The story
Next Door occupies a 17th-century timber-framed building on Main Street. It was once Vicki’s family butchers – H E Coward still trades a few doors down. The name comes from the early days, when Richard and Vicki lived literally next door. They opened in spring 2017, and the restaurant remains independent, personal, and deeply rooted in its community.
Richard started his career in London, then cooked in France and the Caribbean before returning home. Over 18 years, his love for food, culture, and cooking shaped him. Vicki grew up surrounded by bakers and butchers; at 16 she entered hospitality and later moved into wine, taking sommelier and management roles at prestigious restaurants. At Next Door she designed the experience around the table. The room is small, service personal, and the pace unhurried.
Menus change with the seasons. Produce arrives from Cheshire and around the British Isles; the kitchen works with whole ingredients, using them with intention. Three options are available:
Seasonal contemporary British cooking is the style. The kitchen accommodates allergies and dietary needs with notice.
Next Door has earned a Michelin Recommended listing for 2026 – a mark of skilled, thoughtful cookery. Confidentials Manchester noted the “cultish buzz” about this neighbourhood restaurant, adding, “when the locals are beaming with pride, you know they’re onto something.”
The restaurant runs regular events: a monthly Chef’s Cook Book Club with live demos, a seven-course Chicken & Champagne tasting, a shared Community Table for 12 guests, and preview tastings of new menus. These gatherings reflect the restaurant’s ethos – bringing people together around good food and drink.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Richard and Vicky Nuttall do indeed live ‘next door’ to their restaurant – a 17th-century timber-framed building that was formerly a butcher’s shop owned by three generations of Vicky’s family. She runs front of house and does sommelier duty in the dining room – an airy space with crooked timbers, plain tables and watercolours on the walls. Richard, meanwhile, has cooked in some big kitchens, and his experience shows in a concise, pared-back menu of up-to-the-minute dishes with just four choices at each stage. Seasonal ingredients are deployed with deftness and imagination – smoked eel with lettuce, chicory and sloes, for example, or venison bresaola accompanied by pear, brown butter and parsnip. Meat from Cheshire farms is a big feature, as in dry-aged fillet of beef with ox marrow bone, heritage carrot and leeks or a pork chop embellished with quince, kohlrabi and sorrel. It's also worth ordering a couple of sides such as parsnip purée topped with crushed hazelnuts or chips cooked in duck fat (‘delicious, although there were just four of them, which works out at over a pound per chip'). Desserts keep it modern with assemblages such as cinder toffee with salted caramel and oats. A short seasonal wine list kicks off with house selections from £24.
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