Nord opens in Liverpool after years in the making

Liverpool Bay seabass crudo sits on the menu next to wood-fired flatbread with truffle and kelp butter, while its statement bar at the entrance, open kitchen and colourful nods to 1960s interior design makes Nord a far cry from the dive bars that built the business. But a restaurant has always been firmly on the cards for GSG Hospitality.

"I always wanted my own restaurant," says Matt Farrell, co-founder of the business. "At 16, I had the opportunity to do an exchange programme in Spain and I worked in a family-run restaurant. I loved the culture of it, the sitting down between services and eating – the whole environment."

Co-founder John Ennis also discovered a love for hospitality at a young age after working in bars aged 18, having been inspired by Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail – Ennis himself holds the world's fastest bartender title.

Their journey together started in 2009 with the opening of Santa Chupitos in Liverpool. Often hailed as the city's first independent cocktail bar, its menu featured drinks, such as the Five Dollar Shake served in a milk bottle, which had guests queueing round the block to enter the tiny corner site located on the cobbled streets in the city's Ropewalks.

The company, then known as Graffiti Spirits Group, quickly gained a cult following, attracting fans with inventive drinks and a fun food offering, including the Sunday Slice Pizza Challenge and an ‘all you can eat' Brazilian rodizio.

The pair opened Santa Chupitos with around £15,000 borrowed from parents and did a lot of the building work themselves.

"That first Santa Chupitos bar was bigger than we ever imagined," says Ennis. "We didn't think we could make good money out of it, but we were lucky in that we didn't have any debt, apart from to our dads, and we only had two employees. We opened on Boxing Day and, by April, we were this little hidden treasure of a cocktail bar with a massive rum collection and guys who really cared about cocktails.

"A common question we were asked when we started opening places was, ‘It's just you two? How much did this set you back?'," continues Ennis. "People couldn't fathom that two young lads with no money could open something and that it was busy. I think people thought you had to have the glitz and glamour with interiors – they didn't understand the product was at the forefront."

GSG went on to have an integral role in transforming the hospitality scene in the region with a string of award-winning venues, such as tequileria El Bandito, which opened in Liverpool in 2011, and Salt Dog Slims, known for its steins and American-style chilli dogs, which opened its first venue in Liverpool in 2014 and its second in Manchester seven years later.

"We'd got into tequila and mezcal, so we thought, ‘why not open a tequila bar?'" explains Ennis. "Before I knew it, my dad had helped negotiate a deal to buy a woman out of a lease. My dad still claims he invented the name El Bandito."

By then, the pair were in talks with old schoolfriend Nick Thomas about opening Salt Dog Slims. "It was meant to be a smokehouse restaurant with a bar and a speakeasy downstairs, but the whole place was tiny, I don't know how we thought we were going to do two bars and a restaurant in there," says Ennis. "We abandoned the restaurant bit, but when we opened that bar, we couldn't believe the hype around it. Both downstairs and upstairs were full within an hour of us opening."

New restaurant on the Liverpool scene

Much of GSG's success is due to timing, believes Farrell. "It was the perfect time to be part of bringing that Ropewalks area of Liverpool to life. If you go there now, a lot of the city's nightlife is there.

"There wasn't really much [back then]. But with our portfolio being as diverse as it is, we've been able to bring a lot of what the city needed and helped grow the independent scene. We're from here and we know what people want and what they're missing. It's been good to be a part of that."

Some 14 years on from that first opening Farrell and Ennis are now all grown up and have spent the last few years diversifying into speciality coffee shops, a food market and now fine dining restaurant Nord. Before Covid hit, the group was searching for investment. "We were going to look at El Bandito and roll out more bars, but that didn't happen due to timing, so we shelved it," explains Farrell. "But we did acquire Bold Street Coffee. And Covid gave us a chance to restructure and look at what we needed to move forward and match where we were, culturally, as people."

After 13 years of trading, Santa Chupitos, which was "coming to the end of its lifespan", became Manolo, switching bottomless pizzas for high-end speakeasy-style cocktails with a Caribbean twist. Meanwhile the Bold Street Coffee purchase proved astute: "The original shop takes pretty much double what it used to," says Farrell. A feat achieved with some help from Liverpool actress Jodie Comer, who hat-tipped Bold Street as "the best coffee in town". As a result of the success the group has launched two Bold Street Coffee sites in Manchester and a second in Liverpool.

Nord, along with the second Liverpool branch of Bold Street Coffee, is housed within the Plaza, an 18-storey office complex with waterfront views. It has undergone a £3m transformation by property provider Bruntwood Works to create a Pioneer workspace environment.

Farrell says: "We'd been in talks with them for a long time about coming into this space. We wanted to be part of the vision."

However, Covid put a spanner in the works. Farrell adds: "This building is the biggest office block in Liverpool, and it went from 4,000 people to hardly any. And it's not come back yet – it's probably still only around 1,500 because of hybrid working. We agreed to open Bold Street Coffee here [in 2022] because things were coming back to life, and for over a year it was the only thing open.

Head chef at Nord

Nord followed earlier this year after the search for a chef led them to Heffy and their partnership was cemented. Heffy's credentials include setting up Liverpool institution the Art School Restaurant with Paul Askew as well as founding the Secret Diners Club supper club and local favourite Buyers Club. He moved to Stockholm in 2017 to work at Michelin-starred Frantzén, followed by a stint at Adam/Albin, also in Stockholm, before returning to Liverpool.

"Dan liked the vision of where we were going – the ambition," says Farrell. "We were culturally aligned. It's going to take time, because you have no footfall really apart from people going into the office, but people like the charm of it, being quite hidden."

The core identity for Nord post-Covid is "a destination", says Ennis. "You wouldn't have got away with burgers and fries. It can't be a bistro lobby restaurant. It had to be impressive. Dan has wowed with that." Given all the challenges they've faced in growing their business, which now has a team of more than 200 and a projected turnover for the year of £12m, would the pair still go into hospitality if they were starting out now? "Yes. The costs and risks are huge, but it becomes your lifestyle, part of your fabric," says Farrell.

"If someone said they were going to buy me and Matt out and we could retire – the first thing I'd do is buy a bar with the money, God's honest truth," says Ennis. "I'd buy a bar straight away. I can never see me not owning a bar."

Chef Daniel Heffy on Scandinavian influence

Nord's menu is influenced by chef Daniel Heffy's time in Scandinavia, including two years at Restaurant Frantzén.

"You learn a totally different mentality," says Liverpool native Heffy about the Michelin-starred restaurant. "In those kitchens it can be brutal and harsh, but everyone's aiming for the same thing. You learn consistency, professionalism – all the words you associate with a good team."

Heffy then spent three years at Adam/Albin, "which already had a brilliant reputation, but more for casual high-end dining. Just before I left, we got the first Michelin star".

When Covid hit, they opened a summer restaurant called Ö, which means ‘island' in Swedish. "It was outside, with a blend of music and drink and food. I took a lot of influence from that for Nord. We're a big space, we've got a big bar and we need to create a great atmosphere."

Nord works with local suppliers daily. "We have a market fish and market steak every day and that's key; yes, that steak is going to be expensive but we can give you the whole background story – we know exactly how it was bred, what it's been eating – and all that information is key to what we're doing."

Nord serves 90, so the menu must be accessible, says Heffy, and crab toast is one of the most popular dishes. "We take the white meat of Cornish crab mixed with sour cream, dill, lemon, salt and pepper and serve it on butter-fried toast with pickled shallot with fennel. And the fact we have those market fish and steaks means we're always able to put a special on. We can bring new things in each day."

On the menu at Nord

• Wood-fired flatbread with truffle and kelp butter £7

• Charcuterie selection by North by Sud Ouest £7

• Cornish white crab, sour cream and fennel on butter-fried toast £16

• Liverpool Bay seabass crudo, potato taco, ginger emulsion and finger lime £13

• Beef tartar, tallow, almond andWirral watercress £16

• Green asparagus, wild garlic andJersey Royal cream £14

• Texel lamb rack, salsa verde and fresh onion £23

• Edge & Sons market steak Daily price

• Whole market fish Daily price

• Roasted Jersey Royals with café de Paris butter £6

• Hasselback portobello mushroom £6

• Duck egg crème brûlée £7

• Chocolate, olive oil and salted pecans £8

• Rhubarb and vanilla baked Alaska £16