Liars Club, Dragonfly Club and a Harvester
Plenty of venues closing, opening or going for a change in the run-up to Christmas. It's often the case and the smart thing to do business-wise. Get your venue open for the busy party season and establish yourself a crowd.
Space on New Wakefield Street has closed in order to get refurbished and then re-open in December as The Dragonfly Club. Now the venue was undoubtedly due a change. (Sub) Space basement club has been around for in the region of 17 years by our reckoning, without much new happening. But the strategy they're building for the new club will raise eyebrows.
The Dragonfly Club plans to bring London-style "bespoke clubbing" (what?) to Manchester, with a 1000 capacity, mixology bartenders, VIP and waitress service, world-class DJ talent and, not sure about this last part - "elite clubbing for the beautiful inside and out". We can see a few of you rolling your eyes right now at what you might see as the prospect of conceited and shallow types leaving the Deansgate area to hit the Oxford Road student corridor, struggling down the cobbles outside The Thirsty Scholar in high heels. We'd really better reserve judgement until it has operated for a few weeks/months, but on paper, the concept is incongruous. Maybe it'll be the shake-up that the building and area needs and will help to mix different demographics around, rather than keep eveybody apart and have them wallow in assumptions about stereotypes?
A Harvester pub has reopened in the Printworks unit that was previously Old Orleans. You basically get expensive English food instead of pricey American food. Didsbury Hogshead has gone and a Tesco Express is stepping into that space. Cafe Rouge has closed in Spinningfields as the owners seek to offload 12 such units across the nation. Did the city really need three, with one just down Deansgate anyway?
The Purple Pussycat came from the same stable as One Central Street and The Blackdog Ballroom, and like those venues, it struck a chord with those looking for a cool alternative. The owners are never ones to let a venue get too stale, so Pussycat has been reinvented as The Liars Club, a Tiki dive bar and Caribbean rum shop injecting some tropical flavour and 50s Hollywood style into the neighbourhood. It's a good enough distance from Stevenson Square to be able to hold its own as another Tiki bar in the same city, although we're feeling that one Tiki bar was enough.
Comments
07/01/2012 by vicks
loved the Liars Club!!! fab 80's music, very busy, lots of laughs especially wearing the hats they give out to punters!!!
Rated 5 out of 5
26/11/2011 by MAD Editor
No launch date yet Helena. We'll print what we hear when we hear it.
Rated 5 out of 5
24/11/2011 by Helena Paterson
The rumours surrounding Dragonfly are quite exciting. It's about time something new hit Manchester, I am so bored of everywhere! Spending £60 just to get to London for a decent night out is taking its toll. Lets hope everythings true. Any ideas on the launch date?
Rated 5 out of 5
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