Dovedale joint for Marco?
ADMIT it folks, the main reason people from outside Liverpool visit Penny Lane is because it featured in a song by some band or other in the 1960s.
Unless you are Marco Pierre White. The so called enfant terrible of the Michelin game only had a card saying “Church Road” when he decided to check out Spire this week.
He'd met the Locke brothers, Adam and Matt, at last year's food and drink festival and, impressed with the cut of their jib, nipped to the award winning restaurant during service while doing some filming in south Liverpool.
Matt told Liverpool Confidential: “He loved the restaurant and what we were doing, but he was bowled over when we told him this was THE Penny Lane.
He couldn't believe all the references in the song were actually real places that still existed: like the roundabout and the bank. He was singing the words to the song and trying to place everything.”
Marco was particularly taken with Tony Slavin's barbers, especially when Matt informed him that the mop-tops used to have their hair cut in there. As this is probably the nearest the tangle-haired one has come to a barbers in his life, the words “Number One” will perhaps only have a musical meaning.
“I'd have taken him down to Strawberry Fields and John Lennon's home on Menlove Avenue, but maybe next time,” says Matt who was busy conjuring up Spire's new spring menu.
Perhaps MPW will now be galvanised into opening up down in the blue skied burb.
Another macho steak-house? What would it serve for appetisers? Men-dips of course.
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Jay Tinker
Tinkering on the tools
SPEAKING of Number Ones, the man who came fourth in this year's BBC Master Chef is to open his own restaurant at Number One Lord Street in Southport.
Ex-nightclub doorman Jay Tinker, a Manc from Banks, won the hearts of viewers and culinary greats such as Michel Roux Jnr who praised his dishes for providing “comfort food with elegance”.
The father-of-three, who runs a security firm, has taken over the former Langs Pasta Grill, from Botanic Bistro owner Paul Lang, and is planning to open in the next few weeks, working on the menu with renowned chef Helda Phillipe.
“I will be using local produce to support local farmers and the menu will be seasonal so I can use the best ingredients at different times of year to keep it fresh and exciting,” he is quooted as saying.
“It won’t be obscure but it will be reasonably priced.”
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Baa Bar in business
VICTORIA Street is about to get its own home of cheap shots and laughing gas as the Baa Bar opens up on April 5, helping the city council "realise its vision" for the area.
The seventh in the group, the new Baa Bar will be housed in the old Noir premises next to Metro, hoping for a slice of the lucrative Mathew Street "action".
From Noir To Baa BarThe latest addition to the Baa Bar family, which will be the third in Liverpool after Wood Street and Myrtle Street, will, it says here "remain the Baa Bar that customers know and love, whilst the stylish edge hopes to bring a new dimension to nightlife in the area".
Mike Cockburn, City Centre Manager for Liverpool City Council said: "The Council and local stakeholders have been working together to develop a vision for the Victoria and Stanley Street area of the city centre and having Baa Bar investing in the area is a real boon to realising the new vision."
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Surf and turf
It's coming around to that time of year again and the runners and riders at Aintree will be slaking their thirst at Alma De Cuba for the official John Smith's Grand National Winners Party.
Bookings are now being taken if that chatting up a pint sized jockey over a pint of Jagermeister floats your boat.
Saturday 14th April, 7pm-3am, is all you need to know.
"Come and dance the night away at the most exclusive party in town on one of the most memorable weekends of 2012!" it says here. £20 gets you past the door. £75 gets you into the winners enclosure.
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Beautiful butty
Take-out sandwich of the week...
...Goes to the beautiful chicken salad number served up at The Brink.
Especally on a week when it was announced that the most binned food item is the supermarket loaf. They don't bother with any of that rubbish in here.
A world away from the soggy garage butty, this was a delight to relish back at the desk. Soft, warm slabs of home made, wholemeal bread, moist slices of free range chicken breast, and crisp salad, assembled with care and attention. Price? a bargain £2.95.
After Liverpool Confidential mentioned that Brink's hake and chips were the best we'd had in aeons, the Parr Street bar was instantly inundated by hungry aficionados of the great British dish. Even the Duchess of Cambridge heard about it and insisted she be taken there immediately.
Anyway, now it's their best seller. No beer batter in here - Brink's an alcohol free establishment. Plenty of vinegar though.
