‘Magnificent lamb chops wind up rammed into gurning faces like meaty muzzles’
Last week, our restaurant was owned by a comedian. I recently noticed a curious subset of restaurateurs: former Glaswegian pop stars in north London (Altered Images’ Stephen Lironi and his Bar Esteban; and Stephen Irvine of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions with Irvin Bar Grill). The owners of Volta in Manchester are Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford, also known as the Unabombers, the DJ duo behind the much missed Electric Chair club, where munching didn’t feature largely, unless it was your own tongue. Seems the way to prolong the fun times these days is to open your own restaurant.
But only if you do it well. These guys have. Volta is a smash in branché West Didsbury. (I take a yoof who thought cool Manc began and ended at the Northern Quarter. He’s suitably impressed.) You enter via the outdoor terrace, blending almost seamlessly into Folk bar next door and creating a kind of benign, permanent street party. I love that, despite its lineage, the clientele is not just tattooed and ironically bespectacled – though there are those, too – but stout beer fans, date-night couples hysterically escaped from the kids, and eavesdrop-worthy, blind-dating gay pairs.
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