Tag Archive for: cocktail

As the leaves change colour and the days draw shorter, Chef Patron Simon and Head Chef Antony have introduced our new restaurant menu, celebrating flavours and techniques which are perfect for the time of year, all using the very best ingredients.

As the weather warms we’re introducing some sizzling hot new Sunday deals. Build your own option for two: enjoy our meat or vegetarian sharer boards, add an exclusive a roast meat of the day, and select a pair of matching cocktails!

It’s time to unveil our new restaurant menu and bar drinks list to celebrate spring. The team have updated the dishes and drinks on offer, celebrating seasonally-available produce and the very best ingredients we can source.

Great news for graduates! We’re open throughout Mondays – including lunchtimes – on Monday 10th, 17th and 24th of July, specifically to provide the perfect option for a graduation celebration in style with friends and family. Of course it’s also another option for anyone to enjoy sun-soaked lunches on Monday, including from our popular new Menú Rápido.

El Gato Negro is the ideal location for celebrating graduation on any day of the week, enjoying our acclaimed food and drinks in the surroundings of our beautiful award-winning restaurant. Plus there’s a free glass of cava for the graduate with any pre-booked table, to add some extra sparkle to the celebration and toast their achievements.

We’ve even created an exclusive cocktail for the special occasion, available throughout July. The Graduation is a mix of raspberry-infused Manchester Gin, cherry-infused bourbon and cava, garnished with raspberry dust, coconut and bourbon-soaked cherry. At just £8.50 this is bound to graduate with first-class honours!

For more information or to book a table, please phone our dedicated host team on 0161 694 8585 or book online.

The Graduation Cocktail at El Gato Negro

This weekend sees the return of the fabulous King Street Festival; a celebration of shopping, food, drink art and live music. It’s running along the whole length the street which lies at the heart of Manchester city centre, on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th June.

El Gato Negro building frontage

We’ll be joining in the festivities alongside our fellow neighbours and traders. Chef Patron Simon Shaw will leading the street activities outside; look out for him and the team cooking al fresco, serving two special festival dishes, ready to enjoy at our pavement seating area, indoors alongside our menu, or to takeaway!

  • Chorizo, red pepper aioli and caramelised red onion sandwich £6 
  • Chargrilled vegetables with giant couscous and a salsa verde dressing £5

Our usual outside dining space will extend across King Street for the weekend weekend, so more diners can enjoy the fun of the festival from a prime position.

Our King Street Cooler for the King Street Festival

We’ll also be serving up a recent cocktail classic which celebrates our home: the King Street Cooler. Created with Midori, elderflower, apple, mint, cava & soda, it’s a vibrant, light and refreshing beverage to enjoy, day or night. El Gato Negro festival opening hours are midday onwards. Hope to see many of you there!

(Update) What a cracking weekend! We – along with hundreds of happy customers – enjoyed the weather and the atmosphere on Manchester’s best street alongside fellow traders and businesses!

Here’s a guest blog from Garry and Adam, highlighting the two bespoke cocktails we’re serving up for Halloween this year in our top floor bar, The Black Cat.

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Pumpkin Reviver

This is an autumnal spiced riff on the classic corpse reviver. It’s just the thing for reanimating lifeless bodies on All Hallow’s Eve!

  • Ingredients:
  • 50ml Pumpkin Bourbon
  • 15ml Maple Syrup
  • 1 Clove
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar
  • 30ml Half and half (half milk, half double cream)
  • 1 small pinch of 5 spice powder

Home Made Ingredients

To make your pumpkin bourbon, find a Tupperware, or other vessel. Take a packet of pumpkin seeds and some bourbon (although any dark spirit will do i.e. Scotch, Dark Rum, Brandy) place both in to your vessel and leave for 2 or 3 days. For added flavour, grind up the seeds.

To make cinnamon Sugar – get 3 parts sugar and mix with 1 part ground cinnamon (if you prefer to use sugar syrup, add 2 parts of the cinnamon sugar you have just made to 1 part of hot water and stir until sugar has dissolved).

Method

  1. Add all ingredients in to a Boston shaker, or coffee flask if you don’t possess bar kit
  2. Stir for about 30 seconds without ice in order to help the sugar dissolve
  3. Add as much ice as possible to your tin and give a good hard shake for about 10 seconds
  4. Strain the drink in to a stemmed glass, with a coupe being the best option (wine glass will do!)
  5. Finish off by serving it on a crisp, clean autumnal leaf that’s fallen straight off a tree, adding a minuscule pinch of cinnamon on top, accompanied by a fresh pear.
  6. This drink can also be served warm, just add all the ingredients to a pan, keep on low heat and stir until the drink is warm.  Serve in a teacup with the same garnishes.

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The Black Cat’s Eye

A distinctly dark and otherworldly-looking cocktail, this imagines our mascot as a witch’s familiar, and provides a very different take on some classic elements for Halloween!

Ingredients

  • 40ml Bushmill’s Black Bush Irish Whiskey
  • 20ml Lustau Sweet Vermouth
  • 25ml Pineapple and Fennel Shrub
  • 10ml Egg White
  • 2sp Squid Ink

Method

Dry & wet shake before fine straining into a chilled cocktail coupe.

Garnish

Garnish with blueberry powder.

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El Gato Negro's El'spresso Martini When our talented beverage manager Garry Foy joined us, we knew he had plenty up his sleeve. Since then he’s been in his lab, playing around with some truly spectacular Spanish-influenced cocktails for his top floor bar. So we thought it would be good to share something from him, and get everyone in the mood with some Christmas cheer!

Here’s an exclusive look at one of Garry’s cocktails… a fabulous El Gato Negro twist on an espresso martini. It was a firm favourite during our recent tastings!

Why not give Santa an extra special treat this year and give his sherry a little twist with this Christmas cracker… the El-spresso Martini

Glass: coupe
Method: shake
Garnish: coffee beans

  • 25ml El Presidente Spanish Brandy
  • 20ml Condensed Milk
  • 25ml Espresso coffee
  • 25ml Kahlua
  • 10ml Pedro Ximenez
  • 5ml Demerera Gomme (sugar syrup)
  • Spray Lagavulin (1ml)

Add all ingredients, shake hard over ice and strain. Pour into a coupe glass, garnish with coffee beans and serve immediately.

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