Sunday 30 November 2014

...T'AINT WHAT YOU DO.......

" T'aint what you do..............It's the way that you do it.........
   That's what gets results............................................."

Last week we had lunch at Mr Cooper's House and Garden , Manchester , located in the Midland Hotel , food by the ' signature chef  ' Simon Rogan .

Food - excellent , really good and highly recommended ................

Value for money - excellent

Ambiance - bloody awful ; no warmth at all , no atmosphere - the lighting was dreadful.









Having a reasonable idea of who both the client and the designers are , I can guess that the design briefing went pretty much on the lines of ' This is the Midland Hotel , so you must respect the heritage and the fact that this is a grand hotel ........we need an interior to show that off '.................

Result - an uncomfortable and confused mash-up of ' fine dining ' and ' brasserie ' .

Leaving aside the question of the lighting for the moment , the problem for me is the positioning of the operation. Simon Rogan had already launched the ' French ' restaurant as the Midland Hotel's Flagship restaurant ; Mr Cooper's appeared some six months later offering a cheaper alternative , presumably to optimise the ' signature brand ' . This to me positions the customer as the ' poor relation ' to those who can afford the full dining experience of the French . Much better to offer up the operation as the best brasserie in Manchester , regardless of it's location , offering up a quality dining experience at really good value for money . The fact that it is located within the Midland should be an irrelevance .....................................

.............Just don't start me on the lighting ; I have seen better ambiance in car showrooms.. Where's the warmth , where's the fun ? Mr Cooper's House and Garden - there is a clue there , in the name , and it took me all of a couple of minutes to find these garden pendant fittings......






....................So just change the bloody chandeliers , for a start.............

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