The Northern Quarter institution Shack – which moved across to a new site on High Street a couple of years ago – is no exception.
The popular bar and grill is knocking its food bills in half throughout January if you dine between Monday and Friday.
That means 50% off burgers (including the massive Shack Attack burger and the Salt and Pepper chicken stack), buttermilk chicken, loaded fries and mac and cheese bowls.
Food at Shack in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Credit: The Manc Group
Food at Shack in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Credit: The Manc Group
It also means half-price brunches, with full breakfasts, chicken and waffles, and French toast all on the menu.
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The 50% off discount is available to anyone who books in advance, though even if you fancy a walk-in Shack will knock 20% off your food bill.
Shack’s usual deals – like its happy hour drinks offers and the weekend bottomless disco brunch (£30 per person with prosecco, mimosas, bellinis and selected beers, or £40 to upgrade to bottomless pornstar martinis and frozen margaritas) – are still available too.
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The fun carries on in its new basement bar, Lost Weekend, too.
The Lost Weekend basement bar at Shack in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Credit: The Manc Group
The Lost Weekend basement bar at Shack in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Credit: The Manc Group
The underground late-night bar is kitted out with pool tables, beer pong, air hockey and more – and they’re offering free gaming all month.
Visit between Thursday and Saturday and you can play for free, and enjoy two cocktails for £10 all night long.
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There’ll be a small food menu on offer at Lost Weekend too.
They’ll be screening the all-American sports event through the night (kick-off isn’t until 11.30pm UK time), including the half-time show which this year will star Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.
You can see the full Shack menus and make a booking for 50% off food at shackbarandgrill.co.uk.
Featured image: The Manc Group
City Centre
This hidden Manchester pasta and dumplings restaurant has just made the Michelin Guide
Georgina Pellant
Michelin has just added some new additions to its guide, and one of our favourite Manchester restaurants has finally made the cut.
Loved by locals for its continental pasta and dumplings, gorgeous European wine list and sake collection, The Sparrows in the Green Quarter is something of a hidden gem – tucked in a disused railway arch on Red Bank.
It received rave reviews from local and national critics alike when it first opened in 2019 in a tiny space with room for just 12 covers. Since then, it’s relocated to a bigger home and its following has grown significantly.
After spending years wowing foodies in the know, the restaurant has made it onto the radar of Michelin’s inspectors at last – and we have to say, the accolade is well deserved indeed.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Front of house is headed up by Polish-born Kasia Hitchcock with her chef partner Franco Concli at the helm in the kitchen. Plates celebrate Franco’s Tyrolean heritage, with their signature dish spätzle, a rustic fresh egg pasta from which the restaurant takes its name, sitting front and centre.
Traditionally made by scraping dough from the wooden board straight into a pot of boiling water, these irregular-shaped delights translate from Swabian-German to mean “little sparrows.”
Served in multiples ways, they can be enjoyed either savoury or sweet – mixed with braised onions into a creamy gruyere and Emmental cheese sauce, as is traditional, or transformed into a pudding with a touch of cinnamon, brown sugar and butter.
Joining the now seventeen Manchester restaurants to be featured in the prestigious guide, its description reads as follows: “Nestled under the railway arches in Manchester’s Green Quarter is a restaurant whose name is (almost) the English translation of the word ‘spätzle’ – which gives some clue as to the style of food on offer here.
“The dumplings and assorted pasta dishes are all made in-house and include excellent pierogi. The focus on Eastern Europe carries through to the wine list, which has a leaning towards Polish wines.”
A welcome new addition, if you haven’t yet visited then we recommend you book in swiftly. No doubt the news of its conclusion in the Michelin Guide will send reservations filling up pretty sharpish.
Feature image – Google Maps
City Centre
A Manc photographer is taking beautiful on-the-spot portraits around the city
Danny Jones
There are about a hundred and one brilliant photographers taking pictures around the city centre every day, but most of them tend to focus on the macro scale of things — snapping our lovely architecture, long shots of our rain-soaked streets, parades of morning commuters and so on.
So, when we stumbled across this lovely little TikTok account showcasing some of the most simple but beautiful portraits you’ll see anywhere online, all taken around the streets of our beloved city, it understandably caught our attention.
Manc photographer Scott James, or ‘certigrammer‘ as he goes by online, makes his living doing everything from weddings and commercials shoots to music videos, taking photos for Sheffield United and more, but we happened to come across a more recent pastime of his: taking pictures of strangers.
People are clearly chiming with his casual, understated and fundamentally wholesome style. So are we, and it’s not hard to see why.
Perhaps most impressively, it seems like he’s only been at this particular kind of photography for a little over a week and is already pulling in thousands of well-earned views across his social media.
As you can see, there is a very candid nature to his approach; he snaps people just going about their business and even when he stops people on the spot and asks if they’d be willing to pose, he still manages to capture that impromptu and organic vibe.
From happy couples and randomers on the street, to complimenting an old boy on his style, he photographs people from all walks of life.
Whether it’s Northern Quarter, the more upmarket surround of King Street, or the backstreets just round the corner from the Arndale, you also get a good feel for the city we know and love.
Best of all, even in such a short space of time, Scott has managed to provide a wonderful cross-section of Manchester‘s cosmopolitan nature. That’s what it’s all about.
While this city is a veritable rainbow of colour, some of the shots we enjoy the most are his black and white photos. There’s just something about them.
It’s hard to pick a favourite but if we had to pick one, it might have to be his picture of this older gentleman about town, simply because it looks like it really made his day. You love to see it.
Daisy Jackson -
12th January 2022 
