Inside Bundobust’s new Manchester brewhouse and restaurant

Indian street food favourite Bundobust has revealed the location of its second Manchester restaurant, due to open in late spring.

The new opening will be housed in one of the finest period buildings in the city, the Grade II-listed St James building on Oxford Road.

Constructed in the Edwardian Baroque style with a Portland stone fronting, it was once the headquarters of the Calico Printers’ Association Ltd.

Today, it belongs to Manchester developer Bruntwood. Home to a number of high profile businesses, including the General Medical Council, it forms part of Bruntwood’s West Village development, which also houses Social Chain.

The indie food and drink favourites are taking over a unique space inside originally used as a cartway for hoses and carts to get to the printers.

What will be the restaurant come May has literally been built from the ground up, creating a stunning new dining space out of what was previously a carpark.

And whilst it might still look like a building site to you and me, we’re told it’s taken over four months of work to create the bones of the venue – which will house a brewhouse for Bundobust’s inaugural brewery alongside a 150 cover restaurant.

The restaurant has literally been built from the ground up, with the Bundobust team looking to retain as many of the original features as possible throughout the process.

These include original aqua and lemon tiling dating back to the early 1900s, glazed brick walls, wrought iron gating at the entrance and a stunning atrium skylight that runs the length of the space (and is fast becoming a hallmark of the brand).

The second restaurant for Bundobust in the city, the menu here will be the same as at their original Piccadilly Gardens location – which features core favourites like okra fries, vada pav burger and bundo chaat.

And whilst the food is sure to be good as ever, the main focus here will be the brewhouse – where the Bundobust team will begin their first official forays into beer making.

This will be situated at the back of the restaurant in its own separate space, but still visible through the interior windows. The separate space will allow them to facilitate beer-led events such as tasting and pairing dinners in the future.

Pipes will run across the ceiling, pumping beer into nine fermentation tanks inside the restaurant and at its entrance – which will, on completion, function as an inside-outside space.

The addition of the brewery will allow them to work on a number of collaborative beers with other breweries, with the first due to be brewed in Denmark in partnership with Copenhagen brewery Mikkeller.

They are also currently in talks with several Manchester brewers and a Leeds operator for further collaborations, but for now, can’t say any more.

Owners will also create their own core range of beers which will include an easy-drinking 4% pale ale, a quite bitter one, a “proper northern pint”, an unfiltered lager and potentially a fruity pale ale too.

They are also looking to experiment with a lot of the ingredients they use in the kitchen, such as tropical fruits and spices.

Owners Mayur Patel and Marko Husak also tell us they are in the process of interviewing candidates for the head brewer position, and this will be announced in a number of weeks. But for now, details of who it might be are strictly under wraps.

The new site will continue to serve some of the world’s best craft beers alongside their own creations and is expected to open in May.