Eat to the beat: why Manchester loves dinner to dance to

There was a time not too long ago when Exhibition in Manchester could be found high up on ticket website Skiddle’s music venue rankings.

In the space of just over a year, the venue, situated in the grand confines of a former natural history museum, hosted DJ sets from the likes of Detroit house pioneer Derrick Carter, Philadelphia rave legend Josh Wink and eclectic BBC Radio 6 Music favourite Giles Peterson.

To a passerby looking in this might not seem surprising. A disco ball overhead sprinkling light onto the walls and someone playing a saxophone? Classic nightclub behaviour, nothing untoward. Except, Exhibition is not a nightclub nor a music venue. It is a restaurant. Part of a Manchester scene that excels at both carefully curated food and a banging party.

“Our tagline is come for the food, stay for the vibe,” says Exhibition Operations Manager, Sam Wheatley. 

“If you are in here at eight eating dinner, before you know it the plates are cleared, there’s more drinks on the way and by 10.30pm you’re dancing on the same table you had your dinner at.”

An evolution of the foodhall model, Exhibition features three kitchens each overseen by a different restaurant, with diners ordering at the table from a menu that comprises dishes from all three. The atmosphere might be casual, with a 360-degree DJ booth in the centre of the room playing past midnight, but the food is serious.

Exhibition’s kitchens are a Manchester culinary supergroup. Jaan by Another Hand, Baratxuri and Osma. All three are either current or previous Michelin Guide inclusions and Danielle Heron, Head Chef and owner of Osma is a Great British Menu national finalist. 

“I’d say it’s quite unique in the sense that the food has a simplicity, as a lot of Spanish food does, but it also has a rustic elegance,” says Head Chef Joe Botham, describing Baratxuri’s output at Exhibition. Botham has dedicated his adult life to the art of open fire cooking, cutting his teeth in the Basque Country before returning to the UK to set up his own pocket of Northern Spain’s fiercely proud culinary culture. 

Baratxuri was the first restaurant to bring a Pereruela oven to the UK and almost everything on the menu touches the grill in some way, be it the trademark secreto – a storied cut of acorn-fed Iberian pig, marinated in dulce de leche, garlic and salt – or the sticky, oozing Spanish omelette made with Cacklebean Arlington eggs and seasonal potatoes (Bartlett’s Red Rooster at the time of writing) a daily monument on the lunch menu to the kitchen’s roots. Having come across his style of cooking via Flamenco music, Joe compares music as natural a pairing to food as wine.

Just don’t call them ‘clubstaurants’

Across Manchester, a dinner and dance culture has firmly taken root. A thriving restaurant scene has embraced both the city’s music promoters and an inherent love of partying. Whilst the word ‘clubstaurant’ might be an ick for all involved, it’s one way to describe how all three elements combine for a particular type of night out.

Maya, a Michelin Guide contemporary British fine-dining restaurant in the heart of the city’s Gay Village hosts clubnights spanning Afrobeat and House in its dramatic, open brick subterranean club space. Upstairs, highlights include Littlewoods Butchers-sourced brined lamb rump steak with overnight tomatoes and fried Mrs Kirkham's cheese curds with pumpkin ketchup.

Louis, an upmarket Sinatra-channelling, Italian-American restaurant where phone cameras are discouraged, serves up pricey osso buco alla Milanese with added croon, showcasing the city’s jazz and soul talent. Buzzy Stalybridge eatery Cafe Continental has been open less than a year and plaudits have flooded in for a menu that spans casually decadent small plates and seafood specials. Zed Bias, Gardna and Kurupt FM’s Hugo Chegwin have already graced the after dinner decks.

On the edge of the Northern Quarter meanwhile sits Firehouse, a former mechanics garage turned restaurant and club space. Inspired by the produce-forward, vegetable-minded eating of Los Angeles, Firehouse lends itself to gathering a group and splitting the menu. Plates of French bean salad with apricot and orange, and crushed roast fingerling potatoes piled with parmesan and roasted squash, are passed up and down tables. Leg, breast or half portions of grilled chicken, skin lightly charred, well-seasoned, without sacrificing the flavours in the rub, also do the rounds. No deep fat fryers is an in-house rule. 

By 10pm, the atmosphere at Firehouse – like its siblings, the adjoining Ramona and the industrial warehoused Diecast near Piccadilly Station – approaches crescendo. Co-founder, Adelaide Winter, describes music and entertainment as a pillar of all three venues. Ramona’s stacked music schedule, for example, could spotlight a local artist showcase and launch the albums of two UK rap legends in the space of a week. 

“The idea is to have an immersive venue where entertainment is part of the experience. The whole room becomes a performance space,” Winter says, “having performers in the middle of a room, or around you, or above. It’s all about the transformation of the room. You have an amazing meal and then the lights slowly drop...” 

The night from thereon is curated with a level of preparation, skill and craft reminiscent of a kitchen. At Firehouse, a vibrant entertainment schedule sees the city’s dance and drag performers take to the restaurant’s central runway. Choreography is worked through tirelessly during the week (Diecast has set up its own dance studio) and each element has been considered, down to where a light is positioned and how a shadow falls. 

“Everything’s handmade,” Winter says. “Everything’s made fresh in the kitchens. The creative team are making their own costumes, the bar staff are peeling crates and crates of limes to macerate them down with sugar to make oleo to get the sweet element in the El Tequileño margaritas. It’s crazy but that’s the exciting bit, the buzz. We’re always making a new part of the experience.”

“It’s hard to explain to someone who has not been because there’s nowhere else that does this kind of thing,” says Ruby Foran-Parkinson, who along with co-curator Sally Smitherson is a driving force behind the entertainment at Firehouse and Diecast.

The duo cite the importance of Manchester voguing pioneer Darren Pritchard and Ghetto Fabulous for showcasing what was possible on Firehouse’s central runway from the beginning. They also praise an atmosphere of freedom and support across Firehouse and Diecast that has allowed them to create. The entertainment at Firehouse is an ongoing evolution of dance, cabaret, burlesque and drag, where inclusivity and creative expression explode, catalysing a palpable, infectious energy in the room. Even the initially tentative are swept up in it.

“Everyone’s enjoying themselves,” says Smitherson, contemplating why dinner and dining culture goes down so well in Manchester. “It’s not just the customer. It’s the dancers, the staff, the people on the bar, the DJs. Everyone in the room is having a belter.”