Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo was in Alderley Edge on Monday night opening his new Italian restaurant, Luciano. Whilst he was there, he revealed that he’s got eyes on a site in Manchester next – and that work has already begun.
The Italian TV chef told the Manchester Evening Newsthat, following an unsanctioned rebrand of his Gino’s My Restaurantsites, he is now moving forward with his own plans to open a massive new Manchester branch of Luciano, which is named after his eldest son.
Whilst he wouldn’t reveal the location of the new restaurant, he did hint that it would be a sizeable upgrade on the Corn Exchange site, which is currently being rebranded as Riva Blu alongside four other Gino’s sites.
He also told the newspaper that the rebrand had been ‘against his wishes’.
He said: “My dad used to say to me for every action there is a reaction. Those five restaurants, they were rebranded without my consent and this is my reaction, I open new ones.
“When one goes, I say let’s do something bigger and better.”
By Gino’s own account, the new Manchester eatery will be ‘huge’, set across three floors with a sky lounge and terrace.
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Gino’s description of his new Luciano site seems to match that of the now-vacant Restaurant Bar & Grill on John Dalton Street, which was owned by Individual Restaurants – the company also behind Gino’s My Restaurant brand.
Hinting that it should be open in time for the summer, he told the MEN “They are busy chiselling away on it as we speak”.
He also said that he had eyes on further sites for Luciano in Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds, having already opened a Luciano site in London’s West End last year at 5 star hotel ME.
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The chef’s new restaurant project promises to bring premium Italian ingredients to diners as part of its fine dining menu.
At the Cheshire restaurant, which launched this week in the former Piccolini site, diners can enjoy Napoli pizza and an attractive selection of pasta, risotto and gnocchi.
The menu also boasts large meat and seafood selections, featuring the likes of grilled langoustines, Sicilian tuna, numerous steak cuts, truffled chicken and rack of lamb, alongside a list of contorni sides as is traditional in Italy.
The former Gino’s restaurant in the Corn Exchange, meanwhile, will close on 27 January to become a new Italian restaurant with no connection to the chef.
Featured image: Supplied
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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 -
26th January 2022 
