Whenever online discussions turn to Manchester's most missed pubs, clubs and restaurants, one name crops up time and again.
The restaurant, said to have been the place the chain that introduced the 'original' American burger to the UK's high streets, has sadly long since disappeared from the streets of Manchester. In the early 1970s, The Great American Disaster (TGAD) opened in the Old Half Moon Chambers on Chapel Walks.
The chain was the brainchild of Peter Morton who later started up the now globally successful Hard Rock Cafe chain. A testing bed for authentic 'American style' food, TGAD has been often reported to have paved the way for the UK's burger boom in the late 1970s.
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The very first TGAD opened up on Fulham Road, London in 1970. In and interview with the Daily Mirror in 1971, the then 23-year old entrepreneur's new restaurant was quoted as being the place "where the rich and famous queue to get in with their faces pressed up against the window pane".
Claiming to be the first person to open a real American hamburger restaurant in London, Morton told the newspaper he got the idea during his travels in Europe. Morton said: "When I got to London, everyone was saying there was no place where you could get a good hamburger. So I decided to open one. It took me months and months of tasting and testing relishes, meats and salads."
In an interview with the New York Times in 1970, Morton spoke of the process he endured to produce an authentic American hamburger for the UK, saying: "I tasted 2,000 hamburgers until I perfected this one. I can't taste them anymore. Not for a while. Fish and chips even taste better."
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Soon after, the appetite for the American-style burger took off, and TGAD opened branches in Manchester, Chester, Birmingham and Aberdeen. It wasn't just the hamburgers that were popular, dishes like West Texas Chilli, Deep Dish Turkey Pie and The Incredible Hulk Steak were a massive hit with diners wanting an authentic experience of US restaurant staples.
But TGAD was an attempt at an authentic not 'fast-food' experience. The chain wanted to customers to spend the afternoon or evening there and one way to do that was by selling alcohol, especially cocktails.
Pauline Murphy, 60, was still a teenager when she started working at the cocktail bar of the Manchester TGAD on Chapel Walks in the late '70s. Pauline told the MEN: "I worked the afternoons doing cocktails and just working on the bar downstairs. We used to get a lot of businessmen coming in for their lunch. There was a salad bar and they would come in for a burger.
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"The other thing it was very famous for was its chilli. I remember the lads upstairs with this massive big pan and they just used to throw in two big packets of butter and mix it all up. It was delicious and they used to make a lot of it - it was very popular at the time."
Pauline remembers some of the most popular cocktails she made at the time were Harvey Wall bangers, Tequila Sunrise, Long Island Ice teas and Black Russians. Sadly, Pauline was there on the final day for TGAD in Manchester in 1981 when she turned up to work only for the manager to break the news they had closed.
The restaurant and bar had also been popular meeting place for people who were going to the alternative nightclub, Pips. Commenting on TGAD on the Pips Facebook page, Wendy shared her memories, commenting: "We remember The Great American Disaster, not as a burger bar but as a cocktail bar. We used to go there before Pips, it was a lovely little place with great drinks, if a bit expensive! The Tequila Sunrise was amazing."
Tracy said: "Loved it. Juicy burgers on wooden platters washed down with Breakers [popular brand of lager] surrounded by [decor] of front page news like the Wall Street Crash and Titanic. Downstairs you sat on wooden beer barrels."
Commenting on a post about TGAD on the We Grew Up In Manchester Facebook page, John Martell said: "What a fantastic place it was. Such a great atmosphere and the chilli burgers were to die for, followed by hot chocolate fudge cake and ice cream and a couple of Colt 45s."
On the back of the sudden success of TGAD opening in London in 1970, owner Peter Morton along with new business partner, Isaac Tigrett, opened their first Hard Rock Cafe in London, inspired by the popular TGAD business model. The new venture took off as the pair concentrated on making the Hard Rock Cafe a success and TGAD slowly fell by the wayside, the chain eventually being bought out by former employees in the late '70s.
After TGAD's Manchester restaurant closed in 1981, the building became Daniels and later Grinch. In its relatively short life, TGAD not only inspired its owner to go on and create the globally successful Hard Rock Cafe chain, it was instrumental in popularising the original American-style hamburger in the UK.
Four years after TGAD opened in Fulham, the McDonald's opened its first branch in the UK in Woolwich in 1974. The TGAD chain also made culinary history in 1972, becoming the first hamburger joint to get into the Consumer Association's Good Food Guide in the UK.
Does The Great American Disaster awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
But why was it called The Great American Disaster? Asked the question by the Daily Mirror just after the successful branch in Fulham opened, Morton replied: "That's me. I'm the disaster." Obviously not.
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