Manchester hotel restaurant The Refuge is serving a roast for you AND your dog
Pet-friendly hotel Kimpton Clocktower also provides a full pet setup in the room, with a pet tuckbox, pet guide to the best dog-friendly places to visit, toys and treats
A hotel restaurant in Manchester is serving up Sunday roast dinners for dogs and we are completely obsessed.
Award-winning eatery and bar The Refuge, located inside the pet-friendly Kimpton Clocktower Hotel on Oxford Road, is already highly-rated for its Sunday roasts but it’s about to get even more popular after adding a new ‘roast bowl’ for pets to its Sunday menu.
Introduced as part of the venue’s new spring food menu overhaul, four-legged friends now have their own answer to The Refuge’s legendary Sunday dinner – allowing them to dine in style alongside their owners.
Comprised of a mini roast, the new pet ‘roast bowl’ features a selection of meat, veggies, and a dash of pet-friendly gravy (no onions or garlic to worry about here).
Image: The Refuge
Image: The Refuge
Owners, meanwhile, are also in for a treat with the choice between a traditional roast or one of The Refuge’s famous sharing platters (a mixture of grass-fed rump of Lancashire beef and half a roast Cumbrian chicken plus trimmings, with the option to add-on a lamb shawarma shepherd’s pie for an extra £9).
ADVERTISEMENT
All roast platters are served with thyme and salt roast potatoes, glazed carrot, seasonal greens, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and pan gravy, whilst individual roasts come with roast potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding and a selection of vegetables.
Vegans are also welcome, with a plant-based Sunday dinner option of vegan wellington, roasted celeriac, duxelles, red onion, kale and potato.
Speaking on the new menus, Stephanie McIver, General Manager of The Refuge said: “The new menus at The Refuge are a fresh and inventive take on feasting and sharing with friends and family.
“We welcome anyone and everyone to our dining space and we expect the new additions will be highlights for all our guests this season.
ADVERTISEMENT
“At The Refuge we extend our invitation to dogs which is a continuation of Kimpton Clocktower Hotel’s dog-friendly policy, making all dogs welcome alongside their human guest counterparts and offering dogs their very own Sunday roast dinner.”
Image: The Refuge
Image: The Refuge
Guests with pets are encouraged to book a PAWfect stay at Kimpon Clocktower Hotel to enjoy an overnight stay with breakfast, along with a full pet setup in the room, a pet tuckbox, pet guide to the best dog-friendly places to visit and a toy and treat or two.
Pets at Klimpton Clocktower Hotel are welcome to stay with their owners for free, with no extra charge placed on the room.
For more information on The Refuge and to book a table visit here. Guests looking to order a Dog roast bowl are encouraged to make this request when booking a reservation at The Refuge.
Featured image – The Refuge
City Centre
A brand new grunge and hard rock festival is kicking off in Manchester
Danny Jones
Manchester grungers, hardcore heads, and fans of all things rock, pay attention because there is a brand new festival coming to the city centre – and it has possibly the best name for a live music event we’ve heard in some time.
Ahem… let us introduce you to Broken Knees Fest.
Yes, donning a name that feels increasingly more relatable the closer we get to the wrong side of 30, Broken Knees Festival 2025 marks the inaugural edition of Manchester’s newest series of rock and grunge gigs, helping spotlight rising artists across the genres from within two crucial grassroots venues.
Very loud music inside tightly-packed, small-capacity rooms? It’s a winning formula that never fails. It’s about time we broke a sweat – here’s hoping the knees just about hold out.
Hosted in the heart of the Northern Quarter, which continues to thrive as a creative hub for new music and art of all forms, the festival will be debuting at small-cap favourites Gullivers and Castle Hotel just across the road.
As you can see, the lineup is full of up-and-coming talent within the guitar-driven space, but you can bank on more than a few bringing their die-hard fans to fill the place out to the rafters.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer punk, hardcore, grunge or another specific sub-genre found somewhere in between the ever-sprawling rock spectrum, there’s something to suit all alternative tastes at this one.
With the likes of Bohmen, Mavis, One Dimensional Creatures and Smother headlining the first-ever iteration of the festival across four stages, you can expect plenty of energy and even more noise.
Set up by the events group of the same name, Broken Knees Promotions, who help platform rock and alt acts across Greater Manchester and beyond year-round, this is more than just a festival: it’s a grassroots celebration through and through.
Best of all, if you’re interested, you don’t have to wait long because it’s kicking off next month.
Gigs go off in here. If you know, you know… (Credit: Audio North)
Broken Knees Fest 2025 is happening on the weekend of 21-22 June, and you’ll be glad to hear that, as a brand new event, prices have been kept nice and low.
The early bird window had prices starting from just £12, and although this tier has now sold out, day tickets are still only £15 while a full weekend pass will set you back £25.
Until then, why not dive into another load of new Manchester music? We round up artists from all genres each month; we’ll also confess to leaning slightly more towards the heavier stuff from time to time.
Manchester Museum has been named European Museum of the Year for 2025
Emily Sergeant
Manchester Museum has been awarded the prestigious title of European Museum of the Year for 2025.
Congratulations are in order, because Manchester Museum – which is part of The University of Manchester (UoM) – has received one of the most prestigious museum awards in the world, the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA), and has made history in doing so too, as it’s the first university museum to ever receive the annual prize.
It beat out 41 other cultural hubs across the continent to claim the coveted prize.
Operated by the European Museum Forum (EMF), EMYA recognises new or redeveloped museums that showcase the best in excellence and innovation in their field.
According to the organisation, the aim of the award is to shine a worthy spotlight on museums that promote inter-cultural dialogue and community participation, demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, and show creative and imaginative approaches to the production of knowledge.
Judges praised how Manchester Museum has ‘reimagined its mission’ since its £15 million redevelopment completed back in February of 2023, which was described as ‘the most ambitious museum transformation in a generation’.
The major bricks and mortar redevelopment introduced new galleries, partnerships, visitor facilities, and sector-leading work around repatriation, restitution, and indigenisation to what was an already-important visitor attraction in our city centre, as well as the top floor being transformed into an environmental and social justice hub for environmental and educational charities to address issues affecting communities within Manchester.
The museum was also praised by judges for acknowledging and addressing its complex history by redefining the role of its collections and public programmes, with its approach to co-curation cited as part of this, especially working with local and diasporic communities to bring new perspectives to collections and challenging traditional narratives.
Manchester Museum has been named the European Museum of the Year for 2025 / Credit: Manchester Museum
Judges also made sure to comment on the museum’s ‘thoughtful, informed, and impactful community engagement’ which helps to create a truly inclusive space where all individuals can see themselves reflected and represented.
Speaking on the prestigious award win, Esme Ward, who is the Director of Manchester Museum, said: “Museums have the power to be empathy machines, bringing generations and communities together to build understanding, while confronting the past with honesty and transparency.
Georgina Pellant -
3rd April 2023 
