Right, I’ve got two stories for you now. One is from when I was a kid, the other is from earlier this week.
The first one revolves around getting a chippy tea when I was about 9. We had two chippies near my house, an English one and a Chinese one. Friday nights were for the English (Fish, Chips, Mushy Peas) while the Chinese was for Sunday nights (Salt & Pepper ribs, half rice, half chips, prawn crackers).
Any time I had to trundle to the chippy though, list of desirables in hand, me mam would diligently butter some bread and butter at home – ready for whatever salty food I came home with.
Cut to this week and I was patiently waiting in Wolf At The Door in the NQ for a particular lovely lady friend to arrive before we would go to the theatre for a much needed injection of culture. Sat with a delicious pint of Omnipollo Sour I felt a bit peckish and so ordered their Grilled Malt Barley Sourdough + Sweet Onion Butter (£4.50).
It was one of the best decisions of my life.
Now, I think it’s clear from the spate of good press about the place that the food at Wolf At The Door is superb. If you’re looking for a meal that’s both innovative and moderately priced – coupled with some stunning cocktails, then you’re not going to find anywhere better in the city to be honest.
But as I smeared that sweet, sweet onion butter onto that warm, fluffy bread and took a bit – I was in heaven. At that moment I didn’t need anything else in my life. Just bread and butter. It took me back to me mam smearing tonnes of Lurpack onto Warburton’s Toastie as a kid but was around a million times better.
The Grilled Malt Barley Sourdough is a revelation. Crispy, fluffy and soft – it has an earthy taste that works wonderfully with the slightly sweet and creamy butter. The butter itself is worthy of a thousand love notes, a concoction that could end wars and bring peace to the entire planet if it was used as a negotiating tool. This stuff is MEGA!
So I wolfed it down – really, really quickly. And now I’m thinking about it – a lot. If you’re not convinced by the rest of the menu, the great cocktails or anything else that Wolf At The Door has thrown at you – you’ll be convinced by this. Trust.
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Wilderness 30-32, Thomas St, Manchester M4 1ER
wildernessnq.co.uk
