Individual Restaurants to spend £1m on Manchester restaurant expansion
Individual Restaurants is to invest £1m in significantly extending its Restaurant Bar and Grill site on John Dalton Street in Manchester, following two successful planning applications.
The company will open a new 80-seat, south-facing terrace on the first floor of the site, which has been open for 12 years, this summer. That will be followed by a Sky Bar & Grill on the roof of the restaurant.
Designed for dining all year round, the new 80-seat terrace has been created by the British designer Robert Angell. Before establishing his own design practice, Angell worked alongside David Collins on many of London's most prestigious restaurants, bars and hotels, including the Wolseley and Nobu.
He was also responsible for the design of the newly created Cicchetti Bar & Late Lounge at Piccolino in Mayfair, London, which opened in April 2012 as Individual Restaurants' most recent project.
The addition of the alfresco terrace will also see refurbishment of the bar and restaurant, together with an extension of the Private Room, a 50-seat private dining room with its own bar and kitchen facilities.
Meanwhile, the Sky Bar & Grill will boast a wood-burning oven, charcoal grill and a mix of restaurant and lounge seating under a retractable awning for all-year use.
Steven Walker, chief executive of Individual Restaurants, said: "Demand dictates expansion. With enquiries in excess of the room capabilities, we needed to expand. Smart design will still allow us to accommodate the intimate private lunch or dinner as well as business conferences."
The Sky Bar & Grill is due to open Spring 2013. Walker said: "After visiting the best roof terraces at some of the coolest restaurants and hotels in major cities around the world, we are looking forward to bringing a taste of them to Manchester."
Known as the "original grill" in Manchester, the new summer menu at the Restaurant Bar & Grill boasts amazing beef, thanks to Individual Restaurants' recent investment in its own butchery facility based in Stockport.
"We wanted to make sure we had beef of the highest quality so we decided to invest in the whole process from gate to plate," commented Walker. "We serve only the very best British beef from Limousin, Hereford and Longhorn cattle, naturally reared on carefully selected farms. Our steaks are aged for a minimum 28 days, in a bespoke dry-ageing room with Himalayan pink salt. Some favourite cuts are dry-aged on the bone for a minimum 35 days for what we consider the most tender and full-flavoured steak. Our in-house team of butchers hand-cuts every steak for each of our 32 restaurants."
Following the opening of the Cicchetti Bar & Late Lounge at Piccolino, Mayfair, London, and the just-launched Roof Garden at Piccolino in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Steven Walker enthused that "this next project is definitely one of the most exciting, to date, for us".
By Neil Gerrard
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