Cane and Grain, Manchester

What do you get if you mix the folks behind the Liar's Club, Blackdog Ballroom and Dog Bowl together, add a heart stopping amount of rum, meat and beer, and pop it in the Northern Quarter? You got it. A new 'down with the kids' rib joint called Cane and Grain. Please don't assume that this is a bad thing either - on the contrary.

I actually went here the week it opened, but due to a heady mix of laziness, melancholy and work based mania, I have been a little absent from my blog. But fear not, for I have returned full of tales of meat and the general excess you have become accustomed to.

My friend Emma and I popped into Manchester on a school night to sample the above mentioned ribs. I was expecting something half decent, albeit cut from the same mould as the likes of meat-fests Reds, Solita and Beef and Pudding. We were pleasantly surprised to find it had a bit of a personality all of its very own.

Source: Cane and Grain

We were instant fans of the atmosphere and friendly staff. Our waitress Emily was an absolute darling, and went through the menu in animated detail - paying special attention to the yellow sauce. We ordered a nice bottle of Pino Grigio and deliberated over the type of ribs to order.

Eleven inch rib roll, Carolina slaw, pickles, fries and porter beer bbq sauce: Gee whizz. This was a behemoth. Look at it. This could feed two people! It was packed with juicy meat and crunchy coleslaw.

Beef short rib with fries and bourbon yellow cue sauce: I don't mind telling you that I only ate one rib's worth of meat. I was demolished, it was not. Emily wasn't wrong about that tangy yellow sauce either! I loved the fact that the ribs came served with tiny pickled vegetables too.

Look at the inside of that rib... This was easily up to the standard that I would have expected from barbecue experts like Reds.

Sides: apple and gingernut slaw, mac and cheese, dill pickles, smoked pit beans and burnt ends: We were all about the sides. This is what I love about barbecue restaurants! A good mixture of meat and sides is like a tasty version of tapas. I'm easily bored by standard tapas...

This is the ideal food to share in a group, with the added bonus of more people equals more sides. We barely dented the vast amount we ordered, but that massive rib was kindly packaged up for me to take home! The food was fantastic, the staff were equally as wonderful and the atmosphere was bob-on. Go to Cane and Grain and enjoy a bit of everything with friends.

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Disclaimer: I was invited to sample the menu by Cane and Grain, but was under no obligation to rant and rave about their wonderful ribs. I have done that because they were genuinely smashing!