In honour of British Pie Week, Marks and Spencer has created a steak and chips pie – and it looks absolutely amazing.
Admittedly, steak and chips are a winner any day – but this new pastry-encased version, released by the luxury food hall as part of its new gastropub range, has got customers beyond exciting.
Think all-butter pastry and succulent gravy-soaked braised beef, slow-cooked for two hours, then topped with tomato chutney and then loaded with proper chunky cheesy chips (in lieu of a lid).
Indulgent is not even the word.
Image: Marks and Spencers
First spotted by fans over on M&S’s Instagram account, the post was only shared with followers on Tuesday but has already gathered nearly 10,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sharing the news online, M&S wrote: “It’s Pie Week! And, we have a VIP update (very important pie!!)
“Launching tomorrow, THE pie for you to try – and only to be found at M&S! Our NEW Gastropub Steak AND Chips Pie is hitting the shelves!
ADVERTISEMENT
“Made with 2hr slow cooked braised cuts of British beef, with a layer of tomato chutney, encased in an all-butter pastry base and topped with cheesy chips!
“Yup, that’s right, TOPPED WITH CHIPS!!! Tag a friend who’d appreciate this new VIP!”
One person said: “I LOVE PIE! And this pie looks amazing!”
ADVERTISEMENT
Another said: “I need this is my tummy!!”
A third added, “Womens day and pie week. What a time to be alive!”
Priced at just £5, the pie is on sale in Marks and Spencers stores across Greater Manchester now.
Filled with rich ale gravy, it only serves one – so if you’re feeding a family you’ll need to stock up so that no one misses out.
Other new additions to the gastropub range include a chestnut and shitake mushroom open pie with miso butter and garlic crumb, mac and cheese balls, and cheese rarebit and ham crumpets.
Feature image – M&S Facebook
News
Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
ADVERTISEMENT
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
ADVERTISEMENT
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
9th March 2022 
