lunches (the actual dream) so they are super-well-informed  when dealing with customers. 

Amma’s mission is to dig the UK out of the very out-dated expectation of the ‘Curry  House’, where every region in the world’s seventh largest country is picked apart and then  mashed together in a homogenised bastardisation of Chicken Tikka Masala.  

‘Our restaurant is not in the format of an Indian restaurant – we don’t sell popadoms, and  English people can walk in and find they don’t recognise any of the dishes’.  

But they’re not in a hurry to add Jalfrezis or Baltis to the menu, and don’t get Saju started  on naan bread: ‘My mother first tried naan bread when she was 45! In South India, we  don’t have wheat farming so you won’t get naan here.’ 

Saju’s is a long and fancy relationship with food, having worked as a chef for 30 years in  the swankiest hotels like the Taj group where the pressure was on to impress the  celebrities and royalty that would visit. Unlike a typical Indian curry house with grandiose  vibes, you won’t find any imagery of fancy India at Amma’s Canteen. The interior is warm  and inviting but is decorated purposefully without rank, without pretence. Of the awards  that this place has won, the only one Saju will display is the Vegan Offering of the Year  award from Manchester Food and Drink Festival in 2019, ‘Vegan food should not be an  afterthought’. Saju argues that the Indian caste system and the food associated with the  highest caste has perpetuated the idea that India is the land of elephants and maharajas.  ‘India’s got 600 million poor people and they eat delicious food everyday… That’s the food we want to give’ 

Cue the ‘From the Street Cart’ section of the menu, where dreams come true. You’ll also  find a Curry, Biriyani and Dosa section of the menu, in lieu of the conventional (but not at  all Indian) starter-main-dessert set up. I’ve only ever made it past the street cart section  once, and that was only because I was sated by the fact that there were enough of us at the table to ensure we could order everything. Super-standouts are the delightfully hot  Chicken 65; the Porucha Vendaka – okra fingers stuffed with a mixture of nuts, raisins and  then fried to perfection with an amazing chilli hummus. And if we could all just take a  moment to appreciate the beauty that is Saju’s Cauliflower Bezule: spiced cauliflower  served with a tangy okra yoghurt dip that delivers a surprising amount of heat. Because  they care about your experience so much, Ganga tells me this particular gem is not on  the takeaway menu, but if you nag them enough they may oblige you. You’re welcome. 

If you like dim sum, their Stuffed Kozhukattai, is a must-try. Home-made folded parcels of  glutinous joy filled with veggie-chilli goodness and served with a dollop of what’s called  ‘poor man’s dip’.  

The biriyani is like the most delicious savoury trifle (stay with me) in that it’s layers and  layers of delightful tender lamb chunks, rice that is seasoned for the gods, and fried  onions on top, hitting all those brown-mum nostalgia points.  

We end on the topic of India’s vast diversity. Some people describe countries that large as  a ‘melting pot’, but Saju says ‘a melting pot means assimilation but in India, every region  has its own perfectly-formed culture and they’re all mixed together, more like a tossed  salad.’ We then take a million photos of them and their waiter Harry, who is loved and  ribbed mercilessly in equal measure. It’s clear to see the team at Amma’s Canteen is treated like an extended family, and we love to see it. 

Ganga, Harry and Saju

Opening times:

  • Tues-Thu 5-10pm 
  • Fri-Sat 4-11pm 
  • Sun 4-9pm 

Halal friendly, gluten free options ✅

The Renaissance of Happy Seasons

The thunk of heaving oval plates, piled high with densely coated udon noodles and mountainous, char siu crowned pillows of jasmine rice, hitting elderly yet steadfast formica tables punctuates the cluttered air amid the hotpot of rapid fire Cantonese chatter and low Mancunian rumbles. Students and pensioners sit side-by-side, one generation utilising their reading glasses to remind themselves of the menu, the other studiously scrolling instagram to jostle their memories of what dish looks most appealing.

Between the social media scouring clientele, the neon exterior and the fish tank featuring interior, Happy Seasons could easily be situated in 1988 or 2021. A no nonsense throwback that suddenly finds itself flung headfirst into the most modern trappings of the 21st century.

The Faulkner Street stalwart has held its own in Manchester’s China Town for 25 years. A quarter century of roasting meats and filling seats. But now it has opened itself up to a new generational pull. And everyone wants a plateful.

The Holy Trinity – Roast Duck, Char Siu, Belly Pork

Between July 4th and September 22nd, 2020, Happy Seasons’ official instagram account posted 18 times, understandably wishing to capitalise on lockdown restrictions easing by tempting customers back through their doors with photographs of all their trademark dishes.

And while business remained steady, it cannot compare to the deluge of interest that has been generated since the account relaunched in June of this year.

Pre-pandemic, of course, you could often expect to be greeted with queues veering all the way down Faulkner Street, with regulars patiently waiting for their sumptuous roast duck, char siu and crispy belly pork. But with those queues no longer forming, more modern measures had to be taken, and Happy Seasons rapidly rose to prominence on the instagram feeds of, seemingly, every-fucking-one in Manchester.

Enlisting the help of Jay Tran, of subterranean Vietnamese den Pho Cue on the opposite side of the street, Happy Seasons’ signature sauce laden creations were given new life, receiving wall-to-wall coverage on feeds and stories alike. A masterstroke in marketing that even a menu revamp or restaurant refurb couldn’t replicate.

Owner Kevin, sitting down with us during a pretty well populated afternoon service, explains that even some of his older regulars have noticed their old haunt receiving more mainstream coverage.

“We have regular customers coming in now saying ‘I saw you on instagram!’, they’ve seen all the posts going out and now we’re getting a lot more people coming in saying things like that. It’s a lot more popular. They want the dishes they’ve seen on the posts, which is really good.

And the dishes themselves are more than just social media aesthetics. They are the reason the ever thriving Chinese community in Manchester cannot keep away from the place. They are the reason why, at mid-afternoon on a scorching Wednesday, almost every table in the place is occupied.

When your insta bio reads ‘THE KING OF ROAST MEATS!!’ you really need to be ensuring it’s a bit more than mere hyperbole. And Kevin’s roast chef, a mysterious figure who is only alluded to in our conversation, is churning out the finest cuts of BBQ’d Cantonese meats in the city.

“The roast chef had already been here for many years before I arrived,” explains Kevin, who himself has only been at the helm of Happy Seasons for five years, having left his job as a restaurant manager in the Trafford Centre to take the reigns on Faulkner Street. “I think he’d been here for 12 years, so I could concentrate on managing the restaurant and leave him to do the roasts.

“There’s no big secret about the roasts, it’s just down to putting a lot of attention into the preparation. The roasts are prepared the day before from 7am, every day, so the day after, when they’re gone, that’s it, you can’t do any more. Day-by-day, day-by-day, non stop. It’s not easy, it’s hard work. Some customers don’t understand that we can’t just make it quickly. We have 40 ducks prepared and once they’re gone, you’ll have to come back the next day for one.

“Some customers say ‘oh we’ll wait’. How long are you going to wait? Sit there until tomorrow?”

The ducks themselves greet you from the street, hanging in the window like a band of outlaws, strung up by the sheriff in an old western. One-by-one they find their way onto the chopping board and then onto a bed of jasmine rice, beautifully corrupting it’s pristine whiteness with their soy infused juices, making everything that much more murkier and delicious. Throw in some char siu, maybe some soya chicken or belly pork and once that is places under your nose, you’re not looking up for the next 20 minutes.

Yet the roasts, famous though the may be, both on and offline, are far from the only reason to walk through the doors at Happy Seasons, as Kevin’s wife Fiona proves, serving up a banquet that our table almost buckles under.

Deep fried salt and pepper pork chops, crispy Szechuan chicken, char siu udon noodles with spring onion and garlic, prawn wontons, Morning Glory stir fried veg, salt and pepper ribs, crispy pork belly and a whole heap of soya chicken, complete with ginger and garlic dipping sauce is presented to us and we wonder where to even start. The colours of each bowl and plate are almost pre-filtered, the vibrancy of the crimson Szechuan spiced chicken almost chaotically violent when paired against the springtime greenery of the Morning Glory. And the medley of odours swirling between the plates causes carnage in our nostrils as we ponder where to start between anxious sips of Tiger. It’s a full blooded assault on the senses, make no mistake.

“Our food is more Cantonese style, like you get in Hong Kong” Kevin tells us, as we chopstick our way through the insanely good salt and pepper pork chops, “Mainland food is spicier, more oil. Szechuan chicken is more mainland. We didn’t use to have this dish or the spicy broth with the brisket, but our Chinese customers started asking for spicier food.

“The last 5 -10 years, more people from mainland China have moved to Manchester, and England in general. Before that it was all people from Hong Kong, but now the people who originally moved over from Hong Kong are retiring and there’s no one to take over because their children don’t want to own restaurants. The children see their parents working in restaurants and takeaways, working long hours, they don’t want that. They want to spend time with their families. Plus, with working visas are easier to get from mainland now, places like Hunan, you get more people coming over and opening up restaurants.

Born on the mainland himself, in South China, Kevin moved to Manchester with his parents at the age of 16. And while his parents later traded the North West of England for Brooklyn, New York (a snippet that made Paddy excitedly exclaim “New York!? THEY LIVE THERE!?…WOW!” with the childlike exuberance of Father Dougal Maguire), Kevin made a pilgrimage around the UK, taking in Bristol, Blackburn, Halifax and then Manchester again.

In this time, and the five years he has headed up Happy Seasons, he has seen tastes develop and evolve, with the space between his English and Chinese menus, both roughly the same length as War and Peace, getting closer and closer all the time, moreso especially in recent months, with insta inspired patrons demanding the most authentic experience possible.

“Most English people didn’t order from the Chinese menu. But when the restaurant is packed, you see a table of students sat next to a table of Chinese people and they have a look and say ‘oh, what’s that?’ on the Chinese table, and they want to try it. They unlock the Chinese menu that way and that way they know what to order next time they come in.

“We have some regulars now who come in, English people, who know what they’re ordering off the Chinese menu, so they’ll say ‘I want the salted egg beancurd’. So we are looking at adding more Chinese menu items to the English menu.

Once again, the social media hype is fully on display with people’s orders. A trio of students on the table to our left order up and slurp down some Dung Yam seafood soup in short order, while a middle aged Mancunian couple to our right enjoy the heady delights of the spicy brisket broth.

This + Three Tigers and you are in flavour country, my friends

Fiona spares our blushes as we struggle to overcome the insurmountable odds stacked in front of us. There is no way we can polish off the deluge of deliciousness that has been so generously delivered to our table. She bags everything up as a round of naps is contemplated.

A little while later, I share a handful of snaps of our meal to my instagram story. The notification pings are almost instantaneous. The love heart eye emoji reacts are there, the simple ‘YES’ replies and various other impassioned responses telling me all anyone needs to know about the renaissance that has been undergone atop Faulkner Street over the summer. Happy Seasons has become one of the city’s happiest places, for both the older generation and the new.

The Manchester Food and Drink Festival kicks off this week – what to expect

The Manchester Food and Drink Festival (MFDF) is returning this week, celebrating the city’s restaurants, bars, traders, producers and more.

Running from the Thursday 16 to Monday 27 September, the event centres around the Festival Hub on Cathedral Gardens, alongside other events and offers at venues across the city.

It’s been two years since the last MFDF and so it’s a welcome return for staple Manchester food event which is now in its 24th year.

Here is everything you can look forward to across the 11 days of the festival.

The Hub

As always, the Festival Hub is the centre of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival and this year can be found at Cathedral Gardens. There’s street food, live music, an artisan market and takeovers by Manchester restaurants.

The Hub is open across two long weekends from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 September and from Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 September.

In between the two weekends, there are various events taking place at the Hub and other things happening across the city – more details on all that below.

Hub Events

Manchester’s biggest chippy tea – 22nd September from 5pm

Hip Hop Chip Shop are among the venues taking part

Chippies, traders, pie shops and restaurants are teaming up to create Manchester’s biggest ever celebration of the humble chippy tea. The line up includes Anchors of Didsbury, Hip Hop Chip Shop, JJ Vish and Chips and Street Urchin, who will each will serve their own take on the classic.

There’ll be fish, chips, vegan twists, fizz, beers and, to finish, boozy ice cream from A Few Scoops. It’s free to enter and walk ins are welcome. More info here.

Bull and Bear Takeover – 20th September from 7pm

The Bull and Bear takeover

Tom Kerridge’s Bull and Bear is taking over the Hub with a take on street food – a pub grub inspired menu creating especially for MFDF. The three-course menu includes potted Loch Duart Salmon, a Braised Beef and Blue Cheese Pie, and Banana Custard with Dates, Pistachio and Honeycomb. 

Tickets cost £55 and are available to book here.

Schlosstoberfest – 23rd September from 5pm

Schlosstoberfest at the Hub

Albert’s Schloss is taking over the Hub on Thursday 23 September, with an Oktoberfest themed celebration. Schloss will be serving Bavarian favourites like bratwursts and pretzels in the MFDF Street Kitchen. There’ll be beers, lederhosen and Schloss’ signature high-energy live entertainment.

Free to enter, more info here.

Eat Well x Mana dinner

Manchester’s only Michelin-starred restaurant is hosting a special fundraising dinner, raising money for Eat Well Mcr. Each course of this dinner will be cooked by a different top Manchester chef including Simon Martin of Mana, Eddie Shepherd of The Walled Gardens, Anna Sogaard of Erst, Ben Humphreys of District and Mary-Ellen McTague of The Creameries.

Tickets are sold out for the event but there’s a chance to win the final pair of tickets by entering their prize draw which can be entered here. Tickets for the prize draw cost £20 and the winner will win two tickets for the event worth £400.

Street food

For each long weekend at the Festival Hub, there will be a different line up of local street food traders.

The first weekend (16 to 19 September) will feature burgers from What’s Your Beef, South Asian inspired street food from Aunty Ji’s, Breton crepes and galettes from Maison Breizh, and wraps and wings from Oh My Glaze.

For the second weekend (23 to 26 September), the traders will be Halloumination serving halloumi fries and halloumi burgers, I Knead Pizza with fresh Neapolitan-style pizza, Spoons Desserts serving crepes and waffles, The Spinn with their US-style dirty burgers and Northern Soul Grilled Cheese with their infamous toasties.

Also on the second weekend, Eat Well Mcr are hosting a street food stall to raise money to provide meals and support to people sidelined by poverty. Each day from 24 to 26 September, there will be a different restaurant partner taking over the stall, serving a special MFDF menu where all profits will go to Eat Well Mcr.

Across both weekends, there will also be street food dishes from popular Manchester restaurants at the Just Eat Street Kitchen. The line up includes pan-Asian chicken shop Peck and Yard, Spanish restaurant La Bandera, Vertigo Plant Based Eatery and vegan chippy JJ Vish and Chips.

Artisan Market

Open from midday to 7pm from Thursday 16 to Sunday 19 and Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 September, the artisan market will showcase some of the regions best independent food and drink producers and suppliers.

On the first weekend, the line up includes Chorlton Bread Co, Cafe Cannoli, Devil Dog Sauces, Cocoa and Bloom, Chorlton Cheesemongers, Manchester Cheesecake Co, Eat Well, Bread Flower, Twisted Wheel Beer Co, Prestwich Gin, O’Donnell Moonshine and Jack Berry.

For the second weekend, there will be stalls from Companio Bakery, Paradiso Authentic Italian, Chorlton Cheesemongers, Eat Well, The Gourmet Brownie Co, Ribble Valley Gin, HM Pasties, Crozier Drinks and O’Donnell Moonshine.

More information here.

Bars

There are three bars at the Hub

There are three bars at the Festival Hub: the Manchester Beer Bar, featuring local breweries like Burton Road Brewing, Northern Monkey, Pomona Island Brewery, Bollington Brewery, Brightside, Blackedge, Thirst Class, Stubborn Mule, Bank Top and Silver Street.

The Franklin and Sons Gin and Tonic bar will serve a menu of G&Ts each made using their 100% natural tonics paired with different flavours of Finders Gin.

Across the city

MFDF Wine and Fizz Fest – 17 & 18 September

Taking place at Halle St Peters in Ancoats, the Wine and Fizz Fest will give attendees the chance to taste their way through dozens of wines from independent drinks retailers and producers from across the region including Decent Drop, Grape to Grain, Le Social and UKiYO Republic.

As well as tasting wines, guests can book into tutored masterclasses and buy bottles to take home. There will be live music for each of the three sessions and food will be provided by Cafe Cotton. Tickets cost £12.50 – book here.

Fringe events

Kampus is hosting its own mini food festival

As part of the Festival Fringe, there are various supper clubs, dining events and tastings taking place throughout the 10 days of MFDF.

This includes a collaboration between Ancoats restaurant Elnecot with natural wine suppliers It’s Alive on Tuesday 21 September,

At Kampus, there is a mini food festival taking place with various events hosted by Kampus residents in the Bungalow throughout MFDF. This includes a bespoke five course menu from Tine throughout the festival, tastings and an all-day disco from Le Social, and Jewish-inspired supper club hosted by baker and florist duo Bread Flower.

Offers

Restaurants, bars and venues across the city are offering special deals, discounts and set menus which are available throughout the festival dates.

See the full list here.

The Awards

It feels like a very apt time to celebrate the food and drink industry. Much has changed since the event last took place in September 2019, and so the awards will celebrate those who have worked hard to achieve great things in food and drink over the last two years.

The MFDF Awards Ceremony takes place on Monday 27 September where the winners of the awards in the various categories will be announced.

There’s still time to vote for your favourites in each of the categories. Voting closes at midnight on 20 September. Vote here.

The Manchester Food and Drink Festival is taking place from 16 to 27 September. For more information and to book tickets for various events, visit: foodanddrinkfestival.com.

Tine and Le Social move into Kampus

Two new restaurant and bar concepts have opened in burgeoning city centre neighbourhood, Kampus.

Restaurant Tine and wine bar Le Social have taken over the Bungalow which, if you haven’t been down to Kampus yet, is a building on stilts across from Canal Street. This collaboration is the latest in a series of residences taking place in the Kampus Bungalow, which has previously hosted pop ups from Isca Wines and Summer Beer Thing.

Both Tine and Le Social will occupy the space throughout August and September, Le Social operating the bar outside and Tine running the restaurant upstairs in the Bungalow itself.

Le Social has an impressive selection of organic and natural wines, beers, spirits and non-alcoholic options. They also have a bar snack menu including nibbles like Manchego cheese, olives, mini saucissons and spiced mixed nuts.

Le Social at Kampus

This will be the first time Le Social has had a full bar set up. Started during lockdown while owner Jerome was put on furlough from his job as an alcohol sales rep, Le Social has been operated out of one of the containers at Pollard Yard.

Throughout August and September, Jerome has curated a series of events planned throughout his stay, including DJS, street food takeovers and brunch events. When we were down there were three performers roaming the space, including a leotard-clad hula hoop dancer.

Le Social is open from 4-10 on Thursday and Friday and 12 till late on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information visit Le Social’s Instagram page.

Jerome from Le Social with Josh and James from Tine

Tine was first set up by chefs Josh and James as a pop up in Blossom Street Social in February 2020.

Josh said: “We set up Tine as we thought Manchester has a big lack of local Mancunian chef run restaurants, so we got together with the focus on finding the best products in the UK and some from Ireland. I’m from an Irish family and James has Irish heritage also which relates to our name. In English it means the tip of a fork or deer antler and in Irish means a fire or blaze as we intend to cook on wood embers in a really refined way.

“We set up tine in February 2020, two weeks before Covid hit, which obviously hurt us massively in every aspect and worked around government restrictions as a pop up at blossom street social wine bar until November 2020. We’re now at Kampus trying to restart our brand and hopefully get one step closer to opening a permanent restaurant.”

The opening week menu at Tine

Josh has been chef for 10 years, training with Michelin-starred Simon Rogan. He worked at Where The Light Gets In in Stockport before becoming Senior Sous Chef at Mana for the first year. James has worked as a chef for 15 years, notably working as Aiden Byrne’s Senior Sous Chef for 6 years at Manchester House.

The multi-course menu will change based on the produce available. When we visited the first course was an oyster sat on top of a wild plum. A perfect mouthful, it was salty-sweet and as fresh as anything.

Next, we had Dayboat Ikejime Sea Bass which had been brought up from Cornwall, having only been caught the day before. The fish was lightly cured and served on top of a creamy smoked yolk which formed the sauce of the dish, and topped with fresh orange tomatoes and lemon rind.

The meat course was Hogget loin, two thick slices of lamb with perfectly crisped fat and juicy pink middle. Hogget is a lamb that has been aged for a year or two which means that the meat has a fuller flavour than that of lamb but not as strong as mutton. It was served with a rich pumpkin seed stew and a side of fermented potato bread (a nod to the pair’s Irish heritage).

Dessert was green strawberry which had been pickled (so it tasted almost like lychee) and served with a walnut parfait and frozen Eccles cake.

Hogget loin with pumpkin seed stew

Finally, we had cheese to finish – a soft Connage cheese, topped with thin slices of fresh pear and served in a crisp cracker cup.

The menu is as refined as you’d expect from a pair with these credentials and each dish isn’t quite like anything I’ve eaten before.

Tine is open Thursday to Sunday until the end of September. To book visit: tinemcr.com.

An evening of cricket, live music and food: The Hundred at Emirates Old Trafford

A brand new cricket competition – The Hundred – is coming to Manchester, with four home games scheduled at Emirates Old Trafford over the next few weeks.

The matches, which will be hosted on 25 and 28 July and 5 and 10 August, will also have a full programme of entertainment, food and drink for visitors to enjoy.

The Hundred is a new, shorter, more fast-paced format of cricket where only 100 balls are bowled for each team. Each game lasts less than three hours, as opposed to Test cricket matches which can last three, four or even five days.

This competition will see the Manchester Originals compete against seven other teams from across the country in men’s and women’s competitions.

For the matches at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester will take on Birmingham Phoenix on 25 July, Northern Superchargers on 28 July, Southern Brave on 5 August and London Spirit on 10 August. There will be women’s and men’s fixtures at all events.

At each event there will be a live set from a different band. BBC 6 Music has collaborated on the line up which includes Wigan band The Lathums for the first event, followed by The Orielles, Porij and, finally, Everything Everything. The matches will all be hosted by BBC Radio Manchester DJ Roesh.

Now, the food. We’ve teamed up with Manchester Originals to curate the line up of independent food traders who will be dishing up the goods at each of the four events.

There’ll be burgers from Solita, gourmet bangers from Grandad’s Sausages and hot salt beef bagels, burgers and fries from Triple B.

Crunched Tacos will also be there for the last three fixtures, serving their hard shell tacos. And A Few Scoops will be there serving their alcohol-infused ice cream, sorbets and ice pops from their baby pink tuk tuk.

Overall, it looks set to be a pretty cracking day out. Outdoors, watching some sport, some live music and digging into some delicious food. Lovely.

Tickets for Manchester Originals home fixtures available here.

Things to eat and drink when it’s sunny in Manchester

I don’t know if it’s because we’re all severely holiday deficient at the moment but wandering around Manchester in this weather (if you squint ever so slightly), we could just be abroad.

And what’s the best holiday activity? Correct. Eating and drinking everything in sight.

So let’s go. Here are some of our favourite things to get in Manchester in the sun – including some suggestions from you lot.

Ice cream

Ok, first up in this heat, it’s got to be ice cream. And for somewhere as notoriously rainy as Manchester, we’ve got a pretty great selection of places to get a few scoops of the cold stuff.

Serving at both their Ducie Street and Hatch sites, Gooey‘s cereal milk soft serve is the perfect heatwave snack. It’s like a 99 from your local ice cream van with an added dose of nostalgia. It’s made by local ice cream maker Rogue Ice Cream and is quite frankly, delicious.

Also doing soft serve at the moment are Siop Shop who have been dolloping maple soft serve onto their donuts at their Tib Street shop. Lovely.

Across the road, the newly opened Lazy Sundae on Tib Street serves a range of scoops inspired by their owners travels including Mango Mochi, Matca and Earl Grey Biscoff. There’s also bubble tea, soufflé pancakes and pineapple bao buns filled with milk tea ice cream.

Talking of ice cream sandwiches, Nell’s has got their own version, made using Cheshire Farm Ice Cream sandwiched between Nell’s signature cookies. Choose from salted caramel, cookies and cream, red velvet and vegan chocolate. Find them at Common and The Beagle.

Also on that ice cream sandwich hype are Sicilian NQ serve scoops of classic Italian gelato wedged inside a sweet brioche bun. Flavours include pistachio, chocolate, stracciatella, vanilla, strawberry and more.

For more classic Italian gelato, head over to Taste It on Blackfriars Road in Salford run by Italian husband and wife team Simona and Gianfranco. The flavours change daily and include Bronte Pistachio DOP, Ricotta and Pears, and Espresso, as well as a range of vegan gelato and sorbet.

Food

In my opinion, the key to food in the sun is that when you close your eyes, you need to feel like you’re abroad. You need to trick your taste buds into believing you’re in Italy, Spain, Mexico or whichever cuisine/destination you choose.

The Fritto Misto from Salvi’s is just made for eating in the sun; a mix of battered calamari, prawns and courgette, served in a paper cone. While we’re at it, we’ll take one of their loaded apertivo boards which come with three types of mozzarella, cured meats, olives and bread. And an Aperol Spritz with that, thanks.

The Italians just absolutely kill it when it comes to food in the sunshine though don’t they? A Neapolitan pizza from Rudy’s, freshly-made pasta dishes from Belzan Pasta Kitchen at Freight Island or arancini from T’arricrii at Hatch – you can’t really go far wrong.

Another favourite among you lot was of course tapas. Specifically at an outdoor table at Bar San Juan in Chorlton or Porta in Salford – both stellar places to sit in the sun and nibble and drink to your heart’s content.

I don’t know about you, but if there’s one food the sun makes me crave, it’s seafood. All this week I’ve just been dreaming of sitting out on that terrace at Oystercatcher with half a dozen oysters and a glass of something cold. Absolute heaven.

Of course, they’ve got lots of other great seafood and fish dishes too, with a weekly changing seasonal menu. At the moment, there’s dishes like Moules Frites, Black Sea Bream and a seafood platter featuring sea bream, red tiger praws, mussels and squid.

Drinks

Iced coffees

Straddling the ice cream and iced coffee divide is the affogato, and you won’t find many better in Manchester than Rudy’s. Their version is a scoop of vanilla ice cream from Ginger’s Comfort Emporium with a shot of hot Italian Kimbo espresso poured over. You can also add a shot of Amaretto. Naughty.

Ginger’s also do their own version of an affogato at their ice cream bar on the first floor of Afflecks.

For classic iced lattes, some of our favourites in town include Federal, Just Between Friends, Feel Good Club and Foundation.

We also love the Vietnamese iced coffee from both Ca Phe Viet and Pho Cue – dark roasted coffee with condensed milk and topped up with ice. It’s rich, sweet and ice cold. While you’re at it, Vietnamese food is perfect for this weather.

Margaritas

We asked you what drinks you crave in the sun, and the responses were heavily in favour of Margaritas – classic margs, frozen margs, spicy margs, all the margs.

One of our favourites has to be the margaritas from Picos in Mackie Mayor. We went the other day and tried their new Passion Fruit Margarita – fruity, sharp and with a healthy dose of tequila, it’s sunshine in a glass.

Other firm favourites are the frozen Margaritas from Crazy Pedros. The classic is made with El Jimador tequila, Giffard Triple Sec and Supasawa or you can choose from a range of flavours: strawberry; peach and passion fruit; pineapple and pomegranate; watermelon and pink guava; and lychee and grapefruit.

Passionfruit margaritas from Picos in Mackie Mayor

At Ramona, which feels made for this weather, the margaritas have been catching our eye in a big way. They have a happy hour too. Every Thursday & Friday, all their Margaritas are a fiver.

We also spotted the Frozen Marg of the month at Southside Tequila Joint in Withington, a blue lemon sour margarita which comes served in a large glass, complete with a glow stick and Refresher bar – obviously.

With all of the above, obviously make sure you get the respective tacos or pizza from whichever place you’re ordering from. Those margs are strong stuff.

Pints

There’s nothing like a crisp, refreshing pint on a hot day. Sometimes, any pint will do, but here are some beers/places to go that we think are particularly great on a hot day.

At the moment, there’s probably nowhere better to have a drink in Manchester in the sun than Stevenson Square. You’ve got outdoor seating from Flok, Eastern Bloc, Hula and more. All primed and ready to pull your pints.

There are too many great beers and breweries to mention but here a couple of beers we’d recommend. From Seven Brothers brewery, there’s the Sabro IPA, which they describe as a “tidal wave of coconut and citrus flavours” and from Cloudwater, their classic pale ale called How Wonderful, it’s bright, juicy and a corker of a beer for a sunny day.

Fell in Chorlton has a cracking selection of beers too, they can be bought from the shop to takeaway or you can sit and drink them on the tables outside. There’s a changing selection of beers available. My personal favourites for this weather are the raspberry sour beer and the Paddler, which is a lemon iced tea Radler; light, zesty and almost too drinkable.

Have a great weekend!

It was supposed to get rainy over the weekend but it now looks set to stay dry, so plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy some food and drink outdoors.

No time like the present though, eh? I’m parched, off to go find an ice cold Marg in the sun.

Reopening week parties in Manchester as social distancing ends

It’s finally happening. Restrictions are lifting, social distancing is ending and dancing is back on the cards.

To celebrate, Manchester’s clubs and bars are planning some big (and long) parties throughout reopening week.

Here are some of the parties you can still book tickets for.

Hula

Hula Tiki is throwing a 12-hour party from 5pm to 5am on Monday 19 July with DJ Gareth Brooks. Tickets are free but they’re selling fast. To grab one click here.

Hula Tiki is throwing a 12-hour party

Hidden

Hidden has been busy making improvements to the club while its been closed and they’ve now reopened their doors at the earliest possible opportunity (midnight on Sunday 18 July). They’ve got day and night parties every day of reopening week. Book tickets here.

Joshua Brooks

Reopening on Friday 23 July, Joshua Brooks has been undergoing a £200,000 revamp to get it ready for opening. The reopening weekender will feature sets from the likes of Darius Syrossian and DJ Mark Knight. Tickets have sold out for the Friday night but there are still some remaining tickets for the event on Saturday here.

Joshua Brooks is reopening on Friday

4nd Street

42s has planned a full week reopening week programme, kicking off with the reopening week party on Monday, followed by the return of some of its regular nights – Blowout, Amplified, Skint, Urban Legends and Dirty Dancefloor. Book here.

Venue

Venue is reopening as a club from 19 July after having operated as a ‘night pub’ recently. There will be two reopening parties on Monday and Tuesday, Red Wednesday with ‘indie, disco and good vibes’, requested night on Thursday and indie floor fillers on Friday. Tickets and information for reopening week here.

Mint Lounge

They opened last week with their seated sessions, but Mint Lounge will soon be able to reopen fully on Monday 19 July with their Levelz Lockdown Liftoff event. Funkademia will also return on Saturday 24 July. Book via Skiddle.

South

South is throwing a 30-hour reopening party, kicking off at one minute past midnight on Monday 19 July and running until 6am in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Tickets can be bought for either the first or second half of the night here.

How To Celebrate Anthony Bourdain Day In Manchester: Part Two

“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”

– Anthony Bourdain

Part One of this piece can be read HERE

The barman informs us the drinks are courtesy of the table across the room, as he produces two hefty double measures of Bourbon, followed, bleakly, by the same measures of pickle brine. Mary-Ellen McTague, the well renowned and well travelled chef and owner of Chorlton’s The Creameries and my drinking partner for the evening, exhales a doomed sigh of acceptance, like a mobster boxed in by a rival family’s firing squad. We shoot each other an ‘oh shit’ and quickly glug back our fates. Our second round of picklebacks tartly tormenting our stomachs, Mary-Ellen’s friends on the opposite table, the culprits of our incoming downfall, all now sporting the appropriate Cheshire Cat complexions. Fuckers. “In fairness,” Mary-Ellen surmises, “top shelf bourbon and pickle juice feels like a very Bourdain round of drinks.”

Just two days earlier, far away from Hawksmoor’s Don Draper demeanour, a bench outside the Northern Quarter’s Wheatsheaf is occupied by India Morris, the self proclaimed ‘Professional Bullshitter’ (a job title we should all aspire towards, tbh), ‘Croissant Connoisseur’ and, perhaps most brilliantly, ‘Mother of Whippets’. Chances are, if you’ve spent more than a minute in the Northern Quarter, you will have seen or encountered India, such is her affinity and devotion to the neighbourhood. There are rumours that, on the rare occasions she steps foot outside it’s boundaries, her entire body grinds to a halt, much like when you push a shopping trolley off the car park at ASDA. Her work as Director of Pear COMMS keeps her well occupied with many of the city’s most exciting dining establishments. Add to this mix her penchant for pints in old pubs and street corner butty shops and India was a natural fit to talk about Anthony Bourdain with.

“I’d bring Anthony Bourdain to the Wheatsheaf. It’s funny as fuck. You just come and have a pint, everyone’s mental, he’d love it here.”

– India Morris

It’s hard to fuck with that statement. Knowing the frequency with which Bourdain would belly up to a bar, mid-afternoon for a Guinness or four, taking in the locals, unflinching in his dedication to the black stuff and cheap, cold beer, away from the craft ale crowd, the Parts Unknown Powerhouse would have been right at home at The Wheatsheaf, where the conversations transition seamlessly from previous lives selling stolen goods in corner shops to one of the regulars discovering a rogue dildo in their wheelie bin.

“Just gonna see this off then pints in The Wheatsheaf”. Image: India Morris/instagram

As one of the founders of the PPA award-winning Restaurant magazine and the 50 Best Restaurants in the World awards, on top of his tremendous work as a speaker, consultant and writer on food and drink and art and culture in the North of England, Thom Hetherington is as firmly entrenched in Mancunian hospitality as anyone. Oh, and he also has a previous with Bourdain himself. But more on that a little later.

The final contributor to this two part series on all things Bourdain is Carl Anka. A newcomer to the city as The Athletic’s Manchester United reporter, Carl recently collaborated with Marcus Rashford on the writing of the real leader of the country’s ‘You Are A Champion’ book, which has topped the bestseller charts for the last four weeks now. You will also likely know him from his numerous television and radio appearances, fighting the good fight for Mental Health and writing for the likes of The Guardian, Vice, GQ, BBC and NME. Oh, and he has a podcast with Ian Wright. Yes it’s brilliant and yes you should be listening to it.

Originally from London, Carl settled in Manchester last summer, meaning a pandemic ridden 10 months in which experiencing the city’s true culture and identity hasn’t always been straightforward. But as a Bourdain devotee who is experiencing Manchester as a new arrival, armed with the great man’s life lessons about travel and immersing yourself in new places, Carl made too much sense not to talk to on Bourdain Day.

“The bit of Bourdain wisdom that made it easier for me to settle in Manchester was ‘Go and find people’s junk food if you want to understand a people.’ That stuck with me.”

– Carl Anka
Here they are, the lads. Image: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

He would have been 65 today, Bourdain. Sixty five. An Old Age Pensioner here in the UK. Retirement age. Obviously, none of those words would have ever actually applied to him. There was never going to be a retirement for a man who’s appetite for life was so enormous while he was still here. While we may never know why Bourdain chose to end his own life in that Strasbourg hotel room on 8th June, 2018, we do know that when he was with us, he wanted to consume as much of everything as humanly possible.

But where would our chosen quartet most like to spend their ideal ‘Bourdain Day’ in honour of our favourite consumer of ‘meat in tube form’s’ birthday?

Thom’s aforementioned previous with Bourdain is actually the most tragically hilarious ‘Bourdain Day’ in itself, so we’ll save that for dessert. Actually, no, it’s more of a 3am kebab than a dessert. You’ll see why in a little bit.

With * gestures vaguely towards outside * all this that’s been going on, Carl may not be able to provide a blow-by-blow account of which eateries and drinking dens he would venture in and out of, but he knows exactly where he would have taken Bourdain had the opportunity ever presented itself.

“Lockdown means I haven’t experienced too many places in Manchester since moving, but I would probably take him to Rita’s Reign Street Food, which opens on Piccadilly Street Food Market Wednesday to Sunday. 

“I’d get him a combi box, and make a joke about how serving jollof rice AND rice and peas in the same dish is a diaspora link up and get him an extra dumpling. Then I’d take him on a walk of the canals and ask him about plantain.

While Carl and Uncle Tony meander slowly round the canals of Manchester with their jollof and extra dumplings, where are Mary-Ellen and India starting their day?

Breakfast Butties and Gloomy Glamour

“So my Bourdain Day would start with champagne and oysters, with my two best mates, Kate and Becky and it’s gonna be Hawksmoor,” begins Mary-Ellen, prior to our own visit to Hawksmoor, sequestered as we are to the rear of The Refuge’s terrace, The Creameries owner delightedly devouring a stunningly retro looking plate of charcuterie courtesy of Bada Bing, while I attempt to tackle their monstrously magical shrimp Po’boy.

“I just love it at Hawksmoor, I love the gloominess of the bar. I think we’d have lunch there too. We’d probably meet around half 11 for champagne and oysters, so that would take us to around three o’ clock.” 

Now that is a fucking dining room. Image: Hawksmoor/instagram

India, meanwhile, keeps it a little more low key with her morning festivities.

“I spend most of my time on Tib Street. I never really leave, it’s like a running joke. I’d start my day at Rustica, it’s my favourite spot in town, so that would be my first port of call, especially if I’m hungover. It’s got the best butties and Lynne, who works there, everyone calls her Auntie Lynne, she’s so friendly and they’ve got everything. You can ask them for the most obscure sandwich in the world and they’ll make it. I bought someone a sandwich from there the other day and they were just like ‘this is the best butty I’ve ever had’, so that’s all you need to know.

“It’s a spot where everyone knows each other and everyone’s fucking sound. The women who work there are like everybody’s auntie. I’ve met so many people there as well. If you bump into somebody enough outside there you become friends with them. No one’s an arsehole there.”

– India Morris

“Then, I always get a coffee from Just Between Friends and a bunch of flowers from Northern Flower, then onto Butchers’ Quarter, I always get stuff from there. I always speak to Graham in there, and Will, I’ll just say ‘Right, I want to buy some charcuterie, here’s a tenner, just gimme whatever you can’ and they’re fucking sound, they know everything about deli stuff.

“From there I’d get myself a second breakfast. I go to Eastern Bloc, always with my Dad. They do the best breakfast in there. I don’t think anybody really knows about it. It’s really weird but I always order the veggie breakfast but then add a black pudding. Black pudding’s the one.

Second breakfasts and final tipples of champagne promptly seen off, lunch is on the horizon which, for Mary-Ellen, doesn’t require much movement.

Lunch: Curries, Kebabs and Cocktails

“My Hawksmoor lunch order is to have a Perfect Lady or Hemingway Daquiri off their cocktail menu then we move through to the dining room and start with probably the scallops and a glass of white wine, followed by the rib eye with chips and anchovy hollandaise AND stichelton hollandaise. I feel like I’m cheating a bit by staying there for lunch as well but it’s just once you’re there it’s so hard to leave.

“Where do we go from there? I reckon to Schofields for a cocktail and then we’ll pop over to Erst for a really good glass of wine.

Pretty well stocked at Schofield’s, aren’t they?

Continuing the pick ‘n’ mix trend of her visit to the Butcher’s Quarter, India shifts her attention towards the Arndale Market.

“I’d head to the fish market in the Arndale and get like a fiver’s worth of anchovies in a massive bag. They’ve got garlic ones, chilli ones, all sorts. I usually go in at the end of the day and give them a tenner and the blokes always look at me weird, like ‘you just want us to pick the fish?’ After they’ve just bagged up a fiver’s worth of anchovies for me, which is loads.

“I don’t think I ever really eat proper meals, it’s just a pick ’n’ mix of the best shit in Manchester.

“Yadgars is another great spot. I’m obsessed with their instagram. I have no idea what goes through his head, from the initial thought to what he posts. I have the best chats with the guy in there, about absolutely nothing. I went in there and chatted to him for about 20 minutes about card machines and Deliveroo, asking him if he was going to get Yadgars on there and he just said “I’m working on it”. How long you been working on it for? Five years?

Come for the rice and three, stay for instagram chaos

“I’m allergic to ginger, so if I eat from there I’ll suffer, but it is worth it. Sitting in there is an experience. The guy who owns it never smiled or spoke to me for like a year and I kept aggressively waving at him every time I walked past until one day he smiled at me and now we’re friends. I ground him down for over a year being overly friendly.

“So that would be a little tour of Tib Street and Hilton Street, they’re my favourite spots round here. I think Levy Bakery would be on there as well. I’ve only been once but it’s the best kebab I’ve ever had. Somebody convinced me to go there and the chicken shawarma was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. It was fucking banging.

Eat and Sweet would need visiting as well, opposite Jerk Shack. I’d never had a patty before from anywhere and when I went there it changed my life. I took one bite and was like ‘I’m never going Greggs again’. I had the lamb one and my mind was blown. When I’m hungover and if I’ve not gone Rustica, that’s where I go. It’s a family business and the woman who works there is so fucking sound, so I’d definitely go there for a patty.

Stomachs well and truly brimming with rib eyes and various Indian and Caribbean delights, thoughts then turn towards the evening, where decisions must be made about where weary, well fed and watered bodies will be best served. Fortunately, this duo know more than a few places.

Evening Meals: Private Banquets and ’90s Hip Hop

There is a lot to be said for exercise during a full day session. Yes, that does sound borderline sacrilegious when the fundamental basis of the day is to make merry over tables full of regularly emptying plates and glasses. But sometimes a good stagger across town can clear the cobwebs enough to sober you up just the right amount to generate a second or third wind that will see you past the finishing line with a final flourish. It’s a tactic Mary-Ellen demonstrates admirably.

“From Erst I’d want to go to Siam Smiles, so that’s a good 25 minute stagger, having a lovely time and massive chats but we’re also ready for noodles. Really fucking great noodles, so I’ll order absolutely everything. Then once we’re done there, the perfect end to the night is to get a load of booze and go back to one of our houses and dance on the tables. The playlist is usually a lot of ‘90s hip hop, Prince, Madonna, Candi Staton, Mantronix.”

– Mary-Ellen McTague
Art. Image: Siam Smiles/instagram

For India, something a touch more private is required.

“I’m obsessed with Mama Z (hey, remember her from Part One?). All the food she makes on her instagram makes me so happy. So if I wanted to enjoy the best food in Manchester I’d have her come to my house and be my personal chef for part of the day. Just for me, not my mates. It’d just be me having like six dinners. I used to live in Cambodia and the only thing I’ve ever really missed in my life is this Cambodian breakfast called bai sach chrouk, which is just like a pork and rice dish with pickled vegetables, rendered fat and a fried egg on top and Mama Z made a Fillipino breakfast the other day on her instagram that reminded me of that and I wanted it straight away.

“If I absolutely had to go out and eat with people, though, the first place I’ve ever been to where I’ve been completely overwhelmed by how good it was, was District. Mate, I’ve never been somewhere where I come out and immediately want to tell everyone I know about it. The whole concept behind it is so clever, it’s part of the community that offers a new way of dining in the Northern Quarter. It’s not just some brunch spot or another Thai restaurant. We were in there for three hours, we did the full tasting menu, although I could only eat half of it because of my ginger allergy, but my mate Jacob came with me and he’s obsessed with South East Asian food and he ate all of it. The wine choices matched all the dishes, the cocktails are properly thought out, they’re made using Asian flavours so it’s not just like ‘here, have a Pornstar Martini’. It was an experience rather than just dining. It was like a night out.

Mary-Ellen now, presumably, atop her kitchen table belting out ‘When Doves Cry’, India decides to finish up in the warm embrace of her faithful Northern Quarter and a spot where she has grown up for the last 10 years.

“At the end of the night I’d be going Soup Kitchen. Soup Kitchen’s like my second home. I’ve been going in there since I was 18. I’m 28 now. I get looked after in there cos I’ve been going in so long. The reason I live in Manchester now is because of Soup Kitchen because I met all my friends in there. My mates all work there, I know all the bar staff, it’s my favourite spot. It’s like another living room. It was best when they had the big long benches and you all squashed on, you and your mates, chaos everywhere. If we used to say ‘shall I meet you in town?’ We’d always say ‘yeah I’ll meet you at the spot’ and it was there. The best stuff in my life has happened in there. 

“Soup Kitchen’s one of those places where you see the next generation of people coming through. Me and my mates would sit there going ‘who are they?’ But that was once me starting out. We would go every Friday, every Saturday and every Sunday. And the Sunday club was a load of us hanging out of our arses going ‘just give us more pints, please’. I’ve spent more time there than anywhere else in Manchester. That’s where I’ve grown up.”

“The thing is, I actually don’t think the food is what’s most important, it’s the spots. There’s so much importance behind who works somewhere and how they speak to you. It’s just nice to know people in a place you keep going back to.

– India Morris

So, what of Thom Hetherington and his meeting with the man himself? Well, allow the CEO of Holden Media to tell you himself…

“Back in the late 90’s, long before social media became the platform du jour for opinions and arguments, napkin-sniffing food nerds used to huddle around an online forum called eGullet. There, a community of chefs, food writers and food geeks used to post their own restaurant reviews, often with amateurish photos, usually taken on outsize SLR cameras, much to the annoyance of other diners.

I was a member, and through the site I established friendships and connections with industry legends such as Jay Rayner, Marina O’Loughlin, Shaun Hill and, just slightly, one Anthony Bourdain. So when, in 2004, Manchester Food and Drink Festival organised a collab dinner by Anthony Bourdain and Fergus Henderson, of the legendary St John, I signed up in a heartbeat and slid into his DMs.

I’d offered to take him out afterwards, for a proper Mancunian night out, so once the dinner was over (which sadly was cooked by the in-house team at the venue rather than the great men themselves) he and I, and a small group of equally obsessive food geeks and tag-along acolytes, set off into the night. My plan was to take him to my local, the most wonderful and Mancunian of pubs, The Marble Arch.

There were a variety of reasons for this. Firstly writers and chefs crave authenticity and typicalism. If you go to Valencia you want to eat paella not pasta. If you come to England, to Manchester, you go to a pub. Secondly The Marble Arch is staggeringly beautiful and completely unexpected, and writers love a wonderful surprise. Thirdly it had an award-winning micro-brewery, and chefs like product and provenance.

– Thom Hetherington
“Lads, where did we land on that lock-in?”

But I had a fourth ace up my sleeve, as it truly was my local. We lived about 200m away at the time, and I was always in there so the manager had become a mate, and we always tended to stay for lock-ins, complete with the pub dog, drinking and telling stories in front of the fire. This is what I knew would blow Anthony away – The idea that through local contacts he was getting a ‘real’ and spontaneous off-menu experience.

And then it all started to go wrong.

– Thom Hetherington

Firstly, there were no taxis. Secondly, it’s amazing how far away the arse end of Rochdale Road seems when you’re trying to walk a gaggle of uncertain tourists through what was, back then, a fairly post-apocalyptic stretch of wasteland. It may have rained, or I may have added that detail to heighten the trauma of the memory. Anyway eventually we made it through the door, not long before closing, but I had my plan.

But I didn’t. My mate was nowhere to be seen. I think we might have at least got a round in – the sheer residual horror has blurred the memories – but when I tried to ask the replacement manager, who I didn’t know from Eve, about a lock-in I got an icy “No.” I’m ashamed to say that I wheedled and cajoled, out of desperation and rising panic, but that only led her to suggest, sharply, that we drunk up and left.

“But this is Anthony Bourdain” I whispered, loudly enough to cut through the pub chatter, “I’ve brought him here specially. Anthony! Bourdain!”  No flicker of recognition, and certainly no lock-in.

– Thom Hetherington

“So with no ceremony whatsoever we turned around and trudged back down Rochdale Road, through the post-apocalyptic wasteland, in the – possibly imaginary – rain. All the way down I juggled the twin duties of keeping everyone’s sprits up – they were visibly drooping – and coming up with a Plan B. Where was likely to be open late, nearby, mid-week? In Manchester? In 2004? There had to be somewhere?!

“In the end a few of us went to the legendary Socio Rehab for cocktails, but Anthony did not. Instead he returned to his hotel, proclaiming himself tired. But I knew the real reason – It was because I, Thom Hetherington, had given Anthony Bourdain, one of the greatest chefs and food writers of all time, the shittest night out ever, in my home city, a city famed for its endless parties and gastronomic renaissance.

It’s important to stress the manager in the Marble Arch owed us nothing and behaved entirely correctly. I should have planned better, and I should have contacted everyone involved in the plan up front (from a taxi company to the pub, and yes Socio Rehab for after afters) to confirm said plans. I should have had mobile numbers for every individual, and I should have checked and double-checked and checked again.

“So if anyone has ever wondered why I am so penickity and OCD about organising anything, and why I plot something as simple as taking a visiting journalist around Manchester as meticulously as a military manoeuvre, it’s because I was shaped, indeed scarred, by my disappointing night out with Anthony Bourdain.”

Spectacular, isn’t it?

So what of legacy and life lessons learned from Anthony Bourdain? That wondrous human being who so many of us feel like we knew as a wise, well travelled uncle, who would periodically drop by for a debauched night of strong liquor, smelly cheese and sage advice. How did he affect the characters of this piece?

“Kitchen Confidential was absolutely pivotal for me” remembers Mary-Ellen over a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc. “I was in my first year of cooking, not doing very well, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I was the only woman in the kitchen at Sharrow Bay, in Ullswater, where I was working at the time. I was the first woman ever to work in the kitchen there. They’d been open just post-war and this was the early 2000’s. So I was in this place where I really wanted to do well but the people around me really didn’t want me there, so half of it was hellish but then the other half, when you got through a full service and absolutely nailed it without a bollocking, was addictive.

One of Manchester’s greatest chefs and a prickleback connoisseur. Image: Bec Lupton

But the two head chefs in the main kitchen never made eye contact with me. They never spoke to me directly for about a year. They just didn’t know what to do with me. One of them was a Spanish guy, in his mid ’50s and he would ask people to ask me to do something, and his name for me was ‘Young Cunt’, so he’d say ‘get young cunt to do this…’ and I’d be there, I could hear him. They just had no use for me.

“So I’m hating it, but also wanting to do well as a ‘fuck you’ to the way I was being treated, for them trying to make out that a woman wasn’t welcome somewhere.

“I read Kitchen Confidential and there were so many things about it, like the timing of it, for me that made it so pivotal. He was describing what I was living and describing the bits of it that were hellish and the bits of it that I enjoyed and I thought ‘oh fucking hell, it’s not just me.’”

– Mary-Ellen McTague

“Reading Kitchen Confidential made everything feel poetic, like when you’re looking at musicians and seeing the glamour of what is a pretty gritty lifestyle. He took the aspects of the work that were mundane or a bit grim and elevated them somehow and I thought ‘OK, maybe this is alright’. It was just the perfect, most formative time for me to come across that book.

There’s every chance I wouldn’t have carried on with cooking if it wasn’t for Kitchen Confidential.

– Mary-Ellen McTague

“I revisited it later and was just like ‘fucking hell’. He, intellectually and socially, was way ahead of anybody who had spent any time in a kitchen. I was probably a bit in love with him. Here I was reading a book by someone who believed women had a place in the kitchen, although by today’s standards it was probably a little clumsily done but he was still saying ‘this is right/this is wrong and there’s absolutely no reason why a woman in any kitchen should be treated any differently’ and that just struck such a chord with me. Then add the glamour and the rock and roll’ ness of it, which was very alluring and how brilliantly written it was, it was exciting to feel like part of his world, like ‘I’m one of them, I’m in that club’ which felt brilliant.

The King of New York

The lessons that stuck with Carl stem from Bourdain’s pre-television days, with Kitchen Confidential providing almost a mantra for a future way of thinking.

“I remember first finishing Kitchen Confidential and my first comment was ‘Oh, they’re pirates’. Bourdain made every restaurant seem like a unique pirate ship, filled with a strange array of people all busting their ass to give customers a wonderful evening.  The best parts of that book weren’t discussing menus, and demi glazes, but all of the strange people he worked with; what made certain crews stick together, what made others too freewheeling. 

“The idea you could work as hard as shit, for little recognition on the idea that it could make someone you’ve never met have a nice day stuck with me. ‘Do something good recklessly because you can. Because you enjoy doing it.’

“Then I moved to Bourdain’s television programmes and went further into food as a way of understanding people. He was curious, but never used his intelligence as a weapon to beat others over the head with. He was a good chef, but if he met someone who had been practising the same dish for 25 years every day he would revere their craft and make sure they understood how special they were.

– Carl Anka

“Bourdain was a rare person who liked a thing, and then would go out of his way to show said thing to the world and teach the story behind it, hoping it would spark something in them too.”

Plastic stool, bowl of noodles. In his element.

“There was a story that emerged not long after Bourdain’s passing about a waiter who was behind him in the queue for some sort of pop up restaurant. You know the story. Young person sees famous person, gets too nervous to introduce themselves, but does the whole, ‘Oh my god it’s famous person’ whispering that is probably a bit too loud and accidentally gets the attention of famous person?

“Anyway, the bit that stuck with me, and still sticks with me is Bourdain’s response to the tittering behind him. He apparently had some food with him while he was waiting in the queue, and spun round and offered it to the person name dropping him.

“Hey kid, you hungry?”

“I think about that story a lot. Bourdain always struck me as a person who, if he had two, and noticed you had none, he would make sure you got one.

“He was curious. Properly curious. Always tinkering and toying with ideas, but also humble enough to go ‘This is beyond me!’ and getting help. And he talked about the help all the time.

He wasn’t afraid of saying he was wrong. He wasn’t afraid of speaking truth to power. He was a genius who repeatedly told others not to call him a genius, but to instead recognise all of the people who helped get him to this point. He drank. He fucked. He fucked up. Sometimes you could see him be visibly hacked off with everything and decide something wasn’t worth it, and then take a few deep blinks, realise things are only worth what effort is put in, and then renew himself.

– Carl Anka

“He looked at other people, saw if they were hungry, for food, for knowledge, for caring, for a general good time, and then would try and give that to them.

When I ask Thom what Anthony Bourdain means to him, outside of a failed lock-in 17 years ago, his answer is simply “Endless curiosity”, which, similar to India’s assertion that Bourdain would have buzzed off The Wheatsheaf, is an answer that is seriously unfuckwithable.

And finally, while we know where Carl and India would take the great man for a meal in Manchester, what of Mary-Ellen and Thom’s choices for a sit-down with the Les Halles hell raiser?

Were Thom given a do over of his 2004 disaster, he’d opt for a couple of Mancunian institutions.

“I’d take him to two places, because a man needs to both eat and drink.

“Firstly a kebab or rice ‘n’ three at Café Marhaba, a curry café so good I ate their every single week day for a year back in 1995, during which I gained at least a stone. It is tiny, a little grungy, it’s hidden away, it’s been there forever, it’s blisteringly authentic, absolutely delicious, and the family who run it (it has passed from father to son in recent years) are wonderful. If that isn’t playing Anthony’s tune I don’t know what is.

“Following that it would be a pint, or several, in The Circus. We’d go here because it is probably the most Mancunian pub ever, steeped in the very essence of the city, and is full of a cast of long-serving characters who could grace a Damon Runyon novel. You cannot go to The Circus without getting drawn into the most fascinating of conversations with complete strangers, which is kind of what a pub is all about. I have no doubt that Anthony would be swept away by the storytelling and the warmth.

That’ll be the best few quid that lad’s ever spent

Mary-Ellen, on the other hand, would find it hard to budge from the debonair dark wood of Hawksmoor, but would make an exception for one establishment that is very close to her heart.

“If I was going to take Bourdain anywhere in Manchester, I’d take him to Hawksmoor. For me it’s not even that it’s empirically the best food and drink, although it’s brilliant at both of those things, it’s just how it feels and it feels amazing. It feels like home a little bit. It’s accessible, I can take my children, I can take my auntie, but I can also go in for a meeting or like a while ago, I had a magic stolen hour to myself in town one afternoon, which never happens, and I got in there, ordered a martini, chips and anchovy hollandaise and calmed down. It was perfect. And we don’t really have anything else like it in Manchester. In London and New York and Paris there’s things like it, but not here.

So we’d have drinks there definitely, and chips with anchovy hollandaise, but then I’d also want to cook for him at The Creameries. That would be the dream. I think we’ve got the right balance of chaos and calm that he’d enjoy.”

So, over two parts and roughly 10,000 words, you have learned where some of our glorious city’s most wonderful, talented chefs, writers and characters would spend their ideal Bourdain Day. You have learned what they have learned and now, on Bourdain’s 65th Birthday there’s really only one more thing to do. Get out there, explore, eat, drink, talk and listen.

Order that dish you’ve always wondered about but opted against at the last minute. Or don’t. Stick with your usual and be content in the simple pleasure of your favourite meal with your favourite people. Veer off the beaten track, have faith in the back alley cafe and treat yourself at the restaurant that is stockpiling awards like dirty dishes after another sold out service. Cook your favourite person something heartfelt at night and then first thing the following morning. Take all the frustrations of the last 16 months and pile them into a day of wreckless abandon and enjoyment in honour of one of the world’s most relentlessly exciting adventurers. Do it for Tony.

Happy Birthday, Tony. We miss you.

Staff shortages, forced closures and waning support: the reality of extended restrictions for hospitality

Once again, it began as a rumour. Murmurings over the weekend that 21 June – “freedom day” – was perhaps not going to go ahead as planned.

By Monday, the leaked information once again seemed to be a (poor) attempt to soften the blow of the news, to prepare people and businesses for the inevitable evening announcement where Boris Johnson would confirm the four week extension of the current restrictions.

You may think that now most hospitality businesses are able to reopen, that things should be returning back to normal. But while we’re certainly not living under a full lockdown, the continued restrictions are having a huge impact on hospitality businesses.

Under the current restrictions, one in four hospitality businesses is unable to open. For those who can, it’s a struggle to break even.

Hospitality businesses can reopen but, for many, it’s a struggle to break even

The hospitality industry had previously warned that a four week delay could cost businesses £3bn and put 200,000 jobs at risk. And, although restrictions will continue until at least 19 July, Rishi Sunak confirmed that the support packages which have been helping business stay afloat will start to be reduced from 1 July as originally planned.

From this date, employers will have to contribute 10% of a furloughed employees wage, rising to 20% in August. On the same day, the business rates holiday will end.

Two days after the announcement, it was finally announced that the rent moratorium preventing commercial tenants from being evicted due to not paying their rent, which was due to end on 30 June has now been extended until March 2022.

We can already see the impact of the current restrictions on venues, many of which are having to reduce their capacity further or, in some cases, close their doors due to members of staff being asked to isolate.

Evelyn’s in the Northern Quarter had to close for seven days

One of the businesses that was forced to close recently is Evelyn’s Cafe Bar in the Northern Quarter, who last week announced on Instagram that they would have to close due to various members of staff being asked to self isolate. They reopened yesterday after seven days of closure.

Ben Reilly, General Manager for Evelyn’s, said:

“It was really unfortunate – as a small team in an independent business, any staff absence obviously has a much greater impact. We’ve built a really strong group of colleagues who were genuinely gutted to be unable to work, which seems to be quite a rarity. Luckily none of our staff actually tested positive for Covid at any point, we just had enough of them receive self isolation notifications to make it impossible for us to open.”

Mackie Mayor, which houses nine operators under its roof, also had to close earlier this week. Nick Johnson, head of market operations, said about the decision to close:

“That’s never a decision that is taken lightly, especially after being closed 9 out of the last 12 months, support packages ceasing and rates bills being issued! But it’s safety first and when one member of the team tests positive that knocks out a two whole shifts of full time members of staff for 10 days. By Monday we had 35 member of staff out of action due to track and trace. I know that it’s a problem affecting a lot of hospitality business in Manchester at the moment.”

Mackie Mayor has now managed “by hook and by crook” to get their doors back open today. A post on their Instagram reads “You might have to put up with a few rookie runners together with familiar faces from behind the kitchen counters swapping crocs for docs – serving as well as cooking your food. One way or another this COVID thang ain’t gonna keep old Mackie down.”

Even for those venues who haven’t got to the point where they need to close, operating under these restrictions has been a uphill struggle.

Mark Clinton, F&B Operations Director for Ducie Street Warehouse, said: “The biggest challenge of the most recent weeks has been the increase in the number of our team receiving isolation orders by the Test & Trace App, forcing us last weekend to have to cancel over 50% of our advance bookings and limit the number of walk ins we could manage based solely on the available team.

“On a sunny Manchester weekend, this was heart-breaking to cancel pre booked reservations, turn away loyal guests, and ultimately well needed trade. As we approach this weekend, we may have to reduce capacity again. Luckily we haven’t reached a point where we need to close.”

Ducie Street Warehouse recently had to cancel 50% of their bookings due to staff shortages

For each of these businesses, and of course others around the city, 21 June had been circled in their calendars as the date when they could open up fully, without restraint, but they will now have to endure four more weeks of the same challenges around staffing and capacity.

Ben from Evelyn’s said: “Challenges have been pretty numerous, mainly around managing customer expectations when it comes to availability – especially seeing as we’re one of the few sites around Manchester without an outside area. Tables are all distanced inside and as a small restaurant, again, this has a massive impact on how many covers we can sit. We tend to get booked up well in advance as a result, but the loss of covers does have an impact.

“Staffing levels and ensuring all our employees get the hours they need, whilst still remaining profitable with less covers is always a tough one to juggle. With the end to restrictions being so uncertain, we have to retain staff to make sure we can deal with increased demand when we reopen fully, but obviously this means there are less hours for staff currently. Whilst furlough has been a great tool to help staff, no one’s outgoings are reduced to 80%.”

All of this is of course not suggesting that we shouldn’t be cautious, and relax the rules when the time is right. But like with every change of restrictions we’ve seen, it’s all about timings.

In the first lockdown, many venues were forced to throw away litres of good beer. Ahead of the second, again, restaurants were given limited warning to shift the stock they had ordered.

For this most recent change in restrictions, venues were told just a week before that the rules in place aren’t going to ease; all of which impacts ordering, staffing and, of course, the bottom line for these businesses.

This, coupled with the lack of additional support for businesses means that these venues are losing out once again.

Nick from Mackie Mayor said:

“Without additional support measures from Government it will ending up costing us money, once again. Dates have been set for the end of support packages for hospitality but data is apparently driving the numbers and, once again, hospitality is powerless – caught in-between.”

Despite everything, some are cautiously optimistic. While the team at Evelyn’s would love to reopen without restrictions, they are seeing the silver lining of a four-week extension.

Ben said: “Whilst the news is disappointing, it’s bittersweet – until isolations reduce, and the well-publicised hospitality staff shortage crisis calms – I’m unsure how many venues would scale up to the increased capacity without further fallout or burnout,  falling at the feet of the last few standing. The only positive spin from the extension, is we have four more weeks to continue to recruit, and four more weeks to hope the isolations reduces and brings us back to our full incredible team.”

If the last 18 months has shown us anything, it’s how resilient our hospitality industry can be. Keep supporting where you can, they can’t do this without you.