Chef Mary Ellen opens her new venue The Creameries
WHAT smells better than fresh bread in the morning? Nothing. So good news for the good people of Chorlton as The Creameries has opened its doors to the public.
After a week of soft launching and testing the menu out on friends and family, the new venture from former Aumbry owner and chef Mary Ellen McTague and baker Sophie Yeoman is now fully operational.
The Wilbraham Road site - near North Star Deli, Electrik bar and the Big Morrisons™, has been months in the making and is a mix of cool concrete and muted tones - as well as bread ovens kicking out smells of freshly baked treats each morning.
The restaurant - which was once an Edwardian creamery - will have three menus across three separate sittings breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Breakfast will be heavily based on baked stuff, but we’ll be doing a cooked breakfast at weekends,” says Mary Ellen.
“Lunchtime is a lot from the bakery pies, pasties and sandwiches - and dinner will be around five or six dishes which are a bit more simple on the face of it - a bowl of clams in wild garlic and cider, seared brill in brown butter, slow cooked lamb shoulder; stuff that sounds quite homely but is actually more restauranty. Looks simple, but it’s not!”
A chance business lunch has helped this Manchester charity get investment from a neighbouring firm For Mary Ellen, it marks the end of a long search for the right spot to open a simple dining spot offering fresh breads and a changing range of cheeses.
It was a quirk of fate that brought her to Chorlton, though.
“Sophie found the unit and was going to go in to business with someone else but they couldn’t do it,” she says. “So she asked me if I was interested - and I was. Very.
“I’ve been looking to do something like this for about four years.
Mary Ellen, Sophie and other coowner, interior designer Soo Wilkinson, turned to crowdfunding to help make the restaurant a reality. So far they have raised £32,050 through 768 backers, investing anywhere from £5 to £2,000. They reached £20,000 in the first five days.
“Everyone has been supportive crowdfunders especially,” she says. “We’ve already got a lot of people who have invested and are seeing it work. It’s partly there place, which is really nice.
“Crowdfunding is still terrifying but it’s got appeal over a bank because it makes it a bit more real. It’s not faceless investors. They’ve put their faith in you and you don’t want to let them down. “If this works, and I really think it will, it could be a good model for future sites. But it’s one step at a time. Before we think about anything else, we have to get this one right.
“Even if we do 10 of them and make a load of money, that’s not really what interests me about it here and now. I just want to make nice food. That’s enough.” Mary Ellen McTague