City centre restaurant unveils its first residency venture

Residency restaurant The Cotton Factory opens with a soft launch today, June 27, in Locke Hotels’ Whitworth Locke, in Manchester, with an exciting new Mexican offering courtesy of pop-up favourites El Camino.

El Camino is the first of an ever-evolving food and drink offering at The Cotton Factory.

Starting this week the new restaurant will host an abundance of pop-up feasts with up-and-coming new food traders showcasing cuisine from all over the globe.

Local Mexican food specialist El Camino will begin its residency this week serving their signature tacos and tequila.

The team, which hosted its first pop-up in Urmston earlier this year, has created a bespoke menu for The Cotton Factory to include beer braised ox cheek tacos with chipotle aioli, red pickled chilli and crispy shallots, massa fried chicken tacos with red salsa and habanero aioli, plus vegetarian options including the chipotle cauliflower taco with radish, red chilli and sweet potato puree.

As well as tacos there will be a selection of big plates from the grill, including the rib-eye steak, pork chop or grilled sea bream all cooked on the charcoal grill with charred greens, ancho chilli butter and salsa verde.

The menu has been designed to share with sides including crunchy tortilla chips with fresh salsa and guacamole, corn croquettas with cheese and spring onion, and queso fundido (like Mexican fondue), plus El Camino’s hugely popular quesadillas with either beer braised ox cheek or sweet potato.

El Camino’s new food menu caters for both vegetarians and vegans, and will all be served with quality tequila cocktails plus a host of Mexican beers.

The Cotton Factory officially launches on Thursday, July 4, with an open plan kitchen and hidden private dining room.

The restaurant will be taking bookings for El Camino during its soft launch period which begins today, where diners can make the most of 50% off food when pre-booking a table.

While The Cotton Factory’s food traders will continue to change as each residency comes to a close, the main concept will always be to deliver great quality food, drink and music, with events and parties hosted by the team throughout the year.

The Cotton Factory, named after the mill it calls home, was created by The Initiative Group to enable up and coming food traders to showcase exciting new food and drink menus in the 78-cover restaurant.

The open kitchen allows diners to watch the chefs prepare their food from the seats at the chef’s table, while the open plan seating area gives customers the option of booths, benches, or the private dining room.

Youri Michel, Initiative Group director, said: “We have a great space at The Cotton Factory and it is exciting to have the opportunity to fill it with a variety of hungry young operators to create unique one-off experiences in the city. El Camino is a great first choice for the restaurant and we can’t wait to begin our first residency with their team.”

Scott Power, founder of El Camino, said: “We had a brilliant run with our first pop up in Urmston and this is a great opportunity to take our concept to the wider city centre audience with an experienced and creative partner that will really help us make a success of our first residency in town.”

Matthew Brierley, general manager at Whitworth Locke, said: “We’re excited to bring such a unique ever-evolving dining concept to Whitworth Locke.

“Collaborating with The Initiative Group to create something that reflects Whitworth’s ethos of immersing our guests in the city has been key to developing the right restaurant for the space. We have created the perfect opportunity to showcase the very best Manchester has to offer, over and over again.”

Previously a historic cotton mill, Whitworth Locke was transformed by acclaimed New York architects and designers Grzywinski+Pons. The finished development celebrates Manchester’s industrial past while embracing its dynamic and creative present and future.

The founding team behind The Initiative Group, originally from France, have launched and managed an eclectic range of hospitality outlets from five-star hotels to nightclubs in London and across the world over the past decade.