Living Ventures, the north west-based operator, is gearing up to launch its first new concept in a number of years, with the opening of Grand Pacific in Manchester next month, as it looks to develop a new expansion vehicle.
The new format will launch on 17 March in the Grade II-listed Manchester Reform Club building site in King Street, and according to the group’s managing director Paul Moran it will place more emphasis on the bar side of its operation compared to sister concept Australasia.
Moran told MCA: “When we opened Australasia we had a bar at the back called Grand Pacific but that was very much Australasia in a bar version, but we are not doing that with this site. Where Australasia is light this will be dark. It will feature colonial-based food with a British twist. It will be a lot more of a bar than Australasia – a very lively bar with a strong food offer.”
Moran said that the group would look for similar spaces going forward but not until “we have the first one off the ground”.
The 120-cover restaurant and bar at Grand Pacific will offer “informal dining at lunchtime through to the evening, blending flavours from exotic places with English classics”.
At the weekend a “Classical Sunday lunch” is available with roast beef carved at your table and live music from the Grand Pacific Palm Court Group.
It will also include a feature 25-cover Long Bar inspired by Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The bar will play host to expert mixologists creating bespoke cocktails filled with imported fine spices and intriguing botanicals. By night Grand Pacific will feature “DJs playing eclectic tunes whilst the lights go low and the cocktails flow”.
The company said that Grand Pacific aims to recreate the “golden age of high society with a comfortable, relaxed charm accompanied by great service”.
Living Ventures chief executive Jeremy Roberts said: “We are delighted to bring this beautiful room back to life and echo its glorious past as the home of the historic Manchester Reform Club. Its heritage as a place to relax, eat and drink and just enjoy some of the pleasures of life simply oozes from the walls and it is our privilege and pleasure to let it continue to be what it was always meant to be.”
