After three years, Tom Kerridge is stepping away from The Bull & Bear, the restaurant within the Stock Exchange Hotel on Norfolk Street, co-owned by Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and hotelier Winston Zahra. The partnership between the hotel, which recently received the accolade of ‘Best Hotel in Manchester’ in the This Is Manchester Awards, and the restaurant is expected to end in January.
In a joint video statement on both the Stock Exchange and Bull & Bear social media pages, Gary Neville, said: “Looking at what the hotel needs are and what the Stock Exchange requirements are…that sometimes screams against the requirements of what the FMB operation does here, in terms of room service, in terms of guests and other things.”
Tom Kerridge added to Gary Neville’s statement, saying: “There’s been some major difficulties we’ve all known about, and since opening and closing for Covid (and Manchester was hit the hardest during the Covid period), moving forward the operation has had to change. And what we’ve found is that The Bull & Bear has not been able to open as a seven day business, but the hotel, the Stock Exchange, is [open] seven days and is going from strength to strength. So, we find the two businesses are now beginning to sit slightly different in those positions.”
The news of this partnership ending comes after The Bull & Bear announced an affordable two-course £15 menu in early autumn. The two businesses have shown a number of achievements over the past few years including The Bull & Bear being voted one of the best spots for a Sunday roast and the Stock Exchange Hotel recently opening Sterling, a cocktail bar located in a bank vault beneath the hotel run by the same team as Schofield’s Bar.
Tom Kerridge comments: “Gary and I have jointly agreed to end our partnership at The Bull & Bear within the Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester and will part ways on the 31st December 2022. It follows a three-year successful partnership with GG Hospitality which has seen the hotel go from strength to strength with consistently high occupancy rates.
“We feel the need to concentrate on our Marlow and London sites and this allows us to look at further opportunities within these areas, therefore we have mutually decided to part ways. We would like to thank all our guests for the amazing support they have given us, and all staff have been offered roles elsewhere within the business and Head Chef Connor Black is returning to Australia where he worked for several years. We wish GG Hospitality and The Stock Exchange all the success in the future.”