Eats

Manchester’s Stock Market Grill restaurant announces shock closure after three months

The team behind Stock Market Grill have released a statement.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 3rd July 2023

Stock Market Grill, the restaurant opened inside Gary Neville’s Stock Exchange Hotel by the award-winning Schofield brothers, has revealed it has closed for good.

Having opened with a lot of fanfare at the start of March, the team has released a statement this morning announcing the site’s shock closure after just over three months.

The last day of service at the restaurant was on Sunday 2 July. As of today, the space will continue to serve breakfast and in-room dining to hotel guests but it will no longer be operating as Stock Market Grill.

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 brothers opened The Stock Market Grill opened with a lot of fanfare in March this year.

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.

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Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

However, after dipping their toe into the restaurant world, it appears that the brothers have had a change of heart and will now be refocusing on their Sterling bar concept which is located underneath the hotel in a former bank vault.

Read more: The new restaurants and bars opening in Manchester this month | July 2023

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A statement by the team shared with The Manc on Monday reads: “Stock Exchange Hotel have taken the decision to close the doors to STOCK MARKET GRILL, as of 3rd July 23. 

“The restaurant will, however, continue to serve breakfast and in-room dining to all overnight guests. 

“In the meantime, the focus will be on STERLING, the premium cocktail bar located in The Vault at the Stock Exchange Hotel.  The team are continuing to develop the STERLING concept and its offering.”

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Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc EAts

The news is quite a turnaround from three months prior, when Joe Schofield spoke to The Manc ahead of the restaurant’s launch, saying: “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.

“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 concept 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.”

Featured image – The Manc Eats

Eats

Chester Zoo’s award-winning gastro pub is extending its opening hours due to ‘phenomenal demand’

Danny Jones Danny Jones

Chester Zoo’s much-loved restaurant, The Oakfield, is set to extend its opening hours for the rest of the year following what they have described as ‘phenomenal demand’ from the public.

The award-winning gastro pub situated within the zoo’s grounds has been popular with visitors and Cheshire locals in general ever since it was lovingly restored in 2018, with footfall increasing as park numbers also continue to climb.

A Grade II listed building, The Oakfield was actually first opened all the way back in 1931 by Chester Zoo‘s founder, George Mottershead, and once housed everything from lions, bears, chimpanzees, pelicans, parrots and more.

Cut to today and it’s simply home to good food, a great drinks selection and wonderful service in line with Chester Zoo’s equally high standards when it comes to animal welfare and conservation – and now the restaurant is giving guests what they want be opening on additional days and for longer.

As per an announcement from the zoo, the doors of The Oakfield will now be open every Friday and Sunday evening from 5–11pm.

Their inaugural Sunday service takes place on 12 May with doors open from 5pm and the last table reservation being taken at 19:30 – and trust us, this place can book up quickly. But don’t worry, walk-ins are still welcome and the bar serves until 10pm.

Naturally, the menu features big Sunday roasts as well as classic pub dishes such as The Oakfield’s signature steak burger, battered fish and chips and sausage and mash, just to name a few.

As for the newly rolled out Friday nights, doors open once again at 5pm with the last food bookings available until 20:45pm. The menu’s mouthwatering in this instance too, featuring the likes of Welsh black ribeye steak, a braised lamb shoulder dish and breaded aubergine with katsu curry sauce.

In the years since its return to glory, it’s won various accolades including the regional Taste Cheshire Awards and even international recognition from Traveller’s Choice Awards hosted by TripAdvisor – who just so happened to rank Chester Zoos’ gastro pub in the top 10% of restaurants in the entire world.

A pub at Chester Zoo has been ranked one of the top restaurants worldwide
Yep, it’s pretty bloody good.

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Speaking on the announcement, Food and Beverage Operations Manager at The Oakfield, Chloe Gill, said: “Our Friday evening trial proved to be super popular. So, in response to the phenomenal demand we’ve had, and as we head into summer months and begin to enjoy lighter evenings, we’re thrilled to extend our opening hours to include not just Fridays but Sunday evenings too!

“Our guests can enjoy our sun garden while taking in the sights and sounds of nature, brimming with bird song and the majestic roars of lions in the distance – all while knowing every sip of their drink or bite of their food supports our charity, helping to create a brighter future where wildlife thrives.”

Better still, it’s no easier to find than ever thanks to the zoo’s new events entrance on Caughall Road, Upton, which leads you straight up to the gastro pub.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can book a table HERE.

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

Featured Images — Chester Zoo (supplied)

Eats

Lead singer of Aussie band blasts mystery Manc café for rude and ‘aggressive’ treatment by staff member

Danny Jones Danny Jones Lead singer of Aussie band The Buoys outs rude and aggressive treatment by staff at mystery Manchester café

The lead singer of Australian indie and alternative band, The Buoys, has come out to criticise a mystery Manchester café after receiving rude and ‘aggressive’ treatment from a member of staff.

Lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player, Zoe Catterall, hopped on the band’s TikTok account to vent and indirectly inform others about the as-yet-unnamed coffee shop ahead of the group’s show at Gorilla in the city centre this week.

Noting that much of her family originates from Manchester and she usually gets “excited” by the “sense of home” away from home whenever she comes here on tour, her visit this time around was sadly marred somewhat by the treatment by one unknown member of staff.

As Catterall details in the video, despite going out of her way to be polite and familiarise herself with a new city centre spot as a tourist, she was unfortunately met by the purportedly blunt female worker, who “rolled her eyes” at a simple question and a general rude demeanour. Here’s how she says it went down:

@thebuoys Pls let me know if you’ve been to this cafe. Eughh anyway I feel better now and I’m just excited to play in Manchester this Thursday at Gorilla and I’ll just get coffee elsewhere 🙂 #manchester #cafe #storytime #mean #rude ♬ Subject A – The Buoys

Admitting she “was not expecting the response that I got”, she goes on to detail the woman finger-pointing and exhibiting just a generally rude tone.

Initially suspecting that she might be holding up a queue or irking the staff in some other way, she eventually goes on to describe her behaviour as “being an arsehole for no reason” and reiterating that you “don’t have to be that mean”.

Adding that she was welling up and feeling overwhelmed by the whole incident after a jet-lagged morning without any breakfast or caffeine in her system yet, she eventually felt so uncomfortable that she decided to grab her coffee and go decompress elsewhere.

Moreover, after explaining that she ended up going on to the café’s Google reviews out of curiosity, it turned out that the Manchester spot had racked up quite a few people who also had negative experiences and rude or ‘aggressive’ treatment by staff.

We’re not going to join in on the speculation but the comments have some ideas.

Read more:

To Zoe and anyone else who may have unfortunately been on the receiving end of this rude individual’s service, we’re sorry you had to put up with that and we assure you it doesn’t represent the majority of Manchester hospitality.

And for those trying to help get to the bottom of who the mystery Manc coffee shop/employee was, we hope it serves as a kick up the backside for whoever it may be and a reminder that it takes virtually nothing to be nice.

All that being said, we can’t think of any better way of helping Zoe and co. shrug it off besides plugging their gig supporting fellow Aussie alt-rockers Vacations at one of our favourite venues on Thursday night.

If you fancy going along you can grab a ticket HERE. Oh, and if you think you know which Manchester café might be, don’t go and be rude to anyone yourself – we’re better than that. We’re sure they’ll come across it themselves soon enough, don’t worry.

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

Featured Images — The Buoys (via TikTok)/PxHere

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