Treehouse Manchester announces ‘local heroes' as F&B operators

The Treehouse Manchester hotel is to open next year with four celebrated local operators running its food and beverage outlets.

The 224-bedroom hotel in Deansgate will include a ground floor restaurant run by Mary-Ellen McTague and 14th floor rooftop bar and restaurant operated by Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford, with Sam Grainger at the helm in the kitchen.

SH Hotels area managing director UK & EU Ayo Akinsete said the group was keen to work with local talent rather than bring in operators from outside.

He added: "We wanted to partner with local heroes and people that had deep roots in Manchester and the surrounding areas and that's how we ended up with these guys."

Mary-Ellen McTag, who was sous chef under Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck before opening her own sites including the Creameries in Chorlton, is to operate an all-day restaurant, which is yet to be named, with a zero-waste ethos.

She said: "My focus in everywhere I've worked has been about seasonality and sustainability… What's different about this project is that we now have so many incredible market gardens [in Manchester] and access to beautiful produce that was hard to get hold of 10-15 years ago."

The restaurant, which is yet to be named, will offer pastries and sandwiches as well as an a la carte menu that she said would harness the techniques she has refined while offering simplicity on the plate.

She added: "I want people to be stunned by the produce itself and the presentation of it is about celebrating what's great about a particular ingredient."

Meanwhile, Sam Grainger, chef-owner of Belzan in Liverpool and Madre in Liverpool and Manchester, will run a 130-cover pan-Asian concept, working with DJs and restaurant operators Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford.

Cowdrey said: "It's an exciting time in Manchester at the moment – it's a very different city. One thing you can't do is walk in from London thinking you'll conquer it. It doesn't happen like that. It's a very different city, it's very nuanced, it's very mixed, though it certainly isn't the Manchester of 1985 when we arrived."

Treehouse Hotel Manchester, owned by a controlled affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, is being developed in partnership with Property Alliance Group. It will mark the first phase of a £200m redevelopment of the former Renaissance hotel on Deansgate, which Starwood bought in 2021.

The hotel is set to open early next year.