A new late-night bar has appeared beneath the pavements of the Northern Quarter. A fresh project from popular brunch spot Another Heart To Feed, the mysterious Nightcap, has been fashioned out of one of the area’s Victorian basements.
Complete with the original brick tiles, the space was unearthed when AHTF owners Mike and Martin Dillon took on the space next door to their brunch restaurant and bar, formerly the hair salon RCNQ, to expand into.
They found that underneath, the basement space runs much of the length of the street, and would make the perfect underground bar.
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Mike told the Manchester Evening News: “We knew RCNQ were thinking of moving on, and their basement ran underneath their unit, our unit and Carharrt next door.
“We’ve actually been working on it for a good few months, so it’s been a good bit of work involved. It was just storage, kind of dog-eared, but it had all the glazed brick tiles that are common around the Northern Quarter, so we knew we’d be able to use them and make it look smart.
“We initially thought we’d expand Another Heart To Feed, but you don’t really want to go into a basement for brunch, so when we started on it, we decided we’d go with a different concept that lends itself to the space.
“So we’ve gone with a late bar, dimly lit, DJs, and it’ll be a night-time space.” You access the bar via an entrance on Hilton Street, but there’s also a secret door in Another Heart To Feed that will lead you down into the basement once the restaurant and bar closes at midnight.
“It means people can go straight from the restaurant into the bar downstairs,” Mike went on. “It’s been going great, a good crowd and nice vibes so far. We’re really happy with it.”
Open now, the bar runs opening hours from Wednesday to Sunday, until 2am, with the hope of extending the licence to make it a later opening spot.
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