Flawd team to relaunch Higher Ground as permanent restaurant in central Manchester early next year
Richard Cossins, Daniel Craig Martin and chef Joseph Otway launched Higher Ground as a four-month pop-up restaurant concept in early 2020 but the project was halted by the pandemic after just four weeks.
During the pandemic the trio - who met while working at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate New York - established regenerative farm Cinderwood Market Garden north west of Stoke-on-Trent in Nantwich. The farm now supplies a dozen or so venues in and around Manchester, including the trio’s neighbourhood natural wine bar Flawd, which launched in September 2021.
Located in Manchester’s trendy Ancoats area, Flawd offers a short menu of dishes based on top quality produce with only a handful of items served hot due to the site’s very basic kitchen and lack of extraction.
Despite these limitations, it has been well-received and - just last weekend - received a rave review from The Sunday Times critic Marina O’Loughlin.
“It’s all happened back to front due to the pandemic. When we first came to Manchester we had a vision of starting a restaurant and then doing something more casual a couple of years later. But the farm came first and the neighbourhood wine bar came second,” says Cossins, who is best known in the UK for senior front of house roles with Simon Rogan, initially at the first iteration of Roganic restaurant and later at Fera.
Finding Higher Ground
The trio completed on the space that will house Higher Ground last week. Launching in February and billed as a casual bistro, the restaurant will be on a prominent site on the corner of Faulkner Street and New York Street.
“It’s not where many people would think of putting a new wave ambitious restaurant. But that’s part of the reason we took it. We want to break the mould,” says the US-born Craig Martin, whose CV also includes a stint at Noma.
The corner site is 3,000sq ft and will seat around 50 covers. Design features will include floor to ceiling glass on two sides of the building and a large island that will be used by both the kitchen team and front of house to blur the lines between the two departments.
Higher Ground will offer a la carte but there will also be the option for guests to choose a daily menu to share.
The menu will showcase seasonal produce from Cinderwood Market Garden and other North West produces, with Otway having built relationships while head chef at Sam Buckley’s Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In.
The restaurant will be relatively affordable given the calibre of who is involved with the set sharing menu prices at £45 a person for five to six courses.
“We don’t feel now is the time to be opening a tasting menu only restaurant,” says Cossins. “Flawd’s success has shown that an approachable, neighbourhood concept works well. It actually makes us question our original thinking. Starting with a neighbourhood restaurant has been the perfect entrance to a new food and beverage landscape.
