JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, TYSON FURY & KEVIN HART CREATE THEIR OWN MENAGERIE MOMENTS

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, TYSON FURY & KEVIN HART CREATE THEIR OWN MENAGERIE MOMENTS

by | Sep 14, 2018 | Featured, Lifestyle & Entertainment, Uncategorized

A couple of weeks ago we experienced what has got to be one of my favourite, most unforgettable Menagerie Moments to date. While on the last leg of the European stint of his ‘The Man of the Woods Tour’, the legendary Justin Timberlake and his dancers came to party with us.

On the Tuesday night before Justin’s show at the Manchester Arena on the Wednesday, we got a phone call from one the dancers to let us know they were celebrating a birthday and wanted to come down to Menagerie. We organised somewhere private for eleven of them in the restaurant, but we never thought for one minute that Justin would be joining them. When they all came in, Justin strolled in casually and I think for a minute all of the staff, including myself and Helen were totally in shock and awe.

We showed them to their table so the celebrations for dancer, Maja Kereš’s birthday could begin. In true Menagerie style we had to go all out and show them how us Mancunians do turning one year older; cue an elephant strutting down our catwalk, with a birthday plate in hand, followed by me with sparklers to give the night that true Menagerie flair. As this was going on, Justin was just returning to the table and now it was his turn to look shocked. The troupe loved it and all wanted to get involved. It was an absolute honour to help such an amazing group celebrate a special occasion.

After a great night, the dancers invited us along to the show at the Manchester Arena as a thank you for making their evening so special. I couldn’t believe it, and I think I might have even said ‘YES’ before they could finish extending the invitation. What can I say – I’ve been a fan since the NSYNC days.

We thought that would be the end of it, but at 7pm on the night of the show, we got a call to let us know that because the whole team had loved everything so much the previous night that they wanted to come back and have their after party with us at Menagerie. With it being their last night in Europe before heading back across the pond, we wanted to make it a night for them to remember so they left our great city on a high. So before we headed to the show we planned the after party, booked fire performers and organised to have food and drinks waiting for them when they arrived.

After pulling everything together, Helen and I made our way to arena, and it’s safe to say we were a little more than excited. We went backstage to say ‘hi’ to all the lovely dancers thats we’d met the night before and then headed to the floor to see them perform. We were right next to the stage and at one point Justin was singing and smiling at us from the stage which was amazing and totally surreal.

As they arrived, we served up our Babydoll cocktail to welcome them in a style – if you haven’t tried this, it’s a deliciously sweet mix of red berry and mango vodka, vanilla and finished with a prosecco top for that added sparkle – it’s a must to get your Friday night started, or in this case, a Wednesday. As their tour DJ played popular hip hop and RnB tunes from our birdcage we served up sushi, tacos and sliders – a firm favourite with our customers. This was followed by our popular jewellery boxes of shots, which we sent out filled with our finest patron – I hope there were no sore heads the following day!

When I created Menagerie, I set out to make it an amazing place to work for all of my staff with an atmosphere like no other, and to see Justin’s crew teaching all my staff their dance routines was incredible – everyone was up and dancing together, including Justin and it’s something I’ll never forget.

We partied into the early hours and by Friday we’d just about recovered from the excitement, but it was a really busy day for me – I didn’t stop until about 8pm when I sat down for a bit of food in the restaurant. My plan was to head home after a bite to eat and get changed, put some makeup on and then head back to Menagerie for Friday night, but as we all know, sometimes things just don’t go to plan; however for the turn of events that night, I didn’t mind forgoing my plans. While I was eating, Tyson Fury and his friends arrived so I went over to say ‘hi’ to everyone. As the evening progressed, it was great to see them all having such a good time, so we decided to do one of our new signature champagne shows, ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ and asked Tyson to get involved. He was more than up for it, so Tyson starred as himself while Helen and I dressed up as Supergirl and the rest of the team joined us on the catwalk as rabbits. The wolf got up on the middle of his table and continued dancing – sparklers in hand.

Just as I returned to being Karina from my short but sweet stint as Supergirl, I got a phone call saying that Kevin Hart and the crew from Netflix, who are filming his latest documentary, wanted to come down. We set up a table for him and made sure we had plenty of Hennessy lined up for them – their drink of choice! He was such a great guy, really chilled and was telling us how much he loved Archie’s and wished they had one in LA. It was an eventful and fabulous evening!

Never in my wildest imagination did I expect the events of the last couple of weeks to unfold how they did. Thank you for making the last days of summer just as amazing as the rest have been guys!

THE LAST TWO YEARS | KARINA JADHAV’S MENAGERIE MOMENTS

THE LAST TWO YEARS | KARINA JADHAV’S MENAGERIE MOMENTS

by | Sep 3, 2018 | Featured, Lifestyle & Entertainment

We recently celebrated Menagerie’s 2nd birthday, which prompted me to reflect on my journey and what a whirlwind the past two years has been. I had previous experience in owning and operating restaurants with my ex husband, but I’d never done it alone.

My first big hurdle when opening Menagerie was getting all the men I worked with to listen to me. It was shock to the system to experience the difference when I stood alone without that male presence supporting my voice. It’s such a male dominated industry from fit out, to operation, to supply that sometimes I felt like I was being spoken over, but I did however receive massive amounts of support from my relationship manager at the bank and my board. It was the first time I’d had investors and I felt so fortunate to have such dynamic, successful people behind me who believed and supported my vision. Their guidance has helped develop and grow me into being the proud business woman I am today.


Our first year of business was turbulent. Hospitality was changing around me and customers expected more than ever before. Things had changed since opening my previous restaurant in 2013; guests wanted more than a bit of fancy dress, a bottomless brunch and a sax player.

I had set out to create an experiential dining concept and it took a lot of time to develop that to where it needed to be. We received a terrible review from the Manchester Evening News in our first year, which I never really addressed; but the untrue comments that were made caused a wave of cancellations, including some big events. It was a really low moment and was scary because when you’re running a business, you have other people’s livelihoods in your hands. But, everything that I’d been through had prepared me for these moments, so I kept my head down and looked for new ways to adapt the business and make it attractive to customers again.

When it came to my personal life, I learned the hard way who was there for me and who was there for the free ride. It cost me time and money; looking back I wish I’d put my foot down sooner, but it taught me an invaluable lesson in learning that true friends won’t push you to do things that will have a negative impact on you or your business.

Throughout 2016, we sat in an empty development and despite being close to Spinningfields, we were slightly off the beaten track so I learned to play on the brand’s strengths and focused on specific reasons to visit the venue – changing our entire approach and marketing strategy rapidly.

We’ve established ourselves as a real female focused venue catering to everything delicious, beautiful and entertaining – bringing it back to my original message of enjoying a Menagerie Moment – it’s all about an experience that only we can offer.

While reflecting on my journey so far, I thought about some of my personal highs, and some lows over the past couple of years.

I’ll start with the highs, because these far outweigh the lows. It might sound crazy but seeing the business start to make money and make a name for ourselves in such a competitive industry was amazing. There are so many big companies out there running multiple brands that I always see it as an achievement that we have made it this far and thrived.

We’ve had a host of famous faces come to the restaurant and sometimes I have to pinch myself when the likes of Dynamo, Perrie Edwards, Louisa Johnson and YXNG Bane have walked through the door. A highlight from this year has got to be seeing Beyonce’s dancers performing in sync on our runway. I cried tears of excitement and happiness, but also devastation as I was out of the country on holiday. I wanted to join in! But this will definitely go down as one of my Menagerie highlights of 2018. It’s also an amazing feeling to have big brands, who I admire so much choose us as their preferred venue to host events.

The most rewarding thing over the past 2 years has been getting to work with people who are like family and help me love my job – it’s a blessing I never take for granted.

Unfortunately, these 2 years have taught me that you can’t have the highs without the lows. At this point, I count myself lucky every day to still be here.

We had a quiet summer in 2017, but when trade picked up in the last quarter of the year I was living by the motto, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” and everything took a back seat, including my personal life, while work was my only focus. After a cold turned into a chest infection, and while I refused to slow down, I contracted bacterial meningitis in February this year off the back being run down and not taking care of myself.

My family lost my sister to the infection as a baby, so having me diagnosed 30 years later, I can’t imagine what it put them through. In the run up to being diagnosed I struggled to just function, so coming back after the infection had cleared made me realise how fatigued and weak I had been feeling for a long time. Recovery isn’t quick and with memory loss and difficulty concentrating and coordinating as side effects, I have focussed on getting my health back and my team have stepped up to help me with everything.

I’ve always been such a yes person, which could be seen a positive but in the past 18 months, but now I’ve learnt how to say ‘no’. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I quickly became aware who my true friends were and who were pressuring me to things, to so I had set boundaries to respect myself.

I just want to say thank you to all our lovely customers who have made the last two years ones I’ll never forget. Sharing the Menagerie story with all of you is so special and I can’t wait to make many more years of Menagerie Moments with everyone. I wouldn’t have changed anything over the past couple of years and I can’t wait to see what excitement and challenges are thrown my way in the next 2 years and beyond. Always remember to go after your dreams, because it far more scary not to.

 

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