From high-end hotel brasseries to dessert spots, there are some great places to eat and drink throwing open their doors in Manchester and beyond this month. Be sure to try a few of these out.
Higher Ground
Arguably the most exciting restaurant opening of the year, former pop-up project Higher Ground will take on its first restaurant on the edge of Chinatown and fill it with some of the city’s brightest talent. With pedigree from Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen and New York, they’ve been cooking at Islington Marina’s Flawd for the past year, with a seriously limited kitchen. What they might achieve with a proper one will be well worth watching. It opens on February 18.
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Disorder
Named in honour of the Joy Division track of the same name, this bar in the centre of the Northern Quarter will be a Japanese-inspired ‘izakaya’ bar, a casual, informal spot serving drinks and snacks. The snacks will combine Japanese cuisine with local and fusion style elements, like a ‘sando’ with black pudding and Mexican-inspired tostadas with chicken katsu. Doors open on February 17.
Great North Pie
After having attained iconic status with its sterling pie game at Altrincham Market, Great North Pie will be finally opening its doors at the Kampus development, opposite Canal Street, and already home to the likes of Nell’s, Yum Cha and Pollen. With a regularly changing menu, this should fast become the city’s very best pie shop. It opens in February, with the date to follow.
The Stock Market Grill
The first restaurant project by the Schofield brothers - they of Schofield’s Bar and Atomeca - will take the place of Tom Kerridge’s Bull & Bear, the restaurant at Gary Neville’s Stock Market Hotel (the Schofields also run its underground bar, Sterling too). Called The Stock Market Grill, it’ll be headed up by chef Joshua Reed-Cooper, who can count working with Simon Rogan at The French, Sam Buckley at Where The Light Gets In and a stint at Manchester’s only Michelin-starred restaurant Mana. It’s set to open its doors at the end of February.
Gail’s
London artisan bakery Gail’s will be opening up in Wilmslow later this month, debuting its fabulous pastries, spectacular breads and sumptuous cakes. It will be the first outpost for the bakery in the north west, with another set to open on King Street, and yet another in Altrincham later on this year. Founded in the early 90s in London by chef Yael Mejia, it’s grown to 70 locations around the UK, from London and Brighton to Oxford and Cambridge. The Wilmslow branch opens on February 16.
Crumbled
With dessert spots now a thriving concern in the city, this latest one Is coming from model and baker Chloe Peers, a former contestant on Britain’s Next Top Model. As the name suggests, the concept is that of the humble crumble, but elevated rather to dizzy new heights. There will be apple, there will be rhubarb, there will be custard, all topped with excesses like meringues, Biscoff biscuits and chocolates. It opens at the Hatch food court, with a date in February TBC.
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