Gabriel’s Grocery Store reviewed

So there was no time on Saturday to get a leg of lamb; then there was football on Sunday blocking out the morning. The roast dinner was in jeopardy.

Its breakfasts are up there with the best in Manchester. The coffee is too. If you’re in Chorlton, even on a Sunday, it makes for a cracking cafe stop-off.

Normally it would be leg of lamb, or a rib of beef, but the only meat purveyor within walking distance open on a Sunday is a Tesco Metro. I really didn’t want a £3.50 reconstituted battery chicken assembled from various parts.

There was only one choice: a late afternoon all day breakfast of great size and loveliness from a trusted supplier.

The logic went like this. If you can’t enjoy the greatest gift to food from Britain then go for the next best. And since it was going to be an all boy family Sunday, sons and father, then as long as there was a large amount of food including lots of meat we’d be happy.

The trusted supplier was Peter Booth. I’d only been to his newish Chorlton fooderie Gabriel’s Grocery Store, once before. On that coffee occasion I’d read the menu’s breakfast description, and a deep yearning had settled in.

Booth under his Modern Caterer company runs the wonderful Whitworth Art Gallery caff, the catering in the fabulous International Anthony Burgess Foundation and will soon be commanding large scale catering at Jodrell Bank. His first independent venture Gabriel’s Kitchen is also well-loved in the city. Sadly it’s not long for this world - more of that later.

The Grocery Store is all about the catering. The shop stocks fruit, veg, and a bottled and packaged range of food and drink, but it’s limited. There’s not enough critical mass to fulfil a determined shop.

So the menu is all important. There are specials plus little stars such as a soft boiled egg and soldiers (£2.50), hot porridge, sultanas and honey (£3), brushetta of chilli beetroot and Wensleydale (£5.50), chargrilled rib eye steak (from Mettrick’s butchers in Glossop) for £9. The children’s menu comes contains such things as sausage, bubble and squeak and chocolate and almond brownie with organic cordial for £5.50.The fourteen year old and I went for the ‘Full English’ (£6.50) – our alternative Sunday roast.

I’ll mark the components out of ten. Dry cure bacon (8/10), pork sausage (7/10), black pudding (9/10), runny egg (9/10), sautéed potatoes (4/10), potato wedges (5/10), mushrooms (8/10), beans (8/10), fried bread (8/10). Mix the individual elements with the sheer joy of the gooey, mixed together messy delight and the collation was a proper winner. The bacon and the black pudding were top of the bill.

The ten year old had the American pancakes which came with crispy dry cured streaky bacon and maple syrup (£5). “Looks good,” I said. “Um,” he said. “Don’t lick the bowl, it’s bad manners,” I said looking back a minute later as the lad polished it off. “That was delicious, couldn’t help it,” he said.

I managed to steal some of the pancakes off him. He was right, the heavy sweet American pancake danced a jig with the superb bacon and the glorious maple syrup. A chocolate and almond brownie as dessert maintained the standard: the cakes are of a high standard.

For drinks the boys had Fentiman’s Dandelion and Burdock (Booth should really get in the better Fitzpatrick’s Herbal Health version from Rawtenstall) and freshly squeezed orange juice. I had lemonade and then a coffee. The latter was smooth, non-bitter. Exceptional.

Later I talked to Booth. Business is growing well. The building might not be the best looking, an annex of the Post Office, set back from Wilbraham Road in the most claustrophobic part of Chorlton, but the footfall is high. In fact it turns out that it was the Post Office people who invited Booth into the building in the first place.

That link is clear in the toilet which is entertainingly decorated in letter boxes snapped in Manchester, Wales and the Lake District. This was a talking point with the boys.

But there was sad news too.

“We’re selling Gabriel’s Kitchen, the overheads were high, there’d been a flood from the flats above, and it wasn’t really working out. We’re proud of it and the food we produced but with all the work we’re putting into Jodrell Bank and the other sites we were a bit stretched and something had to give,” says Booth.

Gabriel’s Grocery Store needs to improve the shop offer if it wants to be credible in that aspect of its business, but its breakfasts are up there with the best in Manchester. The coffee is too. If you’re in Chorlton, even on a Sunday, it makes for a cracking cafe stop-off. The place closes at 6pm during the week and 4.30pm on Sunday.

Venues are rated against the best examples of their kind: fine dining against the best fine dining, cafes against the best cafes. Following on from this the scores represent: 1-5 saw your leg off and eat it, 6-9 get a DVD, 10-11 if you must, 12-13 if you’re passing,14-15 worth a trip,16-17 very good, 17-18 exceptional, 19 pure quality, 20 perfect. More than 20: Gordo gets carried away