Gusto has been given a new lease of life, with grills, negronis and a 'bar eleganza'...
“I got a glimpse of that restrained glamour, that sexy glamour of that era.”
Jamie Barber, angel investor seen on BBC2 and Netflix show My Million Pound Menu, is talking about the Swinging 60s. More specifically, he’s talking about Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Franco Zeffirelli, all people he worked with in his past life as a movie business lawyer, frequenting jet set hotspots like Saint-Tropez, Monaco and Positano.
It’s also, in a roundabout way, how we arrive at Gigi.
The new Italian grill room and cocktail bar is preparing to take over the former Gusto site on Deansgate, inside the grand Grade II-listed building that once housed the Manchester City Library.
This isn’t simply a rebrand. Gigi is being pitched as a bigger, more ambitious evolution of Gusto, with a new menu, a new identity and a much stronger emphasis on late-night drinking, music and old-school Italian glamour.
There will be steaks cooked over fire, handmade pasta, little pizzette (though not that little), a grand piano, DJs, Bar Eleganza and what the team is calling Manchester’s first House of Negroni.
For Barber, the ideas behind it stretch back decades.
“In my 20s, I was privileged to look after some of the iconic celebrities of the 1960s. Roger Moore, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Franco Zeffirelli,” he says. “I got a little bit of a glimpse of the glamour of that period. It was unbelievable.”
That sense of glamour feeds directly into Gigi, although Barber is keen to avoid anything too showy.
“With Gigi, I wanted to create something that tied in that glamour with my love of Italian cooking,” he says. “It’s not bling. It is very gently beautiful.”
His relationship with Italy started even earlier. Barber spent time growing up in Forte dei Marmi, the Tuscan seaside resort that had been a favourite of Italy’s wealthy and glamorous during the 1950s and 60s. By the time he knew it, some of the shimmer had faded, but that was part of the appeal.
“You could still sense the glamour. You could still sense the history, and that’s really what I fell in love with.”
Italian food became another obsession, particularly the country’s tradition of making meat the centrepiece of a meal.
“The meat in Italy is the showpiece,” Barber says.
“Everybody celebrates pizza and pasta, and that’s extremely important, but I really wanted to bring that essence of a glamorous Italian grill room to life.”
That job falls to Sam Astley-Dean, the Manchester chef whose CV includes Onda (yes, the Onda famous for his tiramisu drawer) and Lina Stores.
Astley-Dean is leading the kitchen at Gigi, with a menu built around British and Italian produce and, crucially, the grill (here he has a ‘meat drawer’ instead of one full of pudding). “It’s a grill room, so at its heartbeat everything comes over the grill,” he says.
The star of the show will be bistecca alla Fiorentina, the famous Florentine T-bone served thick, simply seasoned and cooked hard over heat. “These are coming in at about a kilo,” Astley-Dean says.
“They’re just treated really simply. Loads of salt, olive oil. The farmers and the butchers have done all the work. All we’ve got to do is cook it nicely and make people happy.”
The steaks will come from specialist suppliers including HG Walter, with larger cuts taking around 40 or 50 minutes to cook, so best to order as soon as you arrive.
That long cooking time is part of the rhythm the team wants diners to settle into. The idea is that you order some drinks, pick through smaller dishes, have a bit of pasta, then let the main event arrive when it’s ready.
Before the steaks, there will be cured meats, oysters, Cornish bluefin tuna crudo, beef carpaccio and grilled friggitelli peppers with whipped ricotta.
Small pizzette (well, not that small) will sit alongside a rotating selection of fresh pasta, with dishes including slowly braised beef shin, brown crab linguine and green casarecce with stracciatella and sausage.
“The menu is built for sharing, in the spirit of Italian famiglia dining,” Astley-Dean says.
“The dishes feel familiar, but the quality of the produce and the care taken in the kitchen make them special.”
The grill section moves beyond beef too, with lamb, chicken, Cornish fish and shellfish.
One of Astley-Dean’s hero dishes uses huge prawns, split down the middle and grilled before being finished with garlic, Calabrian chilli and house hot sauce.
There’s also monkfish wrapped in Parma ham with sage, a knowingly retro dish that fits neatly into the wider mood of the restaurant.
Then there’s the carbonara pizzetta, a particularly rich combination of crème fraîche, mozzarella and guanciale that Astley-Dean describes simply as “the filthiest”.
Food, however, is only half of what Gigi wants to be.
At the centre of the room will be Bar Eleganza, complete with a baby grand piano and the House of Negroni.
The drinks programme has been created by Errant, the Manchester bar consultancy behind Stray, with Negronis joined by Martinis, Sgroppinos and a considered wine list.
For Barber, the Negroni focus is another personal indulgence.
“We have this beautiful House of Negroni, purely selfishly designed because I love Negronis,” he says.
“One of the privileges I’ve got is to say to the bar guys, ‘I want to create a House of Negroni. Just go to town and make a fantastic job of it.’”
Bar Eleganza is intended to evoke the great Italian hotel bars of the 1950s and 60s, with live pianists, DJs and selectors helping the space evolve as the evening goes on.
Manchester-based WANT Studios has also been involved in developing the concept and entertainment programme, helping shape the way the restaurant, bar and music elements work together.
For all the Italian influence, Barber is keen for the finished restaurant to feel rooted in Manchester.
He repeatedly points to the local team around him, particularly Astley-Dean, and to the building itself.
Constructed in 1878, the Deansgate landmark served as Manchester’s City Library and registrar before later becoming Gusto.
“The building does the heavy lifting because it is so spectacular,” Barber says.
The interiors have been developed with Russell Sage Studio, whose previous work includes projects for Gordon Ramsay and The Savoy.
Rather than fighting the architecture, Gigi leans into it, with its high ceilings and grand proportions naturally suiting Barber’s vision.
There is also a conscious acknowledgement of Gusto’s history in the city.
“We have huge respect for where Gusto came from and the people who grew up with it,” Barber says.
“This is the next step on. More glamorous, more ambitious, and a proper night out.”
Barber’s own route into restaurants was anything but conventional.
After working in entertainment law, he went into business with Roger Moore and Moore’s son Geoffrey, opening Hush in Mayfair around 25 years ago.
That was successful enough to permanently reroute his career, and he has since worked across Italian, Japanese and Brazilian restaurants, as well as appearing as an investor on My Million Pound Menu.
GiGi feels like a collision of both sides of his life: the glamour and personalities of his legal career, and the quarter-century spent in hospitality since.
“I wanted, quite selfishly, to build a restaurant I want to go to,” he says.
“Somewhere I can sip a proper Negroni, share handmade pasta and pizzette, listen to great music and finish with a well-rested piece of rare-breed steak.”
That, ultimately, seems to be the point of GiGi.
You might arrive for dinner, but the piano is playing, the Negronis are still coming and there’s little pressure to leave once the plates are cleared.
As Barber puts it, every part of the place is designed around “the pleasure of eating, drinking and staying out”.
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