Over the weekend, my phone was flooded with messages from friends. They all wanted to know about one thing.
Manchester's newest pop-up diner has been making waves well beyond our city limits. The new eatery has been going viral for, well, a number of reasons.
Last week, the team behind Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In launched their new city centre burger joint, Humbug. In short, the focus is on sustainability, with ‘nose-to-tail’ burgers, alongside mushroom popcorn and - gulp - a £40 deposit (we'll get to that in a moment).
The restaurant has grabbed attention mostly for comments made by chef Sam Buckley, who told one outlet that the concept explored ‘the notion of fast food in a social and historical context’. McDonald's this is not.
It prompted accusations the project was ‘performative’ and ‘pretentious’. To be fair, I don’t think his comments really do much to quell such arguments. Memes and posts on social media left the Great British public in mixed minds about the concept.
"Everything's so performative," one person responded, whilst another described it as 'pretentious nonsense' that they felt only served as 'an excuse to overcharge the consumer'. On the flip side, others said it was a 'powerful concept', a 'great way to reconnect people where their food comes from' and, pardon the pun, 'real food for thought'.
But pretences aside, there’s actually a lot to like about the idea behind Humbug. According to Sam, all 1,200 of the burgers sold will come from one Cheshire-bred Red Poll cow named Maraschino - with the patties made from prime cuts, offal and everything in-between.
It certainly opens up a much-needed debate about the sustainability and over-consumption of meat - but whether that message has been effectively delivered is yet to be seen, in my eyes. And a £40 deposit per person certainly doesn't help.
Instead, it leaves me with a sense of frustration and resentment before I've even walked through the door. In the current climate where we hear countless times from owners about bookings which come and go in the blink of an eye, I am not against deposits in restaurants. They keep things running and offer a level of security to the venue but, in saying that, £40 per person feels a bit steep - especially for what is essentially a burger and fries.
But, hey, many customers love exclusivity and it certainly adds to that - and there are enough people prepared to pay for it. Either way, one way of looking at it is that I’ve already paid for my meal before arriving, but, with it being January, none of my friends even consider joining me once I mention the deposit, so I end up with no choice but to try Humbug out on my lonesome on a cold Tuesday night.
Billed as act two of Play in the City, a three-month residency challenging ‘how the city feels itself and the true cost of food’, the burger joint is situated within the KAMPUS neighbourhood (look for the neon green burger sign next to Nell's).
Arriving, I'm greeted by the chefs and the servers who take me to my table and explain that, seeing as I have already paid my deposit, I could opt for the £40 happy meal - basically everything on offer - or pick and choose from the menu, which is essentially two burger choices (a Hamburger or a vegetarian humburger both at £12.50 each). There's also sides, like onion rings, Lion's Mane or Carlingford Oyster popcorn and fries, ranging from £4.50 to £9, as well as an assortment of dips that are £2 each.
Trying to calculate the bang-for-my-buck, I ultimately just opt for the Happy Meal and go all-in. For £40, you get a burger, a pot of cheese sauce, fries, onion rings, popcorn, a dip of choice and a soft serve ice cream at the end. As I'm not a fan of oysters (and they're sold out anyway during my visit), I go for the Lion's Mane popcorn. Sharing my concern at not being a fan for mushrooms, my server says that actually they've got a meaty consistency to them rather than the distinct mushroom texture and flavour. We shall see about that.
Arriving at my table in about ten minutes, the whole order is served up on a tray - all individually in pots, with the burger wrapped up. It's a little overwhelming at first, but I soon tuck in and bite the bullet with the mushroom popcorn right away. And, actually, it's good - the Cajun spice adds to proceedings and the server was right in their thoughts on the flavour. It's got a meaty squish to it (if that's a thing), and I wouldn't have guessed they were mushroom if I hadn't known, to be fair.
The onion rings are a real highlight. Dusted with a subtle yet generous salt and vinegar powder, they are deep fried goodness and up there with some of the best. You'll just need lots of napkins to wipe your fingers with. The fries are nothing to write home about, they do the job just fine but they are a bit too salty for me - considering everything else on the tray is already so laden with salt.
Then, as a board glares back at me boasting the number '673' (we're counting down until the whole cow has gone), its onto the burger. It's flavoursome, rich and extremely juicy.
Whilst certainly not photogenic in any way, the toasted brioche, the onions and that pot of cheese sauce just elevate things even more. I also have a little pot of apple BBQ sauce which is smoky and sweet and just delightful.
And, it's at this point where I sort of feel the concept has worked. The backstory and process to get to where we are does give a whole new level of appreciation for the food in front of me. I want to take my time and enjoy each bite because, quite frankly, I don't want Maraschino's life to have been wasted (of course, there is another way of dealing with that but we'll do the ethics of meat-eating another time).
And I feel like that is what separates it from a good burger to a very good burger. Without that context, I could perhaps have eaten the very same burger and had a completely different experience from my meal. And perhaps that's what the chef and the team are trying to bring into question here.
Rounding off my meal, the soft serve is another impressive delight. It's dairy goodness, topped with butterscotch sauce and thick crumbles of biscuit. It's a sugar rush that I very much enjoy, even if the pot does have a picture of a cow staring back at me to try and make me question what I have done.
Having well-and-truly spent my deposit, I end up needing to pay just over £10 for my drink and the service charge, and I do think the price is a little extortionate for what you get.
I'm not feeling so sour about the deposit now I've actually ended up paying over it, but £50 for a burger, some sides and an ice cream does certainly feel steep - especially when, as I'm waiting for my bill, ODB's 'Got Your Money' is playing on the sound system in a sort of commentary about proceedings.
Whilst it has made me come back with a newfound meaning behind the journey of my food, and given me some consideration for the over-consumption of everything, I'd have really rather appreciated those lessons at a fraction of the cost. But, that being said, it was a very good pretentious burger and perhaps not entirely worthy of the beating its taken online.
