Northwest Food News – March 2015
This month: the ampersand is back in, and Spanish behemoth Iberica comes to town. Plus: an 'arty' cafe!
Let’s start with all this and nonsense. Warning: this will get confusing! Hitting Manchester as part of its northern jaunt is Hunt & Darton, a pop-up cafe with a difference. Namely, it’s funded by Arts Council England and it fuses food and art to comic effect. Example: the aptly-named 'sexy day' will encourage people to talk about sex, to a menu of phallic food. 8A Gateway House, Station Approach, Piccadilly, M1 2GH, 5-25 Mar, 12pm-7.30pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays), huntanddartoncafe.com
Filter & Fox is Liverpool’s newest two-faced addition: coffee and small plates by day, cocktails and dreams by night. One’s the filter and one’s the fox, we’re guessing? If other cities/the world are anything to go by, there will never be enough coffee shops... (@FilterandFox) Tariff & Dale, the new bar from the folks behind Chorlton’s The Lead Station, plans to be open in March. It’s a bar/restaurant at the intersection of... no, actually, I’m not going to tell you where it is. (@TariffDale)
Affleck and Brown (@affleckandbrown), meanwhile, would appear to be named after the famous department store of the same name, the 'Harrods of the North'. It’s a casual bar restaurant that does cocktails and paninis. Hello, 2004! If this is a new trend in restaurant and bar nomenclature, it suits me.
Far harder to forget the names and locations of places I’ve been. Right, now a new place with one word: Myrtle Street's Kabinett (@Kabinett_wmc) caught our attention with its matched wine evenings and neon sign. Fine wines, meat and cheese and cocktails will surely please the punters of the nearby Philharmonic Hall. There’s also a new pizzeria in Chorlton: Double Zero. It’s minimalist: there’s no sign and decor is spare. Service is, to be polite, haphazard and the pizza over-topped (I know, who ever complained about that!) but there’s promise in the dough. Hmm, that sounds like some weird mistranslated Italian proverb.
Saving the best (maybe) 'til last: Ibérica will open on 4 Mar in Spinningfields. The restaurant alone is serious eye candy but the menu has been designed by three-Michelin-star chef Nacho Manzano to reflect traditional Spanish gastronomy. Tapas of course, but also larger plates like Asturian cachopo, which contains fried beef and cheese. What’s more, there’ll be a deli with one of the largest Spanish cheese and meat selections in the UK. Huminah huminah. (@IbericaMCR)