The Kampus neighbourhood in Manchester city centre is set to welcome a new bakery, florist and bagel shop hybrid as Bread Flower take charge of the Bungalow.
The business, founded by baker Maya Black and florist Scarlett Jamieson, will occupy the landmark building – formerly a security cabin and built on stilts – in the run-up to Christmas and beyond.
Visitors will be able to grab open bagel sandwiches to eat in or take away from the Kampus bakery, with menu items including salt beef and a bagel French toast.
Bags of Bread Flower’s handmade sourdough bagels will be on sale by the dozen or half-dozen.
The Bungalow at Kampus, which used to be a security cabin / Credit: Kampus
On the floristry side of things, Scarlett will be creating bouquets, wreaths and table centre-pieces to order, as well as selling smaller bunches in store.
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The Bread Flower bundles – featuring freshly-baked bagels, schmears (flavoured cream cheese), Manchester Smokehouse salmon (or a vegan carrot alternative) and hand-tied flowers – will make a return too.
New Christmas morning hampers will include added festive extras, like sparkling wine from Le Social, Blossom Coffee, and sticky buns. These can be pre-ordered and collected on either December 23 or 24.
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Open topped bagel sandwiches will be on offer in the Bread Flower bakery and cafe / Credit: Bread Flower
There’ll be an Indie Winter Market too, offering trading pitches to local businesses like Beaches & Cream, Shy Seagull and Prestwich Gin.
Maya said: “We’re really looking forward to opening the Bread Flower cafe in the Bungalow.
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You can order table centre-pieces and wreaths – or learn to make your own in a workshop / Credit: Bread Flower
“Kampus has been a home for us for a few months now, hosting various events like our supper clubs and yoga brunch, and of course delivering our bundles, but this four-week residency will be bigger and better than anything we’ve done before.
“We’ve got lots of lovely festive events lined up, like our Hanukkah supper club, Indie Winter Markets with wonderful local traders and weekly floral workshops too; offering what we hope is a genuine independent alternative for shoppers with delicious produce and unique gifts.”
The Bread Flower cafe at The Bungalow will be open from Friday 26 November until the end of January.
Its opening hours will be 8am to 2pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and 10am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Featured Image – Bread Flower
Food & Drink
A tiny new train station pub has opened at Manchester Oxford Road
Daisy Jackson
A tiny craft beer pub has opened at Manchester Oxford Road, making all those inevitable train cancellations a little sweeter.
The new boozer comes from the same team behind some of the UK’s best train station pubs, who already have bars at Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria.
The Oxford Road Tap has plenty of charming nods to its proximity to the great British rail network.
There’s the big red National Rail sign that they’ve restored and turned into a beer tap, an arch over the bar that mimics the shape of the station, and even a departures board so you can work out how many more pints you can squeeze in.
You’ll find plenty of British craft beers behind the bar as well as a great selection of European lagers, plus spirits and wines.
The bar from Bloomsbury Leisure Holdings Limited has taken over the former cycle hub at Manchester Oxford Road.
The small building is directly opposite the entrance to the busy train station on the southern side of the city centre.
The Oxford Road Tap pub is now open in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
This will be the third site for the pub group in Manchester.
They already operate the Piccadilly Tap, that two-storey beer bar on Piccadilly Approach with a heated rooftop space and outdoor patio.
The team are also responsible for the more recently-opened Victoria Tap, which took over the former bin store at Manchester Victoria.
That particular pub has a heated beer garden constructed just inches away from where the trams tootle past and has a departures board where time is measured by pints (got 10 mins til your train leaves? That’s one pint, sir!)
Enormous Manchester venue set to open (again) after brief rebrand
Daisy Jackson
A huge, glamorous restaurant and bar space looks set to reopen just months after it closed down and attempted to rebrand.
SakkuSamba announced back in June that it was closing for a short while to undergo a refurbishment.
That news came after two years hosting all-you-can-eat sushi dinners and star-studded parties in Spinningfields, like an afterparty with Ne-Yo following his show at the AO Arena.
They wrote at the time: “Exciting News! We will be closing our doors on June 2nd for an exciting refurbishment and upgrade. We’re sorry to be closing for a little while, but stay tuned for updates over the next couple of weeks as we begin this transition!
“We can’t wait to show you what’s coming next soon!”
But then SakkuSamba never reopened and the space instead became Raft, essentially Manchester’s most boujie buffet.
Raft had a huge dining room upstairs, a hidden club room, a ‘toilet disco’, 360-degree DJ booths, and a ‘coastal boozer’ on the ground floor.
The restaurant when it was previously SakkuSamba. Credit: The Manc GroupVs when it was Raft. Credit: The Manc Group
Raft was only open for three months when it was suddenly bolted shut, with a forteiture notice in the window that was apparently linked to a ‘historic dispute’.
And now, in an unexpected twist in events, SakkuSamba has shared that it’s coming back to Manchester.
Keeping up okay? Let’s continue.
In the first post since announcing the temporary closure and refurbishment of both of its restaurants (in Manchester and in Bradford), SakkuSamba wrote: “SakkuSamba 2025. Manchester keep your eyes peeled, major announcement coming soon.”
If it follows the same format it took previously, that means a fusion of Brazilian and Japanese cuisine together in a swanky all-you-can-eat setting.
And hopefully it’ll last longer than poor Raft did…
Daisy Jackson -
16th November 2021 
