I’ve grumbled before about how little we have in Stretford. No restaurants, a couple of OK pubs (The Melville, The Robin Hood, and The Urmston), an award winning bar (hurrah for The Sip Club) and a bunch of take aways, and a giant drive through McDonald’s.
We’re not exactly swimming in fine dining. Let’s face it, we’re not exactly swimming in decent dining options full stop. We’ve always leaned on our Chorlton neighbours, or the venues in Urmston, Sale and Altrincham, or let’s face it, as most of us work there, Manchester itself.
But now, a little cafe on Moss Road is bringing us a pop up of our own, with fresh local ingredients, cooked well, served with a smile and I for one am thrilled.
Meet Stretford Canteen – a pop up project from Jo and Dean and their 8 year old daughter (who ably assists with prep and menu doodles) hosted in The Pines and Pantry Cafe.
Until recently, Jo was a teacher at a college in Liverpool, but grew up with parents owning a French Restaurant in China Town called the Beaujolais. Having worked in the kitchen there, and waiting on at The Lime tree it’s safe to say she’s grown up with a love of food.
Dean shares her love of food, though working full time in Steranko in Didsbury, they both felt Stretford was in need of more options to eat. They had an idea and wanted to experiment, to see if there is the need that they feel exists. They met Sue and an idea was born.
‘Pines Pantry is a really cute space, is immaculately clean and closed in the evening so was the perfect venue for us to experiment with the idea. Sue the owner was really keen for the space to be used when she’s closed.’
So now, every weekend for the duration of the summer (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), you can now dine out in Stretford. The hope is, of course that it proves popular enough for them to find a site, and open a permanent venue.
And they’re not just hosting it locally, suppliers are locally based too. Fruit and veg are from the Manchester Veg People (who source in season, organic produce from within a 50 mile radius), fish is from Out of The Blue, steak from WH Frosts and lamb from Wrigley’s the Butcher in Stretford Mall (market hall). And almost everything is made from scratch – except the bread which is from Uprising Bakery, and the cheese which is Pextenement from Todmorden (both of available through the South Manchester Food Assembly).
Of course, being but minutes away from the cafe, and in need of a date night with Mr GFB, we headed in to dine ourselves.
The menu is simple, but offers both vegetarian and vegan options – and there are gluten free options too. And as the premises is unlicensed, it’s a case of bring your own bottle – in some ways a bit of a blessing, no having to figure out what wine will go with your dinner, just bring whatever you fancy (in our case a little leftover Beaujolais).
My starter was a spinach and cheese tart, served with both a carrot and fennel salad, and a little herb salad garnished with chive flowers. The salads were crisp and fresh, the tart simple but tasty and no hint of soggy bottom.
Mr GFB went for the chicken liver pate, which was so light it was more like a parfait, with toasted sourdough and pickled radish. As ever he misjudged his pate to bread ratio, and so ended up all but eating the pate with a spoon. I really don’t think he was complaining.
For mains there was only one for me. Onglet steak, cooked rare – beautifully charred outside, pink and tender on the inside, with a slice of toasted sourdough more salad (so fresh and tasty I even ate the plum tomatoes, and I never eat fresh tomatoes) with a deliciously garlicky aioli.
Mr GFB went for the lamb patties, with toasted pitta, tahini yoghurt, herb salad and fresh chilli sauce. Pink tender spiced lamb, rich yoghurt, with a nice spice from the chilli.
As sides, we opted for the roasted carrots and cavalo nero with chilli and garlic. The carrots still had a good bite and I love cavalo nero with a little bit of kick to cut through the bitterness. A great match to our mains. Of course, it was as we were dining that we recognised items from our own Manchester Veg People veg box! Always a good sign.
Onto desserts and Mr GFB went all chocolatey on me.
A chocolate tart and berry fruits with vanilla cream. Knowing my personal issue with chocolate and fruit, he dutifully ate it all and pronounced it rich, but the fruits cut through the right centre. (I did have to tease this out of him as he originally pronounced it bloody lovely with no descriptors).
For me, it had to be rhubarb, with vanilla cream and fresh meringue. The rhubarb was tart with a hint of bite to it, and the meringue, well I’ll be dreaming of those for days. Crisp outer, marshmallow inner – the sweetness a great foil for the rich cream and sharp fruit.
As we paid the bill and left, Mr GFB turned to me and asked if we could go back.
We have the summer darling. So yes, let’s.
All food and drink consumed on the night were paid for by ourselves.