Up In Your Grill

If you heard about, or were lucky enough to get down to any of Beat Street Manchester’s Friday Food Fights — then you would know that Up in Your Grill would be just as excellent. And it is.
The summer equivalent of Friday Food Fight, which brought Manchester something totally different that it hadn’t seen before, moved location from Upper Campfield market to Brownsfield Mill on Tariff St in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter.
Held every Friday night 5pm-​midnight and Saturdays 2pm-​midnight with free entry, it was a collaboration of Eats, Beats and Booze with local restaurants and street food heroes teaming up to show everything they had to offer.
Over the summer I have attended Up in Your Grill maybe 5 or 6 times out of the 10 weeks and with the 3 or 4 vendors who attended changing each week, every time felt like a different eating experience — and for the popular ones who did return, they varied their eats on offer .
A large indoor space lended itself well to the unpredictable Manchester weather on 2 of these occasions and the bar area, also inside, had much more space and had lots more on offer than at FFF. The music has also been excellent — with the DJs banging out some great summer anthems from the DJ booth.
I managed to try a lot of the vendors that attended Up in Your Grill with SoLita, Viet Shack, The Hip Hop Chip Shop and Mash Up MCR being amongst my favourites.
All in all, I haven’t been able to fault Up In Your Grill — and my raving about it even had a friend in London desperate to come to Manchester just to try it!
For most Manchester foodies this has been a place to visit often this summer, and with the newest concept ‘#BeatStreetTruckMeet’ rumoured to start in early October I’m sure the guys from Beat Street won’t disappoint.

I loved Up In Your Grill, it really reminded of one of my all time favourite events — Warm Up at PS1 in Long Island City. In fact, although it’s missing the world class contemporary art, Up In Your Grill is in every other respect preferable — great range of cheap cocktails (also a radioactive blue slushie margarita) and beers, street food (best spring rolls ever from Viet Shack), excellent DJ and the beautiful old factory building worthy of a Lowry painting. It was a treat to be able to go inside and I personally loved the hollowed out space. And best of all, like most venues in Manchester, it is not too crowded. Highly recommended, and entry seems to be free atm but even a few quid would be reasonable for such a pleasant experience.

A really good concept, perhaps let down by location? A tad difficult to find (at the very end of Tariff St), Up In Your Grill could do with more promotion. Otherwise, this is Beat St slimmed down but, I think, improved. I can only comment on the beer (excellent and not horrendously priced, although please I’ve had enough of flimsy plastic cups) and Holy Basil’s jungle curry. The latter of which I really do quite want to shout about from the rooftops: slightly disappointing in terms of meat content but offering a jungle curry that’s actually honest-​to-​god Spicy was a godsend. And for only a fiver! I’ll be back.
The music’s rather good too, especially if you like more electronic/​dance/​house-​type things. I don’t think anything else could possibly be appropriate in an old warehouse in the NQ…

Beat Street Manchester have moved to the Northern Quarter for their Summer pop up. The event is held every Friday and Saturday at Brownsfield Mill on Tariff Street. Luckily it was a warm Summer’s evening so we were able to make use of the outside space at the front of the mill where Diamond Dogs, Dolce Dolls, Patty Smiths and Love from the Streets were serving a mixture of burgers, hotdogs, Caribbean and Italian fast food. The traders change each week so you can have a different foodie experience every time you go. The selection of drinks were also good with cocktails costing £5.50. I have also found a new favourite drink, pomegranate cider.
However although this event is great if the sun is shining, I get the impression that it would be a bit of a let down on a rainy day. The mill is no where near as good a venue as their old stomping ground the Upper Campfield Market as it is very dark and sparse inside. To be honest it’s just like a big hanger and lacks any atmosphere.
I would recommend a visit to Up in Your Grill on a nice Summer’s evening.

The summer incarnation of Beat Street Manchester’s #FridayFoodFight, Up in Your Grill is being held every Friday and Saturday at Brownsfield Mill, just by Go Outdoors and Aldi on the edge of the Northern Quarter. Entry is free before 7pm, then £3 afterwards.
The space itself is clever; the Mill is, as you would expect, huge. The largest room inside is left empty, we presume for emergency seating/​standing if the Manchester weather stays true to form. Last night though was beautiful, so we could make the most of the outside area and last hours of the sunny weather we’ve been having.
You’ll only find ⁴⁄₅ vendors at these events, and they all serve from the same area — a large shipping container-​esque contraption, with the djs sat aloft of this, accessing their decks via a ladder I personally wouldn’t trust. Last night saw Mash Up, Honest Crust, Viet Shack, the Hip Hop Chippy, Nkona and Diamond Dogs serving up their meals.
We only had space for one due to some poorly timed meals earlier in the day, and it just had to be the Hip Hop Chippy. We went for their special and some onion blings, as they’d always run out by the time we visited at #FridayFoodFight. Deep fried potato scallops, chunks of ham, crispy shallots and mushy peas — wow. Heart attack waiting to happen, but at least you’d go happy.
Bar service was much smoother than previous events, with beer, cider, and a great selection of cocktails flying out. I had the bourbon based Hilly Billy Smash and a gin based Starburst Collins, both of which were nicely mixed, fruity but just alcoholic enough!
It’s dog and child friendly, so there’s a nice atmosphere — everyone’s there to eat some great food and enjoy their weekend.