The impressive looking Croma Italian restaurant tucked off Albert Square down Clarence Street was, in the swinging '60s, Avenida. This club gets a very brief but specific mention in an article about the famous Blue Note club which used to stand next door to Pubs of Manchester HQ, the Waldorf, on Gore Street [1]. It looks like this place was also known as Auntie's Kitchen at some point as well [2].
Auntie's Kitchen, Clarence Street. (c) ManchesterBeat.
1. www.soulbot.com/bluenote.
2. www.manchesterbeat.com.
Aunties Kitchen was a wonderful place in the early 70s! My friend and I used to go every Saturday. The music was Roxy Music, David Bowie, Uriah Heep, Focus etc and the dance floor was very tiny. We would go to the nearby Duck Inn and smuggle a bottle of Carlsberg specials in our handbags,open them using the ladies toilet door and hide the empties in an airing cupbaord. If you got in before a certain time, you got a free meal ticket pie/sausage/ or something with chips. We turned up one night and there was a crowd of people outside - crying. Aunties had shut down. No warning - just shut. We were devestated and never did find a place like that ever again. We tried a place called 'Pipers' for a few weeks and then 'Waves' (Maybe Danzic street) but it was never the same - and music was hideous. I think George Best bought Aunties at one point and I seems to remember the name 'Blinkers' or French something.
ReplyDeleteI used to do a bit of DJ'ing at Auntie's Kitchen around 1971/2. I even met my (now ex-) wife there.
ReplyDeleteI remember it for the moussaka, too.
I used to go to the avenida back in the day
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ReplyDeleteI remember the cockroaches, I worked in the Shipping Office above now the Croma Restaurant didn’t stop going in at night time though happy days.
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