It shouldn’t come as a surprise to regular readers of Esquire’s advice column that Adrian Anthony “AA??? Gill made Manchester Evening News headlines earlier this week for an overly ‘matter-of-fact’ remark.
However, this time, instead of restricting his smarmy jibes to a participatory and voiceless Esquire reader, AA Gill has used his column in the Sunday Times to offend two Manchester restaurants with an owner willing to bite back.
AA Gill described the Living Ventures owned restaurants, Manchester House and The French, as “naff, nasty, effortful and regurgitative??? and mocked their “obsessive belief in Michelin stars???. In return, Living Ventures owner, Tim Bacon, queried AA Gill’s validity, particularly given the fact that he hasn’t visited the restaurants*, as well as rebuking the Sunday Times for printing such an unbalanced article.
Call us biased (because we are, unashamedly), but it does seem a bit rich for a London-centric food critic to mock Manchester’s most likely candidates for Michelin stars.
Alas, whilst Manchester may only have stars of the Coronation Street variety, this food PR agency remains unwaveringly proud of the variety and quality of our city’s independent restaurant scene. See below some of our tried and tested personal favourites:
Ben – Mud Crab at Grinch
Beth – Stock
Eddie – Almost Famous
Jane – Red’s True Barbecue
Kate – Home Sweet Home
Louise – Artisan Kitchen & Bar
Richard – Ning
Rick – 63 Degrees
Sam – Dimitris Bar Taverna & Restaurant
*AA Gill’s comments were taken from a review of the TV programme ‘Restaurant Wars – The Battle for Manchester’
Original Manchester Evening News article:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/restaurant-critic-aa-gill-slams-7011589
