{"id":1045,"date":"2020-10-07T17:49:39","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T17:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2020-10-12T15:50:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T15:50:31","slug":"lasting-through-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/culture\/lasting-through-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Lasting Through Lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember when times were still \u2018precedented\u2019? Remember when Brexit-borne depression and the annual bout of post-Christmas Seasonal Affective Disorder were our major sources of misery? Practically halcyon days when compared to the last six solid months of shitshows that have been forced upon us by a global pandemic coupled with mind numbing government incompetence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Half a year of learning and understanding more about the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has done little to add any degree of certainty to the UK\u2019s hospitality industry, thrust from one set of restrictions to another, desperately offering takeaway pints one minute, throwing open the doors to millions eager to eat out to help out the next, with barely a second allowed to recover before being floored with a curfew induced gut punch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a lot.<\/p>\n

So as lockdown 2.0 looms large over Manchester and its spiralling infection rate, how are the city\u2019s independents holding their own?<\/p>\n

Just to reiterate\u2026..It\u2019s been a whole fucking lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith every new announcement we have to change what we do again\u2026\u201d<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It isn\u2019t often that you have to shut up shop when only three months removed from a deluge of superlatives from Jay Rayner in The Guardian<\/a>, but that is exactly the stark reality that hit Mary-Ellen McTague<\/a> in March, when lockdown left her with very little option but to indefinitely close Chorlton favourite The Creameries.<\/p>\n

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Mary-Ellen in her kitchen in Chorlton after reopening in September<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And while huge swathes of the hospitality sector flung open their doors in July, it wasn\u2019t until last month that Mary-Ellen was able to welcome a reduced amount of customers back through the doors of the Wilbraham Road establishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve only just reopened and have been doing 12 covers per service,\u201d <\/i>explains McTague, a veteran of Heston Blumenthal\u2019s Fat Duck and very recent recipient of the Howard & Ruth Outstanding Achievement Award at this year\u2019s Manchester Food and Drink Festival.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom next week we\u2019re going to up it to 18 covers but we\u2019ll need an extra member of staff to make that happen. We\u2019ve very slowly been feeling our way along. We knew we weren\u2019t going to do enough business the first two weeks back to make ends meet but we needed to open and to get back up and running.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWith every new announcement we have to change what we do and just roll with the punches.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So while one of the foremost food writers in the country may have been waxing lyrical about their treacle tart and sauerkraut liquor butter (NOT served together, I hasten to add. Although given McTague\u2019s almost boundless talents in the kitchen, you wouldn\u2019t bet against her making that combination work somehow) in December of last year, The Creameries were, to quote McTague in a Facebook post announcing their closure, \u2018financially fucked\u2019 in March, bluntly demonstrating the pandemic\u2019s unflinching, remorseless steamrollering of even the most well respected, successfully operated businesses.<\/p>\n

Oh and, y\u2019know, the government, in their infinite fucking wisdom, have hardly made things any easier, implementing their 10pm curfew just as bars, restaurants and pubs across the city were beginning to find their feet again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell that\u2019s just bullshit, isn\u2019t it?\u201d <\/i>laments McTague, when our conversation turns to the latest disasterclass from Westminster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am 100% behind public safety. I want my customers to be safe, I want my staff to be safe, I want my children to be safe. We do now have additional Covid measures in place, like taking staff temperatures before shifts and extra sanitising, but you should be able to eat your meal off the toilet floor of any well run restaurant anyway. We were already obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why it\u2019s so galling that the hospitality industry is getting it in the neck, because it really doesn\u2019t follow the science regarding infections and where they\u2019re happening. They\u2019re not happening in restaurants and pubs. It\u2019s absolutely crazy. There are no consequences for the government. They aren\u2019t telling businesses to close fully so they don\u2019t have to offer any financial compensation. As far as they\u2019re concerned it\u2019s only an hour, what difference does it make? Well it makes a massive difference to bills, to customer experience, to all sorts of things. It\u2019s really sneaky.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s also hilarious is, because we\u2019ve got a Tory government, none of these ministers have ever worked in a bar to get through uni or anything. No one in the cabinet, unlike pretty much every other member of the population, has ever had a Saturday job or an experience of working in hospitality, because if just one of them had, they would have just gone \u2018nah, this is a shit idea\u2019.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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Photos by Adam Pester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey are killing the hospitality industry\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

McTague\u2019s frustrations have been echoed throughout the hospitality industry and particularly vehemently by Phil Bell, landlord of Northern Quarter bolthole The Ancoats Lad, which recently shuttered after Bell was informed he could host no more than seven customers at a given time.<\/p>\n

In a post on the pub\u2019s official Facebook page on 16th September<\/a>, Bell wrote, “To all our loyal and loving customers, we have decided to close the bar until the mass deception is over. The council are not shutting us down, we have decided to take the lead as they seem to target us. To have a bar and make people stand at the door whilst telling them the rules of the establishment, where to go and sit, what to do when you order a drink, write your name here, and then turn people away because of decisions made in No 10. The new restrictions are the nail in the coffin of reality.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be allowed seven\/eight persons in our bar. Plus we have to social distance behind the bar. Can you imagine running a business on that basis? They are killing the hospitality industry, they are crashing the economy.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have thought about it, long and hard, what we are to do next, we have had our mind made up for us with the new restrictions. We believe it to be the largest pile of horse manure we have ever seen. Ninety percent of our customers are regulars above the age of 55 and through to 86 only two have had Covid, and that wasn’t serious. We have already received a threat of closure letter hence we cannot take any more stazi visits.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council are blatant liars, I asked them for some help and input because of the size of the bar\u2026.they refused.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Given how perilously close we came to losing venues as sizeable and popular as Gorilla and Deaf Institute during the early days of lockdown, Bell\u2019s words are a chilling indicator of the future for hidden gems and backstreet boozers across Manchester. If sprawling, multi floor venues and mega pubs can barely keep their heads above water, what chance do the dives and subterranean dens of the city have?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out of lockdown as strong as we went into it\u2026\u201d<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For every horror story and heartbreaking closure, there are, thankfully, a few saving graces. The success stories that revive the faith that, while everything is far from being alright, manage to keep the apocalypse at the door. At least for the time being.<\/p>\n

One such story emanates from Edge Street chicken connoisseurs Yard & Coop<\/a>, who\u2019s poultry offerings have received far from paltry returns over the last few months, with Eat Out To Help Out driving record business throughout August.<\/p>\n

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Yard and Coop’s Manchester spot on Edge Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEat Out To Help Out was amazing,\u201d<\/i> revealed owner Carl Morris, when we spoke with him in September, \u201cAugust broke records for us both against last year and even against Christmas as it drove such large numbers of bookings. It was hard work. But our team did an incredible Job.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave us a much needed\u00a0injection. We needed it. It gave existing customers a reason to return but also gave new people a reason to try us out.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As anyone who wandered past Y&C\u2019s corner of NQ in August will attest, Morris is far from being a buttermilk bullshitter when it comes to his review of the scheme. The buzz generated was legit, with socially distanced queues often snaking out of the door. But with Eat Out in the rear view window, what about the future?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer great value anyway so don\u2019t normally discount, but trade is good. We just need to focus on doing what we are good at. Making great buttermilk chicken.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOur outlook for the future is a bit uncertain, we don\u2019t know about more lockdowns or limits,\u00a0 but right now trade is good. We came out of lockdown as strong as we went into it\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected the spike to drop but it\u2019s just kept going\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

North of the city centre, Prestwich has long been teeming with a burgeoning independent scene, with new eateries and bars appearing with the regularity of a Tory policy u-turn. In March, the panic, as was the case with all suburban scenes, was that the very heart of the community could be ripped out, with smaller businesses unable to weather the initial covid storm.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, mainstays such as Cuckoo<\/a>, All The Shapes<\/a> (and their freshly opened The Goods In) and The Church<\/a> have not only survived, but prospered with various takeaway\/delivery systems being put into place while EatNewYork have relocated and rebranded in the area as Triple B (Bagels, Burgers and Beer)<\/a>, with refined Scandi offerings from newly opened Osma<\/a>, small plates from Paloma and incoming Latin BBQ banquets from Gorge also bolstering the village even further.<\/p>\n

But what of independent community co-op Village Greens? Sitting in the shadow of behemoths such as Tesco and ALDI, the village shop with a vibe has proven to be wildly popular since it opened its doors in June 2014. And even with supermarket giants on their doorstep, VG have not slowed down over the last six months, with manager Chris Williams explaining how the only issue they\u2019ve faced since March is keeping up with demand.<\/p>\n