Eats

First look at The Stock Market Grill, the new restaurant opening inside Gary Neville’s Manchester hotel

We snuck in for a sneak peek ahead of the restaurant's official opening

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 23rd February 2023

Next week, Bury-born brothers Joe and Daniel Schofield will open their first-ever restaurant inside Gary Neville’s Manchester city centre hotel The Stock Exchange.

No strangers to the world of hospitality, the duo have vast amounts of experience working in some of the world’s best bars and have spent the past few years opening a string of award-winning drinking dens of their own.

With three Manchester cocktail bars now under their belt, including the eponymous Schofield’s Bar on Quay Street and the subterranean Stirling, which sits in an old bank vault beneath The Stock Exchange Hotel, the brothers are now making the venture into the world of full scale restaurants.

Working alongside chef Joshua Reed-Cooper (previously at The French with Simon Rogan, with Sam Buckley at Where the Light Gets In and at Michelin-starred Mana) and wine expert James Brandwood, The Stock Market Grill doesn’t officially open its doors until 1 March but it’s already the talk of the town.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Sat inside the Edwardian splendour of the Grade-II listed luxury hotel, it takes over from lauded restaurant The Bull & Bear following Tom Kerridge’s exit at the end of last year.

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Gone are the giant TV screens so bemoaned by The Bull & Bear diners, and when we’re looking around Joe Schofield quips that they have eight for sale before asking if we want one.

Instead, the new focus of the dining space are two huge vases filled with dried flowers that draw your eye up to the gorgeous ornate ceiling and stained glass windows.

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When the Stock Market Grill officially launches next Wednesday, it will serve an elevated all-day menu showcasing ‘British Brasserie’ classics using the highest quality local ingredients.

Diners can expect to find the likes of oysters with mignonette, rabbit suet pudding with mustard cream, wild mushrooms with confit yolk and spelt, Mangalitsa pork chop with Yorkshire rhubarb ketchup and ex dairy rib eye with brown butter jus and lemon.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Speaking ahead of the new opening, Joe Schofield told The Manc: “We’re really excited to be opening our first restaurant, myself, Daniel and James are very passionate about food and visiting restaurants. We do have twenty years experience in world class restaurants, and we’ve got the opportunity to work with the hotel and put a restaurant in, we jumped at the chance.

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“We already had a great chef working with us at Stirling, he was in the kitchen at Mana when they got their Michelin star. We thought it’d be a really good opportunity to showcase a restaurant and style of cuisine that we’re really passionate about.

Read more: Caroline Martins: the 2023 Great British Menu chef representing the North West on BBC Two

“We’ve got a great relationship with the hotel, when we were having conversations about opening a restaurant it felt natural and it felt organic and we’ve put together a concep that we’re really excited about.

“Our hopes for the restaurant are to create an experience that guests love to come in and visit and enjoy the food. That’s what’s most important thing for us, people come and really love their experience in terms of the service, the hospitality and the food.”

Bookings are open now from 1 March and can be made now via the Stock Exchange Hotel website here.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

Eats

Deansgate’s new mini brunch triangle attracting regular crowds – and rightly so

Danny Jones Danny Jones New Manchester brunch spot triangle Deansgate

Manchester is absolutely bursting at the seams with brilliant brunch spots, and don’t even get just started on trying to pick from all 10 boroughs as a whole, it’s impossible.

However, over the past year or so, we suddenly realised that somewhat of a city centre trio of brunch spots serving unreal breakfasts, midday delights and early afternoon scran has emerged.

A new Manc brunch triangle, if you will.

While some have been there longer than others, all three of these places within aren’t just within spitting distance of each other but are enjoying a real wave of success at the moment – and it’s no surprise why: they’re all utterly incredible.

Three brilliant city centre brunch spots for you to try

1. Bruncho

First up on the list is the aptly named Bruncho, which opened just last summer, and despite announcing itself to the Manchester hospitality scene rather quietly at the time, it’s starting to pick up some serious pace now.

Specialising in unreal breakfasts and Mediterranean exports like menemen, Turkish eggs, their own spins of spicy favourite shakshuka, as well as plenty of dessert-forward plates with colour palettes as full as the plates themselves.

It goes without saying that you can obviously get a proper good ‘Bruncho Full English‘, but we’d encourage you to branch out and, who knows, maybe have a brekkie that features ice cream? In fact, it’s sentences like that which make it our Thomas’ favourite way to start the day – albeit ideally a lie-in.

2. Alex’s Bakery

Now, another very strong candidate which has been around on the Manc brunch scene much longer than the other two on this list is local success story, Alex’s Bakery, though we’ll admit we’d mainly visited this place for the unreal brownies, cupcakes and other assorted sweet treats until recently.

However, in addition to the popularity of their lunch deal (a panini, cupcake and drink), they’ve really stepped up their wider brunch offerings of late, going from what was once just a Manchester Artisan Market back in 2014 to branching out into everything good you can put on toast and tonnes more.

It may not garner the often ridiculously long queues of other places, but that’s because this place has a steady flow of regulars all week long who’ve steadily fallen in love with it over many years. They’re tres leches cakes alone are well worth the visit.

3. Acai And The Tribe

Last but not least, the acai craze is undoubtedly one of the biggest foodie trends around right now, as proven by the lines that gather outside this Great Northern venue at least once virtually every weekend – but Acai And The Tribe has actually been on the hype for ages.

That being said, after moving from Arndale Market to Deansgate Mews back in 2022 and now along the main strip in recent months, their popularity has skyrocketed. If you’re looking for a health brunch open packed with vibrance, vitamins and plenty of other very nice toppings, this is the one for you.

We’ll warn you, finding the right window to visit is essentially if you don’t want to wait around for ages these days, but both Clem and Daphne still greatly approve, so it’s it gets the seal of approval from us.

So, while we could recommend you a whole load of fantastic places in around Manchester city centre, we’ve been particularly charmed by this mini Manc brunch triangle around Deansgate.

Best of all, it’s just always great to see local businesses thriving, isn’t it? Especially when it comes to people lining the streets and sending it viral just for a chance to taste their offerings.

Modern breakfast and brunch are things that can be either perfect in their simplicity or surprising in their creativity; either way, we’re glad there are plenty of examples of that here in Manchester.

Trust us, we take this stuff very seriously…

The top 25 places for the best breakfast and brunch in Manchester

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

Eats

This new app tells you the best sunny pub spots in Manchester

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia

A brand new app has launched, which tracks the sun and tells you where the best sunny pub spots in Manchester are throughout the day.

No, you’re not dreaming: this is what heaven feels like. This all-new app, initially trialled in London and now covering Manchester, allows users to identify the best sun traps in our stunning city centre.

Designed and created by architect Mo Dawod, Sunseekr aims to show you the best pub, cafe and restaurant locations where you can take advantage of and soak up all the sun in real time.

As well as being a handy tool to use throughout the day, you can use this sun-centric app to pre-plan your day, as it lets you know all the sunny spots in advance for anyone who fancies chasing the sun.

The app shows you the best pubs, cafes and restaurants to catch some rays.
The app shows you the best pubs, cafes and restaurants to catch some rays.
You can easily chase the sun around Manchester city centre with this handy new app.
You can easily chase the sun around Manchester city centre with this handy new app.
Credit: Screenshots via Sunseeker

Of course, we don’t need an app to tell us all the best sunny pub spots in Manchester as locals and visitors alike know about our pride and joy, Stevenson Square.

However, this new technology will come in handy for organising your next beer garden trip and locating exactly where you’re guaranteed to sit down and possibly catch a tan.

Sunseekr had a trial run in London first, catching the attention of reputable publications like Timeout London and even got itself featured on BBC London.

It makes perfect sense why Dawod made this app; being a Battersea resident, his area of London is packed with plenty of amenities such as pubs and bars, perfect for sitting out and relaxing in the sun.

Now the sunny app has spread nationwide, including Manchester, meaning we Northerners can make the most of the precious sun while we have it.

Safe to say here at The Manc we know a lot of good places to soak up the sun while sipping on a class pint.
Safe to say, here at The Manc, we know a lot of good places to soak up the sun while sipping on a class pint.
Nothing beats a crisp pint and some gorgeous Manchester sunshine.
Nothing beats a crisp pint and some gorgeous Manchester sunshine.
Credit: The Manc Eats

The arrival of this sun-tracking pub-spotting app gives us the perfect excuse to drop everything and make our way to the nearest beer garden to put this to the test ourselves, it’s not like we needed any encouragement…

Sunseekr is available to download NOW and allows users to live-track the sun to see if any pubs, cafes or restaurants near you have been blessed by the sun.

We’re in the business of knowing about beer gardens galore, so this long-overdue app just made our lives a whole lot easier.

Catch you at the pub!

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

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