As someone who wrote her dissertation on Shakespeare, the following news excites me greatly. A special Shakespeare inspired menu will be available for one week only (Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th October). Thank you to fellow foodie blogger, the gorgeous Sanj for the heads up. (You can read more about Sanj’s adventures around Manchester by clicking here.)
As Selfridges, Exchange Square in Manchester marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing, San Carlo Bottega, the chic Italian restaurant and champagne bar on the second floor, has announced the launch of a special celebratory menu inspired by the great Bard.
What’s so cool about this literary lunch? It’s a celebration of one of the world’s most beloved literary figures, in elegant surroundings no less. San Carlo Bottega is part of the award winning, Italian family owned San Carlo Group of restaurants, which owns and operates 17 restaurants in the UK and several overseas. I couldn’t think of a more fitting setting, could you?
From the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet to the comedic Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare set or included scenes in no fewer than *thirteen of his works in Italy, with Venice and Verona particularly favoured.
So where can you check out this fabulous lunch? Available for one week only from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th October, San Carlo’s Executive Development Chef, Filippo Pagani, who hails from Venice, has created a special Shakespeare menu for Bottega, which features authentic dishes, local to Venice or Verona.
Diners can enjoy the special menu accompanied by the melodic tones of a harp and flute duo from Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. San Carlo Bottega’s Shakespeare Menu includes:
Venetian Specials
Tuna Carpaccio £10.95
Baccala Mantecato – whipped salt cod crostini £4.95
Freshly made egg tagliolini with crab £8.95
Veronese Specials
Risotto all’Amarone with Italian ham £8.25
Bigoli pasta with wild spinach and Piedmonte beef cheeks £7.45
Gnocchi with butter, sage and Monte Veronese cheese £7.80
Pan fried Sopressa salami with balsamic and polenta £7.95
Desserts
Venice
Fritelle – sweet pastry fritters filled with apple £4.20
Baicoli and Zabaglione – sweet custard style dessert with Marsala wine and dipping biscuits £6.95
Verona
Mini Pandoro cake £4.95
Recommended Regional Wines
Prosecco, Santa Margherita Pino Grigio and Amarone
If this sounds like something you’d want to indulge in, hop on over to San Carlo Bottega, Level 2, Selfridges Exchange Square, Manchester. I may well be tempted to drag along my massive anthology of Shakespeare’s works (it weighs a tonne, so maybe not). I’m trying to shift a prior meeting to make this lunch, because listening to live music whilst lunching is the best way to spend an afternoon. I hope San Carlo Bottega have more of these literary inspired lunches planned, it’s such a quaint idea and one which I’d travel across the country for.
RAxx
*The plays in which some or all of the action is set in Italy are: All’s Well that Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Winter’s Tale. Keep in mind that some of these plays are not set exclusively in Italy.
*Image courtesy of My Manchester Diary. Check out her cool blog here!*