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Hello,
Who could have predicted that a teenage boy would be kicked out of Karen’s Diner for saying something off-colour?
The concept restaurant chain, first opened in Sydney, presents you with waiting staff who are purposely rude, unhelpful, dismissive and offensive. It’s a weird concept but, as has been proved by the chain’s massive success, there are plenty of people who want a cup of piping hot T with their burger and fries.
Even so, there are house rules, including ‘no body shaming’. Which is why 17-year-old Jack Keith and his family were kicked out when the teenager called a waitress at the Manchester branch, a 'fat sl*g'. The group were ordered to pay up and leave after just 10 minutes.
Jack says he is not proud of the comments, but has since questioned why staff 'can give [abuse] but can't take it'. “Some of the insults they gave to my grandparents were pretty next-level. Karen's Diner is a crazy idea and I probably wouldn't go back,” he has said since.
While his mum - who says the house rules were thrown on the floor in front of them when they entered the restaurant - says customers should be made aware before the experience begins.
"When you're there and you see the way they speak to you it leaves you quite shell-shocked,” she said. "She was quite in his face and Jack doesn't like that really. He doesn't go out looking for trouble and he's quite a quiet lad.”
Bosses insist the behaviour was 'unacceptable’ and say they ‘spend days’ teaching staff how to be rude and funny. “Offending anyone is never funny,” they add.
I doubt Jack is the first Karen’s Diner visitor to say something gauche and I’m sure he won’t be the last. Karen’s isn’t for everyone, but if you’re a masochist, you’ll love it.
You can read Ben Arnold’s review of what sounds like a nerve-wracking meal at Karen’s Diner here.
Moss Side is changing
Moss Side’s population has increased by 20 per cent in the last decade and there are more people on the priority list for social housing than in any other area in Manchester.
That’s according to Manchester Council, which is drawing up plans with Mosscare St Vincent’s for around 350 new homes for the area.
The site of the old Reno nightclub is one of four locations earmarked for development. Neighbouring sites at Barnhill Street along with land at Westwood Street and Raby Street could be turned into a mix of ‘multigenerational family homes’ and apartments under the plans by Manchester Council and housing association Mosscare St Vincent's.
They say they want to put the local community ‘who hold valuable knowledge of the area and its cultural identity and history’ at the heart of any proposals that are drawn up. They will also be looking at how it could develop the site at the Greenheys Adult Learning Centre into homes, with the services currently delivered from Greenheys being transferred to one of the four sites being developed.
In recent years, two huge new housing developments have changed the face of Moss Side. One scheme known at The Depot, on Bowes Street, developed by MSV and Rowlinson contains more than 200 new homes. And 105 rent-to-buy apartments - known as The Clockworks - on the site of a former car wash off Princess Road were completed in 2019.
Coroner suspended as part of ongoing investigation
Manchester’s senior coroner Nigel Meadows has been suspended amid allegations of sexual harassment and other claims. It’s understood several female members of staff in the coroners’ office have made complaints about Mr Meadows’ alleged behaviour.
The complaints concern alleged inappropriate remarks about clothing and alleged inappropriate staring, as Damon Wilkinson reports.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office - which is responsible for investigating complaints against judicial officers, including coroners - confirmed Mr Meadows had been suspended as part of an ongoing investigation.
A call was made for Mr Meadows to be suspended in April 2021 amid concerns about his conduct and capacity to do the job. He continued to oversee inquests during the subsequent 23 months until his suspension.
It is understood the suspension comes after Manchester town hall carried out a 'risk assessment' into the accusations of sexual harassment against Mr Meadows, with the findings passed to the JCIO.
MP Graham Stringer has spoken in Parliament about a Manchester coroner being ‘subject to accusations of sexual harassment’. Mr Stringer did not name the person subject to the allegations, but it is understood he was referring to Mr Meadows.
The road to success
I enjoyed this story about Bridget Lea, who is managing director of commercial at BT, EE and Plusnet.
The single mum was living in a tiny Cheetham Hill flat when she landed a graduate training scheme at M&S. When she got the acceptance letter she told her two daughters: “We’re going out for dinner tonight, Mummy's rich.”
As Paige Oldfield reports, Bridget climbed the ranks until reaching the high-powered role she works in now. You can read about her journey to success here.
'I found I had a knack for it'
The David Lean adaptation of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit - about a medium accidentally summoning the spirit of a writer's wife - is my favourite film. It’s acerbic and bonkers and features inimitable lines such as: “Why should having a cheese thing for lunch make me see my deceased wife after dinner?”
It was also the start of an unusual career path for Emily Thornton. She acquired a deck of tarot cards while playing a role in the classic play and soon realised she wanted to be a tarot reader.
More commonly known as Solar Sister Tarot, Emily has now turned a hobby into a business. “A few of my friends would ask me to do readings just for fun, and I found that I kind of had a knack for it, but I didn't properly start to learn how to read the tarot until lockdown of 2020," she tells Caitlin Griffin.
She now provides readings to people online and visits Transcend Studio in Manchester once a month to give in-person readings there.
“I try to make my readings as accessible as possible and to not make it too mystical because I think that's what kind of throws people off sometimes when they're first having tarot readings, that they feel a bit like it's miles away from them,” she says.
You can read the interview here.
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Weather etc
- Saturday: Light rain changing to cloudy by late morning. 11C.
- Road closures: M67 Eastbound entry slip road closed due to long-term roadworks at J2 A57 Hyde Road (Denton). Until 1st December 2025.
- A662 Pollard Street Westbound closed due to roadworks from Pollard Street to A665 Great Ancoats Street. Until 13th April.
- Trivia question: The Toast Rack building, in Fallowfield, is formerly known as what?
Manchester headlines
Cars seized: Police have seized two more supercars in Manchester city centre - after the drivers couldn't produce valid insurance documents. First they stopped a grey £181,000 Lamborghini Huracan, which has a top speed of 200mph, as it had been revving its engine loudly. Within hours they stopped another Huracan, this time in gold. Both were taken off the roads and the drivers have been reported for traffic offences. The force posted pictures of the seized vehicles on their social media accounts - the latest moves by the police and council to crackdown on rogue drivers of supercars in Manchester city centre, particularly on Deansgate which has become something of a magnet for petrolheads wanting to show off. More here.
Toast rack robberies: An 18-year-old man has been arrested by police investigating a spate of robberies near to the old Toast Rack building in Fallowfield. Greater Manchester Police say eight robberies and one attempted robbery are currently being investigated. They have issued an appeal to trace two more suspected victims. The man, 18, was held on suspicion of robbery and was being questioned in custody on Thursday, GMP said. More here.
Brick-by-Brick: A family support initiative involving online retail giant Amazon, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Greater Manchester's mayor Andy Burnham was launched yesterday. The scheme, based in Wigan, will aim to provide 400,000 surplus essential goods to more than 50,000 families in Greater Manchester this year. The ‘Brick-by-Brick’ project is hoping to follow on from the success of a similar idea supported by the former Prime Minister in Fife. Wigan and Leigh charity The Brick were the frontrunners to help deliver this, according to Mr Burnham, due to their long-standing connections in the borough and across Greater Manchester. More here.
Bee buses: Buses will start turning yellow in Greater Manchester from today, six months before the new Bee Network is finally launched. The first publicly controlled buses will be rolled out in Bolton, Wigan and parts of Bury and Salford from September with the whole network to be franchised by 2025. It means that fares, routes and standards will be controlled by local leaders rather than bus companies who will have to bid for contracts to run services. Operators will also be penalised if buses are regularly late or don't show up. From today, the first branded bus will serve the number 8 route connecting Bolton and Manchester city centre via Farnworth and Salford. More here.
Worth a read
Camila Vargas was the ‘wild one’ of six sisters and the only one not to join the family cooking business, Little Piece of Bahia. Instead, she went to London to study economics.
But when her mother Maria was diagnosed with cancer during lockdown, it changed everything. She insisted that Camila finally learn to cook. Through the agony of her treatment, Maria taught Camila everything she knew, just like she had to her sisters - every recipe, every method - all via Facetime, ailing and five thousand miles away from the family kitchen in Salvador, Brazil.
Now she has a stall at the Arndale Food Market where she stands resplendent in full Brazilian national dress. And as Ben Arnold writes, Maria’s recipes endure as her legacy. They hark back to Brazil’s colonial past, the food that would sustain the slaves taken thousands of miles away from Africa to South America by Portuguese traders from as early as the 1400s.
“We cook from our ancestors,” Camila says. “So it’s a mix of Portuguese and African. There’s no water, only coconut milk, there’s plantain, jackfruit, palm oil from Nigeria. You can be the best chef in the world, but you cannot cook this food. This food is inheritance.”
You can read Ben’s article here.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: The Hollings Building.
