The home of the now-famous 22” pizza pies and slices is opening a new restaurant at the corner site of Manchester’s newest city centre garden neighbourhood.
Serving up its much-loved and best selling Original Cheese, Do You ‘Roni Honey?, and Vegan Deluxe pizzas to hungry Mancunians, Nell’s at KAMPUS will feature a restaurant where you can make bookings for groups of all sizes, a bar, and also stand-alone ‘Slice Bar’, so people can pop in for a quick slice on-the-go all day and late into the evening.
Of course, while the best-sellers are on the menu, there’s also some new additions to the new restaurant site, including a range of snacks and signature cocktails to join the pizza line up.
Famous for the attention-to-detail in the dough, and not content with just repurposing the 48-hour dough used for their pizza, Nell’s founder Jonny Heyes went back to the mixer and developed a new focaccia-style dough, baked and topped with either Nell’s signature marinara, extra garlic and basil or with rocket, burrata and crushed pepper.
The home of the now-famous 22” pizza pies and slices is coming to KAMPUS / Credit: Instagram (@nellspizza)
Nell’s new location at KAMPUS will keep its title as one of the best beer slinger in the city with 17 lines pouring a selection of house beers, rotating specials from visiting breweries, and some local favourites, as well as a wine list that’s made up entirely of wines you just want to drink, in large glasses, all night.
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The Nell’s team has even developed a new cocktail menu for the KAMPUS opening too, with three signature cocktails – Nell’s Sbagliato, Nell’s Spritz, and Nell’s Sour.
And if you’re really looking to get the full Nell’s experience, then make sure to keep Sunday free in your diary, as Sundays will be all about bottomless slices, bottomless drinks, and DJs, as part of the launch of ‘Sunday Pizza Social’.
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Bookings for this can be made online or in house, with tables for large groups available.
Nell’s NY Pizza & Bar opens at KAMPUS on Friday 5 November / Credit: KAMPUS
Nell’s at KAMPUS takes the place of Cornerstone – the pub which owners Jonny and Charlotte Heyes had planned initially for this space – and to give a little more insight into the change of plan, Jonny said: “We decided to make a change from our original concept for KAMPUS – it wasn’t an easy decision, but we felt like so much had changed since we began this project at Kampus and Cornerstone started to feel like a ‘pre-COVID’ idea, which of course it was.
“KAMPUS had been intended as the first ever Nell’s, but in fact we’re already now operating at two sites.
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“So much of our focus over the last year has been on Nell’s, so we thought it didn’t make sense to have it playing second fiddle to Cornerstone.
“Now felt like the right time for Nell’s to step out of the shadows and have a place of her own.”
Northern bakery with Greater Manchester pop-up fires back perfectly at ‘bigots’
Danny Jones
All of us were no doubt hoping to start off 2026 on a completely positive footing, but we were gutted to see some of the messages and comments received by cult Northern favourites, Finch Bakery – still, at least they responded in a pitch-perfect way.
Who doesn’t love a good comeback?
In case you haven’t seen the story yet, Lancashire-born independent business Finch Bakery were met with a series of what they have quite rightly dubbed as “ill-educated, bigoted conversations” with a number of users on social media over flagging that lots of their food is halal-friendly.
Surely just a bonus and therefore a good thing across the board, right? Well, you would think so, but unfortunately, the beloved indies were still somehow met with backlash.
Sharing their reaction in the caption to this post, sharing a glimpse at some of the remarks they received, Finch Bakery wrote: “Just in case anyone was wondering why we’re halal-friendly: we have Muslim friends. We want to be inclusive.
“Everyone deserves to be able to shop where they want based on dietary requirements, whether that’s for religious or cultural reasons, allergy or intolerance purposes, sensory reasons, or digestive disorders.
“And we will continue to try and provide a selection for all of these people as long as it’s safe for us to do so (like our lack of a GF kitchen means we cannot provide gluten-free items). It also makes business sense to try to cater to as many people as possible.
“If you’re going to slide into an inclusive business’ DMs and then immediately block them, don’t think I won’t come for you. Yes, I’m 34. Yes, I’m a mum of 2. Yes, I’m a grown-up (apparently).”
The response to the messages, which left the team and countless others among their customer base ‘rolling their eyes’, continues: “You don’t have to agree with something to respect someone’s choices. Especially when we’re not adding any meat products into our brownies.
“We will and always will be inclusive for a wider group of people, and we are proud to be halal-friendly. If you don’t like it. Please unfollow.” Well said, guys.
The bakery itself was founded by two twin sisters, Rachel and Lauren Finch, who are now approaching more than a decade of success since opening their first proper location in Great Harwood near Blackburn. They now have pop-ups as part of the Selfridges chain.
We also enjoyed how they used it as an opportunity to simply show more of their stunning menu, which – while not fully Halal Certified – has extensive disclaimers and signposting towards what is appropriate for different diets.
Many of those individuals in question are said to have unfollowed the brand on Instagram; however, their hundreds of thousands of fans across the North West and online have sent plenty of love and praise for how they handled the situation, not to mention respecting other cultures and life choices.
If you want to show your support for a brand doing things right, which also happens to be bloody delicious, go and try some of their brilliant bakes at their site in The Trafford Centre.
Featured Images — Finch Bakery (via Instagram)/The Manc Group
Eats
A restaurant dedicated to all things truffle is opening in the Northern Quarter
Daisy Jackson
A new restaurant and takeaway with a menu dedicated to truffle-infused dishes is opening in the Northern Quarter.
Mother Truffler is set to open on Tib Street, taking over the former Kingfisher chippy (which we didn’t even know had shut down).
Signs have appeared in the windows of the corner unit, which will count venues like Siop Shop and Ad Maiora as neighbours.
Mother Truffler has been successfully operating as a dark kitchen with glowing reviews on delivery platforms, but is now venturing out into its first bricks and mortar site.
Based on their delivery menu, Mother Truffler will be serving a menu of different burgers, each one featuring a truffle-infused sauce.
And there’s a gap in the market for burgers in the Northern Quarter since the closure of Super Awesome Deluxe.
Founder Youssef Taha has been sharing updates of the renovation of the space, as work gets underway to transform the old chippy into a truffle restaurant.
The new website states: “Proudly crafting truffle-rich food in the heart of Manchester. Rooted in quality. Inspired by truffle.”
And menu items are set to include smash burgers with truffle mayo, chicken burgers with truffle ranch, truffle parmesan fries, and a range of other mouth-watering sides.
Emily Sergeant -
20th October 2021 
