I received some sad news a couple of weeks ago. My favourite Indian restaurant has closed down for good.
Nawaab, on Manor Row in Bradford, was closed the last time I was back home before Christmas, with a sign on the door advising that it was being refurbished. This was of course a disappointment at the time - mainly because I was hungry - but I looked forward to going back when I spent some time in Bradford over the Christmas holidays. I took a look at the place on my way to the tweetup at the Sparrow. I was gutted to find not only was it not open, but that the sign advising it was closed for refurbishment was gone.
I scrambled around for some optimism. "Maybe they replaced the windows and didn't put the sign back up," was about the best I could come up with. In truth, I knew deep down what the situation was, but didn't want to accept it. But I got the truth when I visited Nawaab's sister restaurant in the Bradford suburb of Tong.
I asked what was happening with Nawaab in Manor Row and was told in no uncertain terms it had closed for good. It transpires that the Nawaab restaurant group actually sold the Bradford restaurant - despite it being the original - three years ago. The new owners had been trying to get it to work but couldn't manage it. The waiter I spoke to blamed it on Bradford's city centre economy - or, to be more precise, the lack thereof.
If you're in any doubt of my genuine love for Nawaab, you can read my review on Tripadvisor, written in April last year. And I am genuinely sad that the restaurant's closed because I really, really liked the food. But worse than that is what it means for Bradford.
To be fair, Nawaab had been pretty quiet for a good few years. I remember going about ten years ago and it was packed to the rafters. They used to give a discount to Bradford City season ticket holders and on matchdays it was full of football fans on their way back from Valley Parade. Slowly but surely the numbers dwindled. On a few occasions our table has been the only occupied one. It was surely only a matter of time.
The top end of Bradford had been in decline for years - the relocation of Christopher Pratt's department store to the city east of Pudsey probably being the most devastating blow I can think of in recent-ish times.
But confidence seemed to be slowly returning to the area. Manningham Lane Retail Park - for years a scruffy hole of a place - got a full refurbishment and new tenants including Toys R Us, Dreams and Jollyes - not the most exciting of retailers, but better than Netto and Poundstretcher which came before them. The Sparrow Bier Cafe opened around the corner, and most recently a new wine bar, the Courtroom, opened on Manor Row. Added to the existing businesses - including furnisher Table Decor and coffee shop Feroni's, things seemed to be looking up,
It could even have been the stalled development of Westfield, at the bottom end of the city centre, that was making the top more attractive to businesses.
I'm sad that I can't eat my favourite curry any more (it's also worth mentioning that Gordon Ramsay-featured Prashad has left Bradford proper and moved out to Drighlington, a village with a Bradford postcode but in Leeds Council's area) but am hoping that it's not a sign of what will happen - again - to the area. With any luck, this will be an isolated incident and will not have an adverse effect on the surrounding businesses which have expressed confidence by investing in the area recently.
I damn well hope so.
Bradford's had more than its fair share of knocks. It really can't afford another.
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