There are plenty of places in Manchester doing live music alongside dinner. Not many build the entire room around it.
At Louis, the stage sits at the centre of everything, framed by low lighting, velvet curtains and tables positioned so every seat in the house offers a great view. It’s a space designed for long evenings rather than quick turnarounds, which is why its Live at Louis series on Thursdays has always made sense here.
Now, those Thursday nights are leaning fully into themed live music, with a rotating lineup built around three distinct moods: Studio 54 disco, Motown, and old-school jazz swing.
The Studio 54 nights take their cues from the original New York club, dialling things up with a more high-energy, disco-led soundtrack. Motown shifts things into something more familiar, pulling from the catalogue of artists like Stevie Wonder and The Supremes. Then there’s the jazz swing evenings, where a smaller band strips it back with Sinatra-era classics and 1950s standards.
It’s a format that fits Louis better than most. Since opening, the restaurant has positioned itself somewhere between a dinner spot and a full evening out – a place you tend to stay longer than planned because the atmosphere carries on shifting around you.
The performances come via a partnership with ALR Music, with singers including Yemi and Harriet joined by the restaurant’s house band. Yemi, who fronts both Untold Orchestra and Paradox Orchestra, brings that big, unmistakable presence you’d expect from someone so embedded in Manchester’s live music scene – soulful, modern, and hard to ignore. Harriet, a Leeds Conservatoire graduate, takes things in a slightly different direction, with a more classic vocal style that leans into the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse, and suits the room perfectly.
While the music sets the pace, the food is very much still part of the draw. The Italian-American menu runs throughout the series, built around dishes that suit the setting. Think house-made pastas like Rigatoni Alla Vodka and Truffle Cacio e Pepe, alongside larger cuts like Tomahawk and New York Strip that feel right at home in a room like this. Cocktails and wine do their part too – this isn’t a quick dinner and out situation.
Louis also leans into keeping things in the room. The restaurant encourages a no-photos environment to shift the attention back to what’s actually going on – the band, the food, the people you came with – rather than documenting it, which is really what these Thursdays are about.
If you’re after something that sits somewhere between a restaurant and a night out, with a soundtrack to match, Thursdays at Louis are shaping up to be exactly that.
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Italian Live music
