Manchesters Pubs, Bars, Clubs, and Restaurants.

[flange]

The website for Sanctuary http://sanctuarymanchester.co.uk/

[flange]

Blue Pig Opens This Week - 8 August

Cleo Farman's Odd Departure For Established Bar Group

CLEO Farman (pictured above) has already made her name for herself in the North West food and drink scene with the Odd bars – a mini-Manc group of idiosyncratic operations. Many readers will be very familiar with her Odd, Odder and Oddest outlets.

Now she’s making a pig of herself, a blue one.

The Blue Pig, as the new venture is called, is situated in the old Seven Oaks Hifi shop site on High Street, over the road from Oklahoma’s crazy retail offering, and round the corner from the original Odd Bar. It opens on Wednesday 8 Augist and will be a restaurant and bar.

Occupying what used to be an old bank, most of the site is dominated by large windows down the sides of the building. The building apparently still retains many original features such as the full height mahogany bank doors at the side of the building and the panelling recovered from the site which now forms part of the zinc-topped, bar.

For food Blue Pig will be offering a deli menu featuring a fat selection of meats and cheeses as well as home-made terrines, pates, home smoked and cured fish, dips, oils, sauces and so on. The main menu is called the ‘333 Menu’ featuring three starters, three mains and three puddings that changes weekly.

Certainly wild rabbit ravioli and confit sea trout and tempura oysters seem intriguing dishes. Mouthwatering to read.


Blue Pig Menu

The bread will be home made and there’s a full breakfast menu serving continental breakfasts with stuffed croissants and churros for chocolate dipping – is this the first range of the Spanish sweet in Manchester?

Drinks include spirits, wines and draught ales and beers plus a cocktail menu. There are masses of rums, whiskies, vodkas and liqueurs.

Farman says: “We want this one to be different - our 333 menu is a short seasonal menu of exceptional quality that will change every single week, headed by Dan Barber. The bar, we hope, looks quite different to anything else in Manchester. To top it all I have had a huge Blue Pig made which was scaled up from a doorstop my Mum had in her garden, it is a metre long and will be proudly hanging outside the venue.”

http://www.manchesterconfidential.co...pens-This-Week

[Seasonedbest]

Tusk is a nice addition although it does feel a bit like a child’s creche with very low colourful seating.

[flange]

The Alchemist now open on New York Street, offical opening party on Friday 10th August.

Start Spreading The News… The Alchemist is opening on New York Street!

5th August, 2012

by Chris Greenhalgh

The chic, city cocktail bar and restaurant is opening a sister venue in Piccadilly on Friday 10 August.

With a mind-blowing list of amazing concoctions, the Alchemist became the talk of the town when it opened in Spinningfields Manchester in December 2010. The imaginative team of mixologists have been wowing customers ever since, so much so, their delectable Maple Manhattans will soon be available on New York Street Piccadilly! Situated on the corner of New York Street and Moseley Street this address offers ample space both inside and out.

Acknowledging the increasing popularity of The Alchemist, Tim Bacon, Managing Director of Living Ventures felt there was a requirement for a second venue in the city centre. “We love the Alchemist and feel it will add nicely to a few local communities within Manchester city centre and then hopefully beyond. New York St. has a lovely feel to it but I feel it lacks a “local” the Alchemist will hopefully fill the void.”

But this isn’t just a cocktail bar. Open for morning coffee, lunch and dinner, the fabulous food on offer will impress equally as much as the molecular drinks making techniques. Every care has been taken to source the finest ingredients in order to create a selection of mouth-watering dishes and with a large and stylish outdoor terrace there’s plenty of room for al-fresco dining in the Summer months.

As with any Living Ventures venue, the levels of service and hospitality are second to none, so this new kid on the block will undoubtedly create a unique blend of chemistry at its glamorous new address.

If it’s anything like the original, it will be a place worth knowing about. Anyone up for a Maple Manhattan?

http://www.ilovemanchester.com/2012/...w-york-street/

[neil081273]

TGI Fridays.

[Garibaldi773]

[QUOTE=flange;93952945]The Alchemist now open on New York Street, offical opening party on Friday 10th August.


I was there last night. It looks good and there is more seating than in Spinningfields. The food did not seem as good as I remember at the original venue though - bar food really rather than restaurant standard. It is very light and airy with high ceilings which is great if you like that sort of thing and will go down well with the after work office crowd. Personally, I still prefer the Corridor bar if I'm after a cocktail though.

[Seasonedbest]

[QUOTE=Garibaldi773;93970562]

Originally Posted by flange

The Alchemist now open on New York Street, offical opening party on Friday 10th August.


I was there last night. It looks good and there is more seating than in Spinningfields. The food did not seem as good as I remember at the original venue though - bar food really rather than restaurant standard. It is very light and airy with high ceilings which is great if you like that sort of thing and will go down well with the after work office crowd. Personally, I still prefer the Corridor bar if I'm after a cocktail though.

Me too. I prefer it much more than its sister on Hardman Street. Airy, more space, better vibe. However it does feel that it should be part of hotel rather than a single standing bar. Probably just the feel of the area, I don’t know.

[scproductions]

Can I just say....

I ate at the new TGIF Fridays to tonight... It's A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!

It's absolutely MASSIVE inside and so impressive. Really recommend it. Staff were great too!

[neil081273]

Originally Posted by flange

http://www.manchesterconfidential.co...pens-This-Week

[GShutty]

Blue Pig looks quality from that image; like a boozer that's been there for years- It somehow makes me think of something that you might find in Notting Hill. It will be good to see Lower Turks Head open soon too.

[oakman]

That does look good , are the windows only half painted blue , or is it the way the light is falling on them in the photo ?

[rolybling]

the light

[Required]

It is wrong that there is a branch of 'Dixy's Fried Chicken' opening in one of the units opposite John Rylands Library on Deansgate.

[he-bloke]

Horrible isn't it? I'd rather an empty unit.

[nosey]

Originally Posted by he-bloke

Horrible isn't it? I'd rather an empty unit.

This. Dont mind dixy chicken and not being a snob. But Deansgate is poor. It clearly needs something- regenerating, a private company taking over whole area in order to bring sommat decent there. Deansgate should be Manchester's Oxford Street. How about a Home Quarter from one end and at the other end a John Lewis. We need to bring major American/European stores to set up there as well. Something!

At the moment, it is full of Bet fred, Dixy chicken (and other such takeways), Tesco, Sainsbury and a massive Oxfam. For a street that boasts a lot, it certainly has many shortfalls.
Yes I am well aware there is Spinningfield (Armani), House of Fraser and that cake shop,. king st there... but Deansgate is still disappointing.

[Fernando Partridge]

Originally Posted by oakman

That does look good , are the windows only half painted blue , or is it the way the light is falling on them in the photo ?

The inner frames are painted blue and the outer frames are black. The external finish looks a bit cheap if I'm honest. The inside looks decent though.

Prices look to be standard for town now, about £4 a pint.

[heatonparkincakes]

And I am anything but a snob, but I tend to think a world run like Torremiolinas, Simon Cowell, Heart, Murdoch and MacDonalds would be looked back (in Cantonese) as when the decline of the west was ensured.

Deansgate I think should be a combination of London Oxford Street and Las Ramblas if that is possible, not the beach strip in Salou.

I have no faith of MCC doing anything though. They aspire at times for the city centre to be no more than being a big version of Blackpool at times.

Blue Pig. funny one. Reminds me of a kind of midlands thing, snug with a whisky on a cold November night on Friargate, Derby. I quite like the idea.

Reality is that it's likely to be infested by jolly trustarians with daft hats and maroon trousers or as the word blue is in the name, infected with middle aged baldies in stone island gear harpooning on about the day they ran Chelsea on the tube in 87.

Rather dwell on the former thought.

[nosey]

Originally Posted by heatonparkincakes

And I am anything but a snob, but I tend to think a world run like Torremiolinas, Simon Cowell, Heart, Murdoch and MacDonalds would be looked back (in Cantonese) as when the decline of the west was ensured.

Deansgate I think should be a combination of London Oxford Street and Las Ramblas if that is possible, not the beach strip in Salou.

I have no faith of MCC doing anything though. They aspire at times for the city centre to be no more than being a big version of Blackpool at times.

Blue Pig. funny one. Reminds me of a kind of midlands thing, snug with a whisky on a cold November night on Friargate, Derby. I quite like the idea.

Reality is that it's likely to be infested by jolly trustarians with daft hats and maroon trousers or as the word blue is in the name, infected with middle aged baldies in stone island gear harpooning on about the day they ran Chelsea on the tube in 87.

Rather dwell on the former thought.

This. Every week it is like there is some pointless parade or event that you probably find in Blackpool.
Deansgate is an embarrassment. It needs something to really revive it. Has anyone brought this to the attention of councillors or Howard Bernstein? If it ever does, I suppose more of Ian Simpson's architecture will be introduced

[VDB]

Originally Posted by nosey

This. Dont mind dixy chicken and not being a snob. But Deansgate is poor. It clearly needs something- regenerating, a private company taking over whole area in order to bring sommat decent there. Deansgate should be Manchester's Oxford Street. How about a Home Quarter from one end and at the other end a John Lewis. We need to bring major American/European stores to set up there as well. Something!

At the moment, it is full of Bet fred, Dixy chicken (and other such takeways), Tesco, Sainsbury and a massive Oxfam. For a street that boasts a lot, it certainly has many shortfalls.
Yes I am well aware there is Spinningfield (Armani), House of Fraser and that cake shop,. king st there... but Deansgate is still disappointing.

How about a Macy's round about the corner of Bridge St? A new build department store.

Agree entirely about Deansgate though, although it's not quite as bad as people would make out. There's some nice alfresco-style witchcraft going on at the bottom end, and I really like the square they've created at Spinningfields with the John Rylands library. And plus you have the Great Northern Railway Company's Goods Warehouse with Great Northern square in front of it, which I also love.

Added to that, St Mary's Parsonage is just off Deansgate AND I love the pedestrianised area in front of St Anne's Church.

In fact, I love Deansgate! It just needs better shops.

[heatonparkincakes]

I am of the modest opinion that the little section around kendals would benefit from bring pedestrianized.