Liverpool’s award-winning coffee shop Bold Street Coffee has opened a site in Manchester on Cross Street, bringing its delicious donuts, breakfast buoys and chicken katsu curry butties with it.
Taking over a former Cafe Nero site on Cross street, the independent coffee shop and cafe is serving up top-quality brews alongside all-day breakfast, lunch and brunch dishes – ranging from full on fry ups to butties, an ‘on toast’ section, wholesome bowls and more.
Make no mistake, though, the special dish here has to be the buoys – a Bold Street Coffee signature comprised of scrambled egg with melted cheese inside a lightly toasted brioche bun.
Image: BSCImage: BSC
Essentially a breakfast burger, they’re priced from £5.95 for the most basice edition. You can then add in sausage patties, hash browns, bacon, avocado, mushroom, scrambled tofu, aubergine patties and more from a list of different variations, depending on what sort of mood you’re in.
There are vegan buoys, veggie buoys, and even a bad bouy (brioche bun, sausage patty, fried egg, cheese, avocado and hollondaise) if you’re feeling naughty.
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Elsewhere, you’ll find porridge, ‘super’ porridge, ‘Gaz’s granola’, vegan and veggie-friendly sandwiches, an ‘egg box’ section stufffed with the likes of granary toast, scrambled egg, melted cheese, avocado, tomato, bacon and sausages.
Whilst the food menu does sound spectacular, let’s not forget that Bold Street is known for its coffee – serving regularly-changing guest espressos and a house blend that they switch up every quarter.
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Hand-picked by baristas and roasted specifically for BSC, alongside a selection of sixteen different coffees on the menu you can also purchase everything you need to make your perfect brew at home – from aeropress, Chemex and V60s, to filters and pour-over kettles.
The only thing they don’t seem to sell (from the looks of things anyway) is a grinder and scale – however, you can ask one of the team to grind your beans to your own specifications when you pick up a bag (priced from £8).
Image: BSC
If you’re not a coffee fan, don’t worry, there’s still lots to drink. Think seven different types of tea, plus iced tea, kombucha (fermented tea), Lemon-Aid, Fritz sodas and Pago juices.
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There are even puppucinos and babbacinos available for your dogs and babies, so no one needs to feel left out at Bold Street Coffee.
Open from Monday to Saturday 8am – 6pm, and Sunday from 9am – 5pm, find Bold Street Coffee at 53 Cross Street.
Beloved plant-based independent street food business Herbivorous is set to close imminently
Danny Jones
We hate writing this, but we have news of yet another local hospitality closure as beloved Manchester-born and pioneering plant-based brand Herbivorous has confirmed they’ll soon be calling it a day.
If you can hear us sighing through the screen, apologies – we’re just getting really fed up of saying farewell to our favourites, so god knows how rubbish those involved feel.
As you can see, the team behind the multi-location vegan street food specialists began by writing: “It’s a long one so stay with me… It seems you can’t open social media at the moment without reading about another hospitality business closing down.
“Throughout 8 years of Herbivorous years we’ve come up against many challenges from Covid 5 years ago to watching all the big vegan brands from London and beyond come to Manchester and largely disappear again to the closure of Hatch our busiest site, but with continually increasing costs its becoming really difficult to maintain a thriving business.”
Herbivorous started out life back in 2016 as a cult hit at the old outdoor food, drink and entertainment hub centring around a ‘container village’, the first of its kind in the city and soon to reopen under new owners and a new name.
Since then, co-founders Robyn and Damian have gone on to expand not just to one permanent site over in Withington but with outposts in Sheffield and York, having gained a strong reputation with stalls and pop-ups all over.
Their hospitality story might not have the ending we personally would hope for, but it’s been a brilliant one for so many foodie fans – us lot included.
Nevertheless, they go on to add in the emotional statement that external pressures such as a recent bereavement and their own ever-growing family have also contributed to the decision which, despite being an understandably hard one, “feel like the right time.”
“We are so incredibly proud of how far we’ve come from spending long days slinging duck wraps from our green vintage horse box at festivals to three Herbi locations across the North of England”, they continue, “and with that we’ve also met so many fantastic people!”
“Whether you worked for us at a few festivals over [the] summer or for years at our restaurant, we just wanted to say and massive thank you! The memories will stay with us forever and, of course, how can we not mention our fabulous customers!
“Thank you all so much for choosing Herbivorous over the years. Those of you who had our food at Festivals and then found us at one of our permanent locations, those of you who came back week after week to Hatch, Spark, Withington and beyond.”
They signed off by detailing their final business days, with their Sheffield Kommune spot having already shut for refurbishment; meanwhile, their spot in SPARK York will be wrapping up on Saturday, 19 April.
As for their flagship brick-and-mortar venue here in Greater Manchester, Herbivorous Withington will be shutting on Friday, 25 April.
Once again, there’s nothing we can say other than thank you for years of delicious food, that we’re guttted to see you go, and that everyone at The Manc Group wishes you the best whatever comes next.
AJ Tracey is playing a VERY intimate gig in Manchester next month
Thomas Melia
London rapper and respected grime artist AJ Tracey is ‘live and direct’ once again, announcing a whole host of UK dates, one of which is a rather intimate gig right here in Manchester.
It’s official: one of UK rap’s leading gents is getting back on the road and he’s showing a ‘Little More Love’ to lots of cities, including Manchester.
In a post on the UK star’s socials, AJ Tracey trades his music persona for that of a sports pundit as he announces the dates for his upcoming tour while impersonating an F1 commentator.
Anyone looking to attend Tracey’s ‘Not Even A Tour’ can catch the star up and down the country on his over 20-date tour with a stop in Manchester as soon as this month.
The rapper has reached phenomenal heights since dropping the unforgettable ‘Ladbroke Grove’ in 2019 and is heading out across the nation to make sure everyone knows about it.
Get ready to spit bars left and right as this rapper’s discography is stacked with serious tunes like ‘Dinner Guest’, ‘West Ten’, ‘Thiago Silva’ and more.
More recently, he collaborated with Walsall’s finest Jorja Smith for a flirty garage beat also known as ‘Crush’ with the video being the two artists talking it out in a good old fashioned caff.
The latest collaboration with Smith marks the start of a new era for Mr. Live and direct as it fell in line with the announcement of his third studio album.
Titled Don’t Die Before You’re Dead, we’re sure he’ll be “building a vibe” wherever he goes and probably previewing a few exclusive tracks from his upcoming project too.
This gig may come as quite a surprise for any hardcore fans of the ‘Ladbroke Grove’ star as the venue in which he’s performing is definitely intimate only, holding just over 250 guests.
This rap giant is bringing his unbelievable beats to none other than the legendary small-cap city centre live music venue, The Deaf Institute, at the end of this month.
It’s safe to say you won’t get many more chances, if any, to see him in such a tight-knit space again.
AJ Tracey is bringing ‘Not Even A Tour’ to Deaf Institute in Manchester on 30 April, with tickets on sale Friday 4 April from 12 noon.
Georgina Pellant -
8th December 2021 
