An added touch of New York glamour is set to arrive in Manchester with the The Pen & Pencil bar and eatery which is set to open on the corner of Hilton and Tariff Street this August.
Taking its name and inspiration from the infamous mid-20th Century bar on East 45th Street in New York, which was popular with newspaper journalists and ad men – the original ‘Mad Men’, The Pen & Pencil hopes to offer the perfect place for the NQ’s creative locals to chill, think, meet and enjoy great food and drink.
Open seven days a week, The Pen & Pencil will be open from 10am right through ’til late with a focus on a strong day time offering with great breakfast, brunch and lunch washed down with top quality coffee and freshly blended smoothies.
The brunch menu typifies its American namesake and will include American pancakes served with buttermilk pancakes, blueberries, house made bourbon syrup and streaky bacon; Mexican breakfast with scrambled eggs, smoked bacon, avocado, Manchego cheese, tomato salsa, chipotle and sour cream and potato & courgette rosti, streaky bacon, avocado, poached eggs.
Evenings and weekends the menu will develop to include small plates and a few larger dishes with an international feel, for example, Lebanese Scotch Egg served with tahini, and Pork and Chive Dumplings. It will sit alongside a specially created cocktail list making the venue perfect for mid afternoon cocktails, after work gatherings, and those wanting to eat and drink until the early hours.
The cocktail list, created in-house, will feature amongst others Beer in the Bronx with gin, IPA syrup, pink grapefruit juice, sweet & dry vermouth and Cucumber & Sake Martini with cucumber, vodka, sake, sugar.
A resident DJ will get the party started every weekend and the team are looking to curate a series of monthly live music nights. There is also offers a room for private hire for networking meetings, private parties and launch events.
The Pen & Pencil is the joint venture of two of Manchester’s established bar and restaurant operators, Dan Pollard who created The Violet Hour cocktail bar and lounge on Burton Road in West Didsbury and Kevin Connor, who previously ran the NQ institution, Dry Bar on Oldham Street.
Commenting on the launch Dan Pollard, said: “The opening of the Pen & Pencil is the realisation of a dream for both myself and Kevin. We are both huge fans of the style, atmosphere and food and drink offerings of 1950s New York bars that have been immortalised in numerous films and TV series. We are taking inspiration from them and some of their magic and history and making it relevant to Manchester, in particular its extremely sociable Northern Quarter community, today.
Kevin continued: “Our brunch/lunch menu will be one of the best in the city and, the fact that we will be open seven days a week from 10am right through to late, will ensure we cater for weekday and weekend guests, whether they want cocktails, business meetings, while away a couple of hours with a top quality coffee, or a Saturday night late one accompanied by one of Manchester’s finest DJs, The Pen & Pencil is set to be the place to be.”
For more information visit http://www.thepenandpencilnq.co.uk/ or Tweet @penandpencilnq.
