When brothers Drew and Adam Jones opened their ultra-plush modern Mediterranean restaurant Fenix last year, they wanted to bring a flavour of Mykonos to Manchester, a bit of sun-drenched jetset luxury for the Rainy City.
With their new project, Louis, about to open in Spinningfields, they want to take people back in time. Both places, and of course their first, Tattu, are all about travelling without moving.
“It’s a nod to 1950s New York,” Drew says, sitting almost zen-ly calm while a maelstrom goes on around him. Staff in red waistcoats and dress shirts are being briefed, lights are being tested, there are men on ladders, deliveries arriving, final touches are being made here, there and everywhere.
It opens to friends and family tonight. The fixtures are sumptuous, from the brass rails and curtains separating each booth, to the low lamps on each table, to the red velvet banquette seating and wood panels.
The bar could have been plucked out of the Copacabana, and you half expect a waiter to sail through the dining room any moment, a table carried above his head to seat Ray Liotta slap bang in front of the stage.
Out front there will be a Manhattan-style awning stretching out from the door. Louis really is a love letter to a time when New York restaurants like this were packed with wiseguys, politicians, union reps, teamsters, and those just eager to go and take it all in. Be a part of it, just for the night.
This unit was once Carluccio’s on Hardman Street. It’s completely unrecognisable now. It’s no theme restaurant, it’s more like full immersion theatre, where you’re encouraged to dress up and throw yourself into the spirit of it all; the swing and the ring-a-ding-ding. A little slice of Manc Sinatra.
And there’ll be no phones, something that’s already become a robust talking point.
“We want to take people back to a simpler, but very glamorous environment,” he says. “We just want people to enjoy their food instead of filming it, and taking pictures. Just enjoy it. Enjoy the company that you’re with. Live in the moment. Like people used to.”
A ‘fedora’ sticker will be applied to your phone on arrival, and you’ll be politely asked not to remove it for the duration. While a lot has been made of this policy, one has to feel that it will go down just fine with the vast majority. Who can say they haven’t rolled their eyes as the next table pose and preen for their cameras while their food goes cold in front of them.
There will be some discretion applied here. “It’s the world we live in, society in 2024,” he says. “If you’re taking a photo of your food, or if you’re taking a quick picture with your friend, it might not impact other guests. But if you start taking pictures of other people, of the venue, affecting other people’s experience, you’ll be politely asked to stop.
“But it’s out there. On all the mailers, all the email confirmations, so we hope people get it. It’s not a bad thing we’re asking. The one thing we’re asking is ‘live in the now’. And enjoy the people you’ve come with and their conversation, and the food and some great music.”
Unsurprisingly perhaps, inspiration for Louis has come from the movies, Scorcese-heavy influences like Goodfellas and Casino, maybe a bit of The Godfather too.
“Obviously there’s a dark side to those films, but take that away and the environment, the glamour, the clubs, the bars, they’re extremely luxurious,” says Drew, who once again enlisted Fabled Studios, the designers behind Tattu and Fenix, to fit the place out.
Trips to New York with their executive chef Ippokratis Anagnostelis turned up stacks of ideas, both for food and ambience. Famous steakhouse Keens, the Midtown institution, left an understandably indelible impression, first opening in the late 1880s, and a favourite of presidents, actors and baseball legends, as did Gallaghers, which pioneered the ‘New York strip’, the marbled piece of sirloin which is now the beef equivalent of a jazz standard.
They were also smitten over Emilio’s Ballato, presided over by the dominating Emilio Vitolo, the no-reservations, first-come first-served family-run traditional Italian in Lower Manhattan lauded for its breaded cutlets and red sauce, but done with just a hint of an upscale flourish.
“There are pictures of famous people all over the walls, Brad Pitt, Barack Obama to name a few, says Drew. “There are locks and bolts on the door, so when the right amount of people are in, he starts locking up. He sits in the corner reading the newspaper, with a glass of wine. You feel like you’re in a scene from a movie.
All these touchstones have coalesced to make Louis. “When Italians moved over to New York, there was this mix of a lack of produce that they’d use in Italy and American appetites, so they adapted. Rearranged things, tweaked them, the Italian classics with the American influence.
As such, the menu at Louis, which will be presided over by chef Matteo D’Elia, is a taught, greatest hits of the culinary genre.
Calamari fritti and grilled half shell green lipped mussels with breadcrumbs, rigatoni with vodka and tomato, a great ragu, the classic of classics, osso buco with saffron risotto, veal chops, meatballs, a Caesar salad assembled at the table, chicken and eggplant parm, and then, of course, a New York, USDA grade strip and a top flight burger.
Desserts – just apple pie a la mode, a baked New York cheesecake and tiramisu – will arrive on a trolley, as will champagne, served up in coup glasses. At the cocktail bar, there’s even a peanut butter and jelly Old Fashioned.
On stage, they’ll have jazz and swing as you eat, with some modern flourishes – Dean Martin via Pharrell Williams, which is kind of echoed on the walls. For every period lamp, there’s a splash of modern art, about a million quid’s worth in fact, from the likes of Marco Battaglini, Alec Monopoly, Brainwash and Todd White, just to bring you back to the present if just for a few moments.
Drew is confident that they’ve done just what they set out to.
“This has been a really exciting project,” he says. “It feels authentic. We’ve tried to create an era in a time when hospitality was at the forefront. Great service, great food, great environment.
“The team has done an incredible job of creating these dishes, I don’t think they could have delivered a better version of this style of cuisine. The research and development of each sauce, the produce used, it has all been meticulous and painstaking.
“If we’re going to do something, we are fully invested and do everything in our power to create the most authentic environment that we set out to do. And we couldn’t be any happier with the outcome.”
Louis opens on 13 September.
