There’s a restaurant in Manchester’s Northern Quarter serving up giant pancake tacos stuffed with streaky bacon, fried eggs and sausage, and we’re officially in love.
Taking thick and fluffy American pancakes as the sturdy ‘taco’ base, chefs at Kong’s NQ are filling up these sugary sweet bad boys with lashings of maple syrup and all the salty breakfast goodness you could wish for.
Crammed full of crispy rashers of bacon and a hand-shaped sausage patty, drizzled with syrup then topped off with a fried egg, according to Kong’s owner Tom Potts and co-owner/chef Martin Stephens it’s the only dish of its kind here in Manchester – and quite possibly in the whole of the UK.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Priced at £11, for that you’ll get two massive pancake tacos loaded with all your breakfast must-haves. Combining salty and sweet perfectly inside thick, sweet pancakes, it’s everything we want in a breakfast dish.
That said, there are plenty more dishes to tempt on the menu elsewhere – not least, one of the most perfect specimens of fried chicken French toast we’ve enjoyed in some time.
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Read more: The new restaurants and bars opening in Manchester this month | April 2023
Think thick toasted brioche loaded with Kong’s signature fried chicken, which is brined for three hours, rolled in a secret spice mix, then double-dredged for a crispier texture, plus streaky fried bacon, maple syrup and a comforting dollop of Cheshire Farm ice cream.
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Fried chicken French toast at Kong’s NQ. / Image: The Manc Eats
Crispy pork belly and green harissa breakfast tostadas at Kong’s NQ. / Image: The Manc Eats
Elsewhere on the brunch menu, you’ll find the likes of pork belly and green harissa breakfast tostadas, vegan black pudding breakfast muffins with hash, spinach and spicy salsa verde, and the ever-classic steak and eggs.
Add to that free coffee refills, and more dishes like Chipotle pulled braised beef egg benedicts and a special Breakie Burger with pork patty, smoked streaky bacon, aged cheddar, fried egg, hash browns and bloody mary ketchup, and it’s safe to say this is one hell of a brunch menu.
Newly opened on Oldham Street inside the old CBRB unit, Kong’s is predominantly known for its epic fried chicken dishes and has hosted different pop-ups around the city at locations including Black Dog Ballroom, Dog Bowl and Hatch.
Vegan black pudding breakfast muffin at Kong’s NQ. / Image: The Manc Eats
Vegan fried ‘chicken’ at Kong’s NQ. / Image: The Manc Eats
On its main menu, diners will find a host of its must-try fried chicken burgers alongside some elegant small plates and larger sharing dishes.
Whilst still working for CBRB, back in 2021 Kong’s owner Tom took advantage of the furlough scheme to start his own specialist fried chicken sandwich business – even cooking and serving his first sandwiches out of CBRB’s kitchen whilst the restaurant was closed.
Now, everything has come full circle with him taking the keys to his old place of work and transforming it into his first permanent restaurant.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
City Centre
Manchester streaming platform StreamGM unveils four-part creative industry careers podcast
Thomas Melia
A new four-partpodcast by StreamGM featuring some of Greater Manchester’s top creatives has launched with the aim of powering creative careers.
Produced by Rebecca Swarray, a.k.a. ‘RebeccaNeverBecky’ – the founder of the Manchester events and arts collective – this podcast is designed to “ignite and elevate creative careers in music.”
Swarray deep dives into the current Manc music scene and beyond with the help of fellow insiders who vary upon each episode.
There are four parts in this latest series and there’s lots to cover, especially in an industry that’s ever-changing and ever-challenging.
Some of the guests and speakers you can expect to listen to on ‘ICAM’ (In Conversations and Masterclasses)Credit: StreamGM/The Manc Group
Listeners can expect to learn all about ‘Women Behind The Music’ as part of the In Conversations and Masterclasses series with Sophie Bee, Sara Garvey and Kat Brown.
The next episode delves into another key music industry area, ‘Promoters, Venues And Events’, which is broken down by Baz Plug One, Strutty, Tashadean Wood and Liv McCafferty.
‘Artist Development And Management’ features Karen Boardman, Karen Gabay, Damian Morgan, and Via Culpan deep in discussion.
The final episode in this four-part series is ‘Videography And Photography In The Creative Industries’, which sees Johan Reitan, Alice Kanako and Ahmani Vidal talking all things visual.
These four features will be an incredible resource for any creative talents as it put together by professionals for upcoming professionals of any age from any background, race, gender and walk of life.
After all, that’s what is all about, right?
Abbreviated to ‘ICAM’, the podcast is certainly one to check out, with for aspiring artist managers, producers, photographers, promoters—anyone driven to make their mark in music and events.
These podcast sessions understand industry challenges, explore career journeys, creative influences, crisis management and lots more creative field concerns.
You can find the first episode in full down below:
The first episode of the new limited StreamGM podcast.
This run of shows is the second instalment by StreamGM: Greater Manchester’s phenomenal streaming platform dedicated to all things music, nightlife and culture.
Whether you’re a budding creative arts talent or just curious to find out insights into this wonderful innovative industry, you can listen to all the episodes from the series directly on StreamGM HERE.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester music news, another very special event is kicking off very soon:
Featured Images — Publicity Picture (Supplied)/The Manc Group
City Centre
One of Manchester’s oldest surviving Victorian mills to be repurposed into ‘distinctive’ rental homes
Emily Sergeant
A multi-million funding deal has been agreed to repurpose one of Manchester’s oldest surviving Victorian mills.
After £55 million plans to reimagine Talbot Mill into a 10-storey apartment block began back in May of last year, social impact developers Capital&Centric have now agreed a £37 million deal with Paragon Bank to finance the restoration of the historic mill and repurpose it into 190 new distinctive properties for rent.
Built in 1855 overlooking the canal, the imposing red-brick mill on Ellesmere Street in the Castlefield neighbourhood was the product of Manchester’s textile boom.
One of the city’s last massive mills to be restored, it was Talbot that spearheaded the rapid transformation of the Cornbrook area from undeveloped land to a powerful industrial hub in the late 19th century, before going on to dominate the local cotton industry in the early 1900s.
It was even used as a mushroom farm in the 1980s, while more recently, it has been the set of a period drama and a massive art exhibition.
But when the restoration is complete, over half the development will be newly-built and will offer residents of the nearly 200 ‘distinctive’ apartments a lush hidden garden, with plenty of green spaces to meet and hang out, while still managing to celebrate the mill’s past and retain loads of original features.
Capital&Centric is developing Talbot Mill as an investment, which it will retain for rent once finished.
This is something the developers have already done successfully on a number of sites in recent years, especially in its lengthy run of restoring Manchester’s iconic listed buildings and mixing the old in with the new.
One of Manchester’s oldest surviving Victorian mills will be repurposed into ‘distinctive’ rental homes / Credit: Capital&Centric
“We love to restore and repurpose historic buildings,” explained Tom Wilmot, who is the joint managing director at Capital&Centric.
“But as one of Manchester’s oldest mills, Talbot Mill is something a bit different, so we’re buzzing to be bringing it back to its former glory, [as] it had a huge role to play in the industrial revolution in the city and now it gets to be part of the city’s future.
“We’re retaining as many features as we can, to keep the history of the mill alive and so that our residents can enjoy becoming custodians of the past whilst enjoying all the trappings of modern-day living.”
Georgina Pellant -
5th April 2023 
