Christmas karaoke huts and curling lanes are coming to Spinningfields
Crazy cocktail bar Clubhouse is hosting a massive month-long Christmas party on Spinningfields Square with karaoke huts, duelling pianos and a 10m long curling lane
Spinningfields’ Square will be transformed into a winter wonderland later this month as wacky cocktail bar Clubhouse takes it over – bringing karaoke huts, a curling lane, and a giant 35ft high Christmas tree along for the ride.
Completely heated and covered in a giant pergola, the square will be transformed into a festive party hub following some careful planning by the cocktail connosieurs behind Clubhouse.
The team – who haven’t yet enjoyed a Christmas together before, thanks to 2020’s successive lockdowns – will be throwing their own version of a Christmas party in the square, complete with alpine karaoke huts, free-flowing Christmas cocktails, live music, and duelling New Orleans-style pianos.
Elsewhere, there’ll be festive cocktails like Santa Baby (pink gin, triple sec, sour, sugar and cranberry) and Life’s A Grinch (kiwi, sour, sugar and coconut) delivered straight to your huts; and a full on festive kebab and loaded fries menu created by the team behind Kong’s Chicken Shop and Meat and Three.
Chipotle orange and cumin pulled pork Christmas kebab with pickled red cabbage, tomato and cucumber, lettuce, garlic sauce, homemade chilli sauce and spiced pickled gherkins (£13) / Image: The Manc Group Chipotle orange and cumin pulled pork Christmas kebab, pulled turkey and cranberry kebab, and loaded fries with pigs in blankets, baconnaise and cranberry hot sauce (£13) / Image: The Manc Group
Think pigs in blanket-loaded fries, a festive poutine with mozzarella, mulled wine gravy and sprouts, plus Christmas kebabs stuffed with your choice of pulled turkey, chipotle orange and cumin pulled pork, mulled wine braised beef brisket, or slow cooked mushrooms and fennel.
Kicking off next Wednesday, 17 November, a Clubhouse Christmas will be opening on the Deansgate-facing square outside Spinningfields restaurant Australasia next week.
We’ve also heard rumours about a grinch who’ll be roaming the square in the evening – but that’s yet to be confirmed.
Clubhouse is well known for its crazy cocktails, which come garnished with treats like flumps, custard cremes and Haribo tangfastics / Image: The Manc Group
Music will be on from 7 – 10 pm every Friday and Saturday, with duelling pianists taking requests for everything from Metallica, to Christmas songs, to pop anthems. / Image: The Manc Group
Karaoke huts will be bookable for up to 6 people, priced from £50 an hour with an almost infinite number of song options. There’ll be drinks service direct into the huts, with drinks packages available to add on when you book.
Huts themselves will be priced at £50 an hour, with options for drinks on top priced from £35. For that, you’ll get 6 cans of prosecco served on ice, or alternatively you can opt for three four pint pitchers of Clubhouse pilsner (£50), or for two festive cocktail jugs of your choice (£50).
The bar will be bringing its wild, party bar attitude to Spinningfields Square from 17 November / Image: Clubhouse There’ll be plenty of drinks pouring at the Clubhouse bar in Spinningfields square / Image: The Manc Group
There’s also a VIP drinks package priced at £100 that gets you a jug of festive cocktail, a pitcher of clubhouse pilsner and 6 cans of prosecco.
As for the 10m long curling lane, an hour on here with up to six people will cost you £60. Just like in the huts, you can pre book drinks or use a QR code to have them delivered to you whilst you play.
Open from 12 pm – 11 pm every day, with last order at 11 pm, a Clubhouse Christmas kicks off on 17 November and runs up to 23 December before taking a short break for Christmas. It will then return on 26 until 30, before breaking for the New Year.
Whilst walk ins are welcome, booking is recommended. Karaoke huts can be pre-booked here.
To keep up with all things Clubhouse Christmas, make sure to follow the Instagram page here.
Featured Image – Clubhouse
City Centre
Upcoming Manc food hall House of Social confirms final kitchen ahead of opening
Danny Jones
House of Social, another new food hall in Manchester city centre, has confirmed the latest and last edition ahead of its launch this summer.
The soon-to-open student block and its upcoming culinary offerings will be here before you know, and now, just over a month out from the grand unveiling, the fifth and final foodie resident has been revealed.
We’ll give you a hint: it’s pizza… very pretty-looking pizza.
Courtesy of Dough Religion (DR), a new Manc pizza restaurant, they’ll soon be slinging out stonebaked pies that already have a strong reputation and a very cool backstory in the local area.
Co-conceived by Chef Chris Edwards, who first began his venture during quarantine from the cult lockdown project dubbed ‘The Waltzing Matilda‘ – a floating pizza place serving slices from a cute little canal boat – and Matt Butcher, who created Dough Religion, the brand and idea have grown much bigger.
Teaming up with House of Social’s Jake Atkinson, who is heading up food and drink at the building,
Waltzing Matilda can be found cruising around Greater Manchester, Macclesfield, the Peak Forest Canal, other parts of Cheshire and out into the North West, but now that established, wood-fired spirit Chris set up with his dad, Paul, is being translated into a proper brick-and-mortar venue here in the city centre.
Dough Religion will serve up giant 18-inch pizzas, whole or by the slice, alongside a full lineup of house-made subs, bagels, and a rotating lineup of desserts and bakes.
Those eating at House of Social (HoS) can expect burrata-topped slices, vodka sauce pizza and fried-chicken Caesar hoagies; New York-inspired bakes, showstopping cheesecakes, standout ingredients from the UK and imported from Italy, as well as plenty more.
Its arrival comes after a Mexican and LA street food spot was named as the fourth tenant at HoS.
The House of Social food lineup is looking stacked.
Speaking on the announcement, Edwards said: “This dough’s been years in the making – tested, tweaked, and obsessively perfected. The pizza is a hybrid of Neapolitan softness and New York chew and crisp; we’re focusing on long fermentation and the best flour available to really maximise the dough.
“The boat was magic, but it had its limits. With Dough Religion, we’ve got the space, the kit, and the crew to go all in. This isn’t going to be your traditional pizza place– it’s bold, loud, and built to share.”
With Dough Religion completing things on the kitchen front, House of Social’s hospitality lineup promises plenty of variety and quality. Roll on August, we say.
The team are hoping for it to become a go-to destination for diners throughout Manchester and beyond, with the food hall craze not showing any signs of slowing down. Case and point:
Catterall vs Eubank at AO Arena: will confidence or cocksureness pay off?
Danny Jones
The official press conference between Jack Catterall and Harlem Eubank got a touch heated in Manchester today, and not necessarily for the reasons you’d think.
Although there was certainly a bit of covert bite between the local lad and Eubank (nephew of Chris Eubank Sr.) most of bickering came as a result of an exchange between the latter and promoter and boxing manager, Sam Jones.
Who knows how much of the needle between entourages is genuine and what is simply for show, but there was plenty of jokes made about minced words, stuttering, wearing shades in doors and dodging on multiple levels. Catterall himself remained quiet and calm throughout.
Harlem’s backers firmly believe there is a lot more “skill” in his corner than can be said of his Chorley-born counterpart ahead of this weekend.
Nevertheless, the Manchester regular may have stayed largely modest throughout – as has always been his way – but he still had plenty of confidence and his own team reiterated that there he’ll prove “very difficult to beat.”
He even went on argue that he is “levels above him”, rubbishing any talk of a potential knockout risk.
On the other hand, they did admit that he “can’t afford an 8 or 10-rounder” at this point in his career and a need him to put in a performance.
Meanwhile, Harlem could not have been cocksure of himself and was happy to play into the Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn’s hands in terms of the stereotypical ‘arrogant’ back-yourself kind of boxer vs the quiet, understated, underdog.
Insisting that he wants to “become a world champion” and even squeezing in a dig at fellow Brit, Conor Benn – who will be facing his cousin Eubank Jr. in a rematch this September – labelling the 28-year-old an “alleged drug cheat”.
There was even more excitement over in the ‘Small Talk’ studio set up inside the AO Arena, as recently retired MMA fighter, ‘Meatball’ Molly McCann, had an announcement of her own.
The Catterall vs Eubank press conference had another big bonus up its sleeve.
Over in the ‘Small Talk’ studio over to the side, confirmation from Eddie Hearn that Molly McCann, was announced as the latest Matchroom signing.
It was said that she expects to undertake her first seven or eight fights within the space of year, telling media that “this was always the plan” and despite “lots of offers” from different promotions, “There’s no other place [she’d] rather be.”
Hearn went on to state that he can see her competing for a title “within months”, adding: “I truly believe she’ll be a world champion.”
Georgina Pellant -
11th November 2021 
