Ate Days A Week, the hit music-themed pie and fish and chip shop from Stockport, has now made its way to Manchester. After several months of hard graft, chef and owner Andy James has now thrown open the doors of his new spot on Cooper Street off Albert Square, and is ready for business.
But this time around, rather than the takeaway set-up he had in Stockport, he’ll be going a la carte too, with the takeaway downstairs open for lunches, and a dining room upstairs with 38 covers for lunch and dinner. This means the former head chef for the likes of Cane and Grain and The Liqour Store will be able to stretch his legs a bit.
As well as the now renowned pies, there will be Sunday roasts, and breakfasts being served from the new premises. But it has not been plain sailing.
Getting the place open has proved a massive task. “From when we viewed it, it seemed like it would be a fairly straightforward job, until we got the contractors on site, and then we realised we’d bitten off a bit more than we could chew,” Andy told the M.E.N.
“At that point, you’ve just got to roll up your sleeves and crack on, get stuck in. No one’s going to do it for you.”
Luckily, while he still might be having nightmares about it, the food he’s producing now that the kitchen is up and running is making it all worthwhile. The Manchester Evening News was invited in to try the new menu recently, and found it laden with classics.
Crispy croquettes packed with slow-cooked ox cheek made for compulsive eating, and a dish of pork belly, with bubble and squeak, cider and mustard, just fell to bits. Pies are, of course, still at the forefront of things, and the steak pie with beef shin was as good an example of the craft of pie-making as you could wish for.
But the unexpected highlight, given Ate Days’ affection for the four-legged creature, was a hake ‘kiev’; the fish fried with golden breadcrumbs, with wild garlic butter, a chicken butter sauce and a piece of crisped chicken skin. It was simply spot on.
On making the move from Stockport to Manchester, Andy said: “It will allow us to grow. I always wanted to go back to serving food on plates, basically. In Stockport, we were more of a takeaway, so this was always the aim, getting back into a dining setting.
“What we’re doing is British brasserie type food, so homely, hearty meals, cooked well, no nonsense, no smoke and no mirrors. None of that. Good food where the ingredients are doing the talking.
“Pies will always, always be there, as the main part of what we do. Always a focal point, and since the beginning really.”
As well as the beef shin pie, Andy was also offering up a chicken balti, a three cheese and caramelised onion and a ‘full English’, which also features on the breakfast menu. And while that might sound gimmicky, the work gone into it suggests strongly otherwise.
“It’s an old English sausage patty, bacon beans - so we cook the beans and bacon in bacon fat - cheddar cheese, a homemade hash brown, Bury black pudding and then topped with a fried egg and a brown sauce gravy,” he explains.
The new place is open all day long, from 8am to 8pm Monday to Wednesday, 8pm to 10pm on Thursday and Friday, 10am to 10pm on Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.
Get the latest What's On news - from food and drink to music and nightlife - straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.
