CityLife

High drama at Le Mont

NEWS reaches me from on high... well, from Le Mont restaurant on the fifth and sixth floors of Urbis, that is.

I hear that sommelier par excellence George Bergier has been head-hunted from the bijou Great John Street Hotel, in the old schoolhouse, opposite Granada TV studios, to run Manchester's loftiest eaterie.

George will be no stranger to the city centre's high life, having been host at businessmen's private hide- away, the St James' Club, for a time when it occupied the top seven floors of its former high-rise in Charlotte Street.

An old Midland Hotel hand, like Le Mont's former executive chef, Robert Kisby, who departed just before Christmas, Polish-born George - a real European smoothie - is interviewing cooks, so watch this space.

It looks like Kisby's signature modern French cuisine will be tweaked here and there, and there'll be more emphasis on a bar offering cocktails with one of the best views in the city.

Though George has been one of the best-known figures in Manchester's swankier eating and drinking dens for more than a quarter of a century, he's played other roles in his time - not least as interpreter to the late Kazimierz Denya, when the Polish World Cup skipper signed for Manchester City in 1978.