The French at The Midland Hotel has revealed it will host an exclusive dining experience next month with Hubert de Billy from the esteemed Champagne house Pol Roger – but there won’t be anything on the menu for Manchester’s vegans.
Adam Reid at The French is set to host an exclusive dinner next month as the esteemed chef patron joins forces with one of France’s most luxurious Champagne houses.
Taking place on Friday 6 October, diners will be treated to an indulgent four-course dinner pairing Lancashire lad Adam’s stylish Northern cooking with matching wines.
Due to the specific nature of the vent, however, specific dietary requirements will not be catered to on the evening – so vegans are being warned to stay away.
Wines will be introduced and described by none other than Monsieur de Billy, the fifth generation of the family-owned Champagne house and Pol Roger’s great-great-grandson.
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Founded in 1849, Pol Roger is regarded as one of the finest of all the Champagne houses.
Guests will be given the opportunity to taste the prestigious Pol Roger Champagne, a notable favourite of late Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with some snacks on arrival before digging into a sumptuous four-course meal.
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At £250 a head, it’s not cheap – but then we are talking about one of Manchester’s most premium restaurants, collaborating with one of France’s most prestigious Champagne houses, so it seems par for the course that you’ll be paying a pretty penny for it.
Starting at 6.30pm, things will kick off with glasses of Champagne and special snacks made by Adam Reid and his team before diners are seated in the plush restaurant for their meal.
Tickets for the event are strictly limited, and due to the nature of this event, specific dietary requirements will not be available to be catered for including vegan and dairy-free diets.
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Inside Adam Reid at The French, a beautiful space within Manchester’s historic hotel The Midland. / Image: The Manc Eats
Squid ink crackers topped with whipped roe and pickled red pepper that taste just like patatas bravas. / Image: The Manc Eats
Whilst vegans and dairy-free folk might be feeling a bit left out, for the rest of Manchester it’s an opportunity to dine in one of the city’s most famous restaurants.
For those who don’t know the history of The French, in 1974 it made history as the first Manchester restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star.
Back then, it was Chef Gilbert Lefevre at the helm and it really did what it said on the tin – serving opulent plates of escargots, foie gras, and caviar, even committing right down to the menu itself, half of which was printed en français.
The restaurant retained its star for three years, before losing it in 1977, and would go on to have some ups and downs before coming under the stewardship of Simon Rogan in 2013, with its now-Chef Patron Adam Reid working underneath him as Head Chef.
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Rogan – already then a proprietor of the Umbel group including L’Enclume, Fera at Claridge’s, and Rogan & Co – famously ended his five-year contract with the hotel two years early after failing to get a Michelin star.
That same year, local lad Adam took on the top dog role and in 2017 re-positioned the offering to reflect his own style – essentially making everything more relaxed.
‘The warm Northern welcome’ feat. steaming cups of beef tea served alongside Pollen ‘French malt’ bread and thick pats of beefy butter. / Image: The Manc Eats
Roast Cumbrian lamb loin with flavours of Cinderwood Market Garden and warm Lancashire oven bottom muffins. / Image: The Manc Eats
He dropped the complicated place settings, brought in music so that diners no longer feared dropping their forks, introduced a new chef station in the restaurant, and revised the menu to pay homage to his Lancashire roots.
Under his stewardship, The French at The Midland typically serves an 11-course tasting menu featuring dishes inspired by picky teas, miniature cheese and onion pies, and steaming cups of beef tea served alongside Pollen ‘French malt’ bread and thick pats of beefy butter.
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This special Pol Roger dinner is a one-off at the restaurant. It marks the beginning of a new chapter at Adam Reid at The French with its chef patron and head chef looking to host more collaborative events going forward.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
‘Craic Den?’ – New Irish bar to open on Albert Square this week
Daisy Jackson
A new Irish bar is set to open in Manchester this week (yessir, another one), and its owners have been on the hunt for its new name.
Tokyo Industries has announced plans to reopen the Red’s True BBQ site, right off Albert Square, as a new Irish bar.
They’re promising it will have an ‘Irish American feel’ and will be serving food like all-day Ulster breakfasts as well as roast dinners with Guinness gravy.
Aaron Mellor, CEO of Tokyo Industries, has shared a call-out for name suggestions for the new bar, with the shortlist so far including names like ‘The Craic Den’ and ‘House of Guinness’.
Red’s True BBQ was famed for its slow-cooked meat, and outrageous specials like its doughnut burger, but shut down in Manchester in 2023.
It had previously been rescued by Tokyo Industries, which also operates other venues in town like Gorilla and Deaf Institute, Impossible, and Factory 251.
The site itself is in a magnificent Grade II-listed building on the corner of Albert Square, facing out onto the Town Hall (and soon, the Manchester Christmas Markets).
A new Instagram account shows the space slowly being transformed into an Irish bar, with green leather and Guinness logos slowly taking over the space.
It also suggests that, sadly, The Craic Den hasn’t made the cut as the new name – instead it’s set to open as Dirty O’Sullivan MCR.
Aaron Mellor shared last week: “Deciding on names for venues is always so hard – we’ve come up with about 300 names & suffering choice fatigue…
“It’s a new Irish bar with an Irish American feel set in the Reds True Barbecue site on Albert Square, Manchester.
“Amazing food – Great live entertainment – The finest Guinness – The coolest cocktails – All day Ulster Breakfasts – Guinness Gravey Sunday Roasts Mmm.
“Favorites So: Dirty O’Sullivans, Reds True Irish, Luck of the Irish, The Dublin Docker, The Hare & Harp, The Craic Den, The Perfect Pint, The StoreHouse, House Of Guinness, Murphy’s Law, Oscar Wildes.”
Dirty O’Sullivan is set to open on Lloyd Street at Albert Square this week.
Mulligans are making butties with the team behind some of the best sandwiches in Manchester
Danny Jones
We feel like we say this almost every time they set up one of these crossovers, but Bada Bing might have just hit it out of the park with their latest collaboration, as they’re teaming up with beloved Irish bar Mulligans to create what could be the sandwich of the century.
In case you’re wondering where we’ll be when this butty becomes available, we’ll be in the legendary Manchester pub, clutching at least three of these while asking the live band to play The Sopranos theme tune in full Celtic reel fashion.
Yes, two of our very favourite places in the city centre are teaming up not just for a one-off special, the Deansgate boozer – widely considered one of the best Irish bars (if not THE best) in Manchester – is actually going to be supplying the crucial ingredient in their limited-time menu item.
Teasing the collab earlier this week, the Bada Bing boys roped in Mulligans owner, Pádraig Brady, to play his role in the announcement that quickly went viral.
Now, in case you weren’t already salivating at the mere thought of it, wait until you hear what concoction they have come up with.
Simply titled ‘Split the B’ (nice), the Bada Bing x Mulligans special edition sandwich features Mulligans’ Guinness-braised short rib, crispy spuds, greens, pickled cabbage and crispy onions. Oh. My. Word…
With punters’ favourite ‘Mullies’ pouring in more than 13,000 pints of the black stuff every single week, it won’t surprise you to learn that those lines have to be cleaned and maintained almost constantly.
It also goes without saying that wasting even a single drop of that liquid gold is a tragedy, so they had the ingenious of using that surplus stout to create a limited supply of slow-roasted, Guinness-flavoured beef fit to grace any authentic Irish stew.
Slap that meat between bread, and what do you get? Perhaps one of the greatest culinary creations we Manchester foodies have ever seen.
Speaking on the collab, Pádraig said: “At Mulligans, we take pride in every pint of Guinness we pour, so when the chance came up to team up with Bada Bing and create something special for Mancs to enjoy beyond the pub, it just made sense. Quality recognises quality.”
“We’ve always admired Mulligans for how they do things – with no shortcuts”, says Sam Gormally, co-founder of Bada Bing.”
He went on to add: “This collab celebrates everything we both love about Manchester hospitality – craft, quality and a bit of heart. It’s a proper Manc sandwich, made with a proper pint.”
In case it wasn’t already blatantly obvious, we cannot wait to try this thing, and since it’s only being served for a few days, we intend to eat as many as possible.
The ‘Split the B’ Mulligans x Bada Bing Guinness Sandwich will be available exclusively at Bada Bing, 125 Oldham St in the Northern Quarter from Thursday, 6 November – and once they’re gone, they’re GONE.
Georgina Pellant -
21st September 2023 
