CityLife

The Leftbank

The Leftbank
People's History Museum
March 2010

Casual dining review

Overall: 3/5

The biggest socio-political change over the past 15 years has not been the roll-back of socialism nor the routing of the neo-cons, rather the embracing of coffee by the proletariat!

So, the new swish cafe bar at the revamped People’s History Museum does not feel as out of place among the memorabilia of working man’s struggle as it would have done before latte became the opium of the masses.

After a morning wandering the fascinating exhibition floors which recall the hard years of protest – which should have included: ‘Nescaf, Nescaf, Nescaf, out, out, out!’ – we decided to plot a revolution in The Leftbank.

The cafe bar on the ground floor of the building doesn’t just do coffee, though, there are snacks, food to go and full meals, some of which are the recreated recipes of the fodder that the working classes devoured in the grey years of the last century.

Huge photos of a VE Day street party and a train station milk bar get the memory lane theme going. It is followed up with menu items such as Woolton Pie – a Second World War recipe using veggies and oats and topped with pastry and cheese – and a special of shin beef casserole. What a great idea.

The Leftbank is run by Couture, a company which also has the excellent cafe at Manchester Museum, a place that similarly champions local suppliers of ingredients.
Couture obviously puts a lot of thought into its outlets and promises to include other forgotten dishes on The Leftbank’s menu in the future, like pan haggerty and bacon fidget pie (whatever that is).

I had the pan-fried calf’s liver, bacon and onions (£6.95) which was like something from the Seventies (in a good way).

My daughter had bangers and mash from the children’s menu (£3.50), which was disappointingly a little on the small side and the mash almost cold.

We also had a couple of Fentiman’s excellent, if pricey, bottles of nostalgic soft drinks (£1.95), which include dandelion and burdock and Curiosity cola.

There is a small bar too, with draught lagers and bottle of real ales from the city’s Marble brewery and Aspall’s Ciders.

But the best aspect of The Leftbank is the light, bright corner plot; and the breakfasts look good, too. Try the Omelette Arnold Bennett, the Eggs Benedict or the eggs and smoked salmon. Just when did that slip into the working class diet?

The Leftbank, People’s History Museum, Spinningfields M3 3ER (0161 838 9190, couturemanchester.com).

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