When Neon Tiger’s Ben Morris moved to Manchester two years ago, he craved the neighbourhood bars that he had found while living in Manhattan. Places like The Dead Rabbit which, despite its cluttered and homely interior, is frequently listed as one of the best bars in the world.
So with his brother Dan, who also happens to be managing director of Escape To Freight Island and Bart Murphy of Bunny Jacksons fame, they’ve made one, and called it Neon Tiger. On the site of the old Grindsmith’s coffee shop on Bridge Street, clad in striking mosaic tiles, this little tardis of a spot is about to become one of the city’s hottest tickets.
“Manchester feels a lot closer to the culture of New York, very open and liberal,” he told the M.E.N. “So we wanted to try and create some of that here. There are lots of places we’d go to, the neighbourhood places where people would really get to know you, with a local atmosphere and ethos, and they just want you to have the best experience.”
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In the kitchen, the food is conjured up ‘baan yang’ style, meaning ‘grill house’ in Thai, with some added inspiration coming from restaurants like The Smoking Goat and Kiln in London, which have pioneered Thai-style street food, cooked over fire, in casual settings.
So the menu features dishes like a stunning homemade turmeric and lemongrass sausage, king oyster mushroom skewers with black vinegar dipping sauce and coal roasted aubergine with soft boiled egg and a sweet soy dressing.
There’s also an irresistible shredded Thai salad, with spicy tamarind sauce and roasted peanuts and handmade noodles with coconut red curry, grilled chicken, pickled mustard greens. Behind the bar will be Neon Tiger’s own pale ales and pilsners, as well as a focus on beers from local breweries, like Track, Cloudwater and Northern Monk.
And though it all looks pretty upscale, the smart restaurant area hidden down twisting corridors at the back of the building just by the open kitchen, it’s all been done with a close eye on keeping things sustainable (and on a pretty tight budget too).
“We’ve done all this on a shoestring,” he says. “We built everything ourselves. We built all the tables ourselves, we tiled the bar ourselves, we tiled the floor ourselves. We tried to upcycle and reuse a lot of stuff from the Grindsmith that was here before too, as much as we could. Why throw anything away?
“And most of the stuff we have in the kitchen is second hand or borrowed or fixed. Part of the ethos was wanting everything to feel like it’s been personalised by us, rather than just buying stuff from wherever everyone buys stuff from.”
The place is currently open until 12am, with the kitchen opening late too - something of a rarity in the middle of town - so that the snacks can keep flowing along with the drinks. An expanded cocktail menu is on the way too, to compliment the ‘punchy’ flavours coming from the kitchen.
And while it’s only opening evenings during the week, and from lunch at the weekend, there are plans to bring in a lunch menu at some point too. "We want to create something that people will enjoy, in the same way that would would go out and enjoy something," he says. He might be onto something there.
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