Manchester is to play host to one of the best cocktail bars in the world next week. The founders of the revered Attaboy from New York, which regularly features in the lists of the world’s top bars, will be in town for a special pop-up event.
It’s being hosted at Schofield’s, off Deansgate, by Joe and Daniel Schofield who opened the bar on the site of the legendary pub The Grapes mid-lockdown in 2021. It’s since become one of the best cocktails bars in the city.
The Attaboy takeover happens from 5pm on May 18, and though limited reservations are now filled, Schofield’s is a walk-in venue, so there will be limited numbers allowed in on the night. The event’s also being held with Enniskillen’s Boatyard distillery.
“This is arguably the bar that started it all for us, the fresh citrus and block ice are two factors of many,” the Schofields said in a post to Instagram. “We are beyond excited and humbled to have Sam, Michael and Haley behind the bar with us for the evening.”
Joe Schofield added to the M.E.N: "For Daniel and myself, it is simply a career highlight to be able to host the team from Attaboy at Schofield's Bar. We consider them some of the best drinks makers on the planet and they are people we have looked up to since the early days of our career in the hospitality industry.
"They have created numerous classic cocktails around the world and you can find their influence in almost every cocktail bar you visit."
A ‘speakeasy’ style bar, Attaboy was founded on the site of the infamous Milk & Honey bar on the lower east side of Manhattan, by two of its former bartenders, Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy, who runs things with their general manager Haley Traub.
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Ross is perhaps best known as being the creator of the Penicillin cocktail, devised while he was working at Milk & Honey in the mid-2000s, and considered something of a modern classic in cocktail circles and now served around the world.
It blends regular blended scotch whiskey with honey ginger syrup, lemon and smoky, peated Islay whiskey, and usually comes garnished with candied ginger.
More casual than Milk & Honey was, Attaboy is also famous for creating ‘one of a kind’ cocktails for guests on the fly, given an idea of what kind of flavours you like, which stands in contrast to usual cocktail bar practice.
The Schofield brothers, meanwhile, are poised to open a new bar, in the basement of the Stock Exchange hotel. Called Sterling, it'll take up the space formerly occupied by The Vault bar on the lower ground floor. Opening in the summer, the 100-cover bar will be managed by Paola Mariotti, who has worked at the likes of The American Bar at the Savoy and The Blue Bar at The Berkeley in London.
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