Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Love Saves The Day becomes An Outlet


The bad news about Love Saves The Day going bust (yes, for real this time) has a silver lining: an excellent new cafe has moved into its old digs in the Carver's Warehouse, the strange, ubermodern cube on Dale Street by Piccadilly basin.

An Outlet has left some things the same (shelves lined with posh groceries, a globetrotting soup and sarnie menu) and changed many others. The interior has been given a coat of black chalkboard paint and there was a short story about someone eating clams taking up most of one wall the day I went. There are also international newspapers, interesting books to peruse, and storyboard pads and pens should genius strike mid-pain au raisin.

It has a friendly buzz like the canteen of a busy creative firm, which is probably because it is effectively the canteen of creative firm Four23, which had just relocated upstairs when LSTD crashed and clubbed together with another tenant, engineering firm Martin Stockley Associates, to prevent the site from falling into the hands of StarbucksCaffeNeroCosta. Hard to imagine that lot being interested, though. The site is far too quiet, off in the cinematic no-man's-land between the Northern Quarter, Ancoats and Piccadilly. And thanks to their free wifi, it's my new favorite place to blog on the hoof.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God there's still going to be a cafe there, hopefully the coffee will be as good as LSTD. Me and my wife moved to Manchester from NY about 6 months ago and were made up when we discovered the great coffee at LSTD. We were so sad when it closed up, especially when we heard it was because of a bent accountant :-( Love live good independent coffee in the Northern Quarter!!!

Kate Feld said...

Andy, when I moved to Manchester from NYC five years ago finding the original LSTD on Tib Street made me so happy I immediately got a job there, ensuring continued access to good coffee and bagels. I am so sad to see it go.

An Outlet is not the same, but good in a different way. Now if we can only get them to brew their coffee in a pot the right way, I'll be really happy!

Unknown said...

I can't thank you enough for posting this. This particular refugee (from Melbourne) had actually been whoring himself out to Starbucks since LSTD closed. The Shame!

Good coffee and, even more importantly, a moocher-friendly vibe.