Higher Ground, the new restaurant from the people behind the celebrated Flawd in Ancoats, will open on February 18, it’s been confirmed. The new spot is to be a ‘British bistro’, and will feature a daily changing menu using produce from its own market garden in Cheshire.
The restaurant, on the edge of Chinatown, will seat 50, with seating in the main restaurant as well as counter seats overlooking the open kitchen and a charcoal oven. It will feature an a la carte menu, as well as a sharing menu priced at £45 per person, which will encompass various dishes to share as well as individual courses.
Example dishes will include a Cumberland farmhouse cheddar quiche and Jane’s acorn reared pig belly with grain and mushroom porridge. Vegetarian dishes will include BBQ leek skewers and cow’s curd and celeriac with Spanish blood orange and bay leaf.
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The restaurant will feature a ‘concise’ wine list, by the glass and by the bottle, as well as a short list of aperitifs and specialist cocktails.
Co-owner Richard Cossins said: “We’re now over three years into our journey of owning our own business and we’re only just about to launch our first full-scale restaurant. The most exciting times are without question still to come and we look forward to contributing even more positively to the city of Manchester."
Cossins will run the restaurant with Daniel Craig Martin and chef Joseph Otway, formerly the head chef at Where The Light Gets In in Stockport and the Michelin-starred Relæ in Copenhagen. Cossins and Otway both worked at the Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, which held two Michelin stars.
The three have run Flawd, a tiny bar and restaurant on Islington Marina in Ancoats, for just over a year. Despite having only a pressure cooker and a sandwich press to cook produce from Cinderwood, the trio’s market garden in Nantwich, it managed to secure reviews from national critics as well as a glowing notice from the Manchester Evening News.
Cossins added: “Now that we will have a full-scale kitchen to work with, we’re eager to further our existing relationships with the many local producers and farms here in the North-West. We should hit the very beginning of spring when the restaurant opens - from a produce perspective it couldn’t be more exciting.”
Higher Ground was originally a pop-up concept that started at the bungalow building at Kampus prior to lockdown. It was mothballed while Flawd was set up, and will now find its permanent home at Faulkner House on Faulkner Street in Chinatown.
The kitchen will open from Wednesday to Saturday, with dinner only on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. The bar will open on the same days, and until 12am on weekends. Bookings are being taken now via the Higher Ground website.
Charlotte Wild, Head of Retail and Leisure at Bruntwood Works, which owns the building, said: “We are delighted that Higher Ground has found a permanent home at Faulkner House. It’s fantastic to be welcoming such an exciting collective of talent to the building, which will transform this part of the city. The seasonal and expertly crafted menu will no doubt attract guests from around Manchester and further afield, creating a new dining destination on New York Street. The arrival of Higher Ground will add to what is set to be an exciting hospitality community in this neighbourhood."
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