Mackie Mayor will open in a Grade II listed former meat market in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on 3 October, BigHospitality can confirm.
The site, which dates back to 1858, is to relaunch with a central communal seating area surrounded by food and drinks traders, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The original Market House has 180-covers and feeds nearly 10,000 people a week, but Mackie Mayor will seat over 400 people and operate a ‘strict no-bookings policy’.
Woodfired pizzeria Honest Crust, steakhouse Tender Cow, and Black Jack Brewery are among the traders set to open at the development.
The project is the brainchild of Nick Johnson, a former deputy chief executive at property company Urban Splash, and Jennifer Thompson.
The duo opened Market House in 2014 as an upmarket, communal canteen with runners delivering food from individual kitchens.
The hall has since been credited with rejuvenating the local area and won the Observer Food Monthly’s best market award in 2015.
The Mackie Mayor team have been relatively quiet on the opening, but wrote in a Facebook post in August that there would be no ‘glitzy, glamourpuss launch’.
“We hope to open our doors…with a softly, softly approach as we bed-in, so please treat us gently at first until we have learned a little more about the subtleties and intricacies that come from breathing life back into this truly amazing building and making it work for you," the team wrote.
“As with Market House we will operate a strict no-bookings policy so that you can turn up on the spur of the moment and pitch-in....which is the way we like it.”
