A Christmas cocktail trail is coming to Manchester, bringing together some of the city centre’s best independent bars for the ultimate festive booze-up.
Even better, it’s all for a good cause – with a percentage of the sales from each drink going to help local charity The Mustard Tree, which works to help Manchester residents living in poverty.
Put together by spirits brand The Public Spirit in partnership with some of Manchester’s top cocktail bars, the city-wide festive drinks trail will take you from Ancoats to the Northern Quarter, down Peter street, then onto Albert Square before finishing on Deansgate.
Bars taking part in ‘The 12 Serves of Christmas’ include The Jayne Eyre, NAM, Cocoa Cabana, Elnecot, Mecanica, Reserve at Mackie Mayor, La Collina, Feel Good Club, Haunt, Motley, Jimmy’s, and Speak in Code.
Each will work with either the Golden Aged rum or the salted toffee-flavoured Original Spiced rum to create winter favourites like rum hot chocolate, mulled wine, espresso martinis and more throughout December.
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The award-winning Ancoats rum company is already known for giving away a quarter of its profits to local causes including food banks, community projects and mental health charities.
Founded in lockdown by Manchester couple Olly Walker and Naomi Flaherty, the brand has community spirit at its core – as the name suggests.
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Now it’s doubling down for Christmas, having teamed up with twelve different bars for the Christmas cocktail trail – ensuring that each drink sold will provide a meal for someone in need in the city.
Co-Founder Naomi Flaherty said: “It’s the time for giving and good spirit, so what better than enjoying incredible drinks and helping others while doing it.”
“Over the festive period The Public Spirit has committed to donating at least 2,500 meals for people in the city with every bottle they sell giving four meals.”
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Co-Founder Olly Walker continued: “It’s so exciting to work with these fantastic venues and hopefully it can help us to smash our target. We can’t wait to try them all!”
Every drink sold on the Christma cocktail trail throughout December will give money to local homelessness and poverty prevention charity The Mustard Tree, which has three hubs across Manchester and Salford.
Food & Drink
Man replicates Manchester pizza restaurant’s loo in his own home
Daisy Jackson
A man has fallen so in love with the loos at a Manchester pizza restaurant that he’s recreated it in his own home.
Yep, while most of us spend our time trawling Pinterest or Instagram for our interiors inspiration, local Matt Hatt got his inspo on a trip to the toilet in town.
He was so obsessed with Nell’s vibrant orange bathroom interiors that he’s now created his very own cookie cutter version in his own house.
And Nell’s has been so impressed, they’ve even got stuck in to lend a hand with the finishing touches.
We are totally on board with Matt’s appreciation for a good restaurant loo – you can spend all the money in the world fitting out a dining room, but it really can fall apart if you head to a toilet with a wonky seat or a door that doesn’t shut or hideous fluorescent lighting.
Thankfully you don’t find too many of those around town these days.
From the ultra-luxury bogs around Spinningfields to the cheeky nude-covered toilets in the Northern Quarter, Manchester has a load of brilliant restaurant loos to explore.
One of the best is Nell’s, the New York-style pizza joint down at Kampus, which is painted a vibrant shade of orange.
Matt has nailed that bright toilet decor in his Victorian home in Manchester, down to the white subway tiles, the rounded wall mirrors, and the globe light fixture.
He even slid into Nell’s DMs to let them know about his project, and they offered to give him a branded pizza box, which Matt framed and hung on the wall.
Sharing his inspiration in a video filmed at Nell’s, Matt said: “If you’ve never been in a men’s toilet before, welcome. This is Nell’s Pizza in Manchester and this is the inspiration for our downstairs loo. Isn’t it fab?
Electrik Bar in Chorlton is giving away 100 FREE frankfurters to celebrate their latest kitchen collab
Danny Jones
We all love a freebie, so we thought we’d spread the good word of the scran lords by letting you know that Electrik over in Chorlton is giving away 100 free frankfurters to celebrate their newest menu takeover.
The popular neighbourhood bar and kitchen on Wilbraham Road in the South Manchester suburb has had a couple of different foodie collaborations over the past couple of years, with local residents Paramogeddon and Four Side Vegan Pizza being the most recent, but now they’re doing hot dogs.
Welcoming their latest vendors Tisch Und Teller, Electrik will be giving away a total of 100 free frankfurters to the first century of people there this evening.
Bringing a taste of Berlin, Bavaria, Frankfurt and more (with a Manc twist, of course) to the popular pub for the Thursday launch party, all you need to do is order a drink upon arrival to get your hands on a free frankfurter sandwiched between a lovely fluffy roll.
Who doesn’t love a hot dog? Especially when they’re giving them away.
As for Tisch Und Teller (TuT), they’ve been serving up German-inspired favourites from the likes of The Shakespeare in Manchester city centre and Nip and Tipple in Whalley Range since September last year, including some very impressive brunches and Sunday roasts.
But the brand just keeps gaining more traction and now they’re setting up shop in Electrik, we’re sure the word will continue to spread – and fast.
Better still, as advertised on the promo poster, not only will TuT now be serving up their delicious food from Electrik every Thursday-Sunday for the foreseeable but the launch party will also live music by local legend and DJing veteran, Abigail Ward of Ghost Assembly.
Free food, pints and top tunes – what more could you ask for on a random weeknight?
The offer will be available from 6pm tonight and, once again, you have to be among the first 100 people to buy a pint to be eligible for a free frankfurter.