Life is predicted to get harder for some people with dietary requirements next year, according to a 2022 forecast published by Big Hospitality.
According to the industry publication, one big expectation for dining out in the new year is that top chefs will be more likely to refuse to cater to customers’ dietary issues – adopting what Grace Dent has referred to, in the case of Ynyshir chef-patron Gareth Ward, as ‘delicious pigheadedness’.
Big Hospitality has predicted that high-end dining will ‘go inflexible’, adding that ‘2022 may be the year that restaurants finally crack’ and stating more and more chefs are expected to follow the lead of the likes of Simon Martin at Mana, Manchester’s only Michelin-starred restaurant.
Image: Mana Potato strands encasing Langoustine head and claw. With roasted yeast alongside young berries and garlic from Spring. / Image: Mana
Here, menu adaptions are never made for a customer’s dislikes. What’s more, the creation of vegan menus is an absolute no-no as are any requests for lactose-free menus – as is plainly stated on Mana’s website, which customers are required to read ahead of making their booking.
The team requires guests to give its kitchen 48 hours’ notice for any allergies or intolerances they may have, including vegetarians, but when it comes to ingredients that people simply don’t want to eat, there is very little sympathy.
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‘Terrarium’ at Mana. / Image: Mana
Guidelines are clear that the team cannot deal with last-minute preparation requests and states “if you have an allergy to an animal, fish or shellfish protein, our vegetarian equivalent will be provided as an alternative.
“This also applies to aversions due to religious reasons.”
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Touching on the subject of religious diets, Mana is not alone in its refusal to budge.
Another fine dining spot in Manchester, the trendy NQ eatery District, has also proven itself unwilling to adapt this year after getting embroiled in a ‘religious diet’ row with a customer that went viral on social media.
Yorkshire wagyu picanha with gao lao, fermented greens, yellow bean / Image: District
The argument, which stemmed from the new wave Thai eatery’s non-refundable deposit policy, came to a head after a customer asked for its famously strict 12-course set menu to be altered to cater to his religious needs.
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In this instance, the diner asked for a pork dish to be substituted after already paying his £15 deposit, at which point he had already been notified that he should contact the restaurant about dietaries before putting down any money for the booking.
After being told it was not possible, he emailed to ask “why not shout loud on your homepage ‘We don’t cater for Jews'”.
BBQ maitake, nam prik pao, rice wafer / Image: District
Ultimately, however, his threats to speak out on social media spectacularly backfired after the restaurant posted them to its social pages themselves – adding it ‘will not be bullied or threatened into returning deposits’.
Co-owner Ben Humphries later told the Manchester Evening News: “From the moment a guest makes a reservation work begins on sourcing and ordering the very best ingredients for their experience. If we then can not fill that table, this expensive produce may go to waste.”
Whilst some might consider a high-end restaurants’ refusal to modify their menu to suit the dietary requirements a bit inhospitable for hospitality, as prices continue to rise and margins get tighter, it is becoming necessary for businesses’ survival to make these calls.
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Unfortunately, some of those people are just going to have to like it or lump it.
Feature image – District
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
31st December 2021 
