GRUB’S UP!
Newest and highest restaurant offers fine dining and stunning views across city centre
THESE are the incredible views from Manchester’s newest - and highest - restaurant.
Perched on the 19th floor of No.1 Spinningfields, 20 Stories is split into two distinct areas.
There’s a fine dining restaurant and a more informal grill, both with their own menus.
Manchester House and Michelin alumni Aiden Byrne has been enlisted by operator D&D as chef director.
He hopes to keep the things down to earth, while serving food at an incredibly high standard.
Entering through the restaurant’s private lift, guests are greeted by panoramic views of the city.
The marble-topped bar acts as a divide for the two restaurants.
There’s a huge range of cocktails, 25 different gins, a cigar menu and range of speciality spirits.
To the left is an exquisite restaurant space, lined on one side by floor-to-ceiling temperature-controlled wine racks - containing bottles which cost as much as £1,800.
Ceiling mirrors shaped like stylised cogs and wheels hint at Manchester’s industrial past, and reflect a distorted view of the slick fit-out.
The space is almost doubled by a huge outdoor terrace with relaxed seating, a separate cocktail bar, access to the grill menu, and unrivalled views of Manchester from 92 meters up in the air.
By carving up the space, Aiden hopes that the variety of dining options and range of price points will keep it busy and imbue the vast 9,500 sq ft venue with more of a buzzy atmosphere. Speaking about the space, Aiden said: “The atmosphere is a balance between seriousness, and being relaxed. “The decor, the attention to detail, the quality of the product is the serious side of it all. The relaxed side of it - we just want people to come up here and enjoy themselves. “I honestly believe that when you’ve got one restaurant and it goes quiet the atmosphere drops off. “We’ve got a restaurant, a bar, a grill so fingers crossed there’s always going to be someone in, so there will always be that buzz of people.” But as well as having high standards, Aiden wants the space to be welcoming. The goal, he says, is to make people happy.
“It’s most definitely not going to be stuffy. I come from a council estate in Kirby in Liverpool, I’m not a pretentious person. If we find any staff being pretentious in any form then they will be re-trained. I want people to be themselves. We work hard to make other people happy, that’s our main focus.”
20 Stories opens to the public on March 1, bookings are now being taken at 20stories.co.uk.
It’s definitely not going to be stuffy. I’m from a council estate. I’m not a pretentious person Chef director Aiden Byrne