Chester Zoo has officially launched its very own gin just in time for Christmas.
The pandemic left Britain’s largest wildlife centre on the ropes back in summer – with owners launching a public campaign for support that raised 2.4 million in the space of just over a week.
Despite lower attendances and periods of full closure, Chester Zoo has managed to stay afloat in 2020 – and now they’re hoping to raise more money towards crucial conservation work with their very own spirit bottle.
Infused with hand-picked ingredients from plants that feed the animals at the zoo, ‘Chester Zoo Gin’ boasts a ‘tropical’ taste – with buyers also able to grow wildflowers from the seed paper label.
Tom Culshaw, Senior Food and Beverages Manager at the zoo, said: “The concept for the gin came from walking around the vast and amazing landscape of the zoo, taking in all the different gardens, varieties and species of plants that we have at our fingertips. Working closely with our botany and horticulture departments led to an organic idea of how we could further utilise what we have around us.”
Curator of Botany and Horticulture at the zoo, Phil Esseen, added: “The botanicals used in the Chester Zoo gin are carefully balanced to create a unique flavour and were selected to reflect the zoo’s tropical landscapes, and our work with rare plants. For example, one of the more unusual flavourings in the gin is extracted from banana leaves. These were grown here at the zoo, where we use the hardy Japanese banana (Musa basjoo) to help create a tropical effect in our planting, particularly in our South East Asian islands habitats.
“We also use the leaves to wrap up different foods for feeding to the chimps, as part of their dietary and behavioural enrichment, and grow dandelions, another botanical in the gin, as it is a much loved part of our tortoises’ diet.”
Teaming up with The Secret Garden, a specialist Herb Nursery in Edinburgh and The Old Curiosity distillery, Chester Zoo experts combined their knowledge and passion to create unique flavours.
Tom Culshaw continued: “We took a lot of guidance from The Secret Garden’s team who spent time at the zoo with our plant experts; carefully selecting which botanicals would give us a bespoke product, and what would highlight the work the teams do to feed and enrich the animals.”
Owner and herb specialist, Hamish Martin, advised on what ingredients would bring the gin to life, he said: “Chester Zoo Gin is like no other gin.
“It has been inspired by all of the incredible animals and is made up of 11 botanicals we have specifically picked from the zoo banana leaves, chicory flowers and dandelion, all of which are used to feed the animals – so I suppose you could say the food that feeds the animals will become the spirit to fulfil your taste buds!
“It’s a huge prestige for The Secret Garden and the distillery to be supplying Chester Zoo. We farm completely naturally with no chemicals whatsoever and truly love nature, values I know the zoo shares. We have had such fun creating this gin and it is a joy to be launching it now, and I am sure the visitors and supporters of the zoo will love it too.”
Chester Zoo gin is available in 50cl and 20cl and can be purchased from The Oakfield restaurant at the zoo or via their new online shop.
The very best and booziest bottomless brunches in Manchester city centre
Danny Jones
If you’re looking to find the very best bottomless brunch places Manchester city centre has to offer, then look no further.
You’ll probably be struggling to see straight after you finish brunching anyway, but that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it? In Manchester, we love a good brunch like the best of them.
Getting stuck into some free-flowing drinks with your friends around a table of food is a match made in heaven if you ask us.
To help you achieve your ultimate bottomless brunch goals, we’ve put together a list of some of our top spots in Manchester to help you find the right one for you. Keep reading to discover our top picks.
At Blues Kitchen, you can tuck into soul food-inspired mains like fried chicken and gravy, taco bowls, shrimp sandwiches, and beef dip melts, with 90 minutes of unlimited drinks for £35 per person.
And in true Blues fashion, there’ll of course be live music aplenty, from live soul and R&B in the bar to the house band playing upstairs in the gig space.
There are loads of options and packages to check out – head HERE to make your booking.
Bordering two of Manchester city centre‘s coolest and best foodie neighbourhoods, the team who run the show over at Ramona and Firehouse during the day and well into the night have become famous around the UK for their Detroit-style pizza, loaded tater tots, margaritas and good vibes.
Better still, you can turn those Cali peps slices, helpings of fresh burrata, spicy margs, mimosa and more bottomless at just £38pp.
Between 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays, you can get any slice of pizza plus frozen margs, selected spritzes, prosecco and Ramona pilsner.
3. New Century – NOMA
New Century in Manchester serves a great bottomless brunch. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
All the traders from the New Century food hall band together at the weekends to serve up a bottomless brunch with more menu options than anywhere else in the city.
You can order a brunch item from any trader inside – and that includes an egg banh mi from Banh Vi, plus chicken and waffles from Parmogeddon – then add on a bottomless drinks package for 90 minutes.
Options include bottomless lager, stout, IPA, cider, prosecco, and Aperol Spritzes for £30 (including one brunch item), or for an extra fiver, you can also get Pornstar Martinis and Bloody Marys.
4. Peaky Blinders – Deansgate
Credit: The Manc Group
The Peaky Blinders bar on Peter Street grows more popular year after year, and not just because people enjoy dressing up in fancy old-world clobber and coming along to see the lookalikes – it’s the birdcage of tasty bites, ‘Cherry Ada’s and ‘Shel-bee’ whiskey-based specials that keep them coming back.
There are different bottomless brunch menus available every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from classic brunch platters to steak and fries to bottomless roast dinners.
And they all come with endless cocktails, beers, spirits and more drinks, with bottomless packages between £37.50 and £40.
One of the fanciest new openings in Manchester, Sexy Fish, serves one of the city’s swankiest bottomless brunches.
For £48 per person, you can indulge in a range of starters, unlimited sushi from the sushi buffet, a main course with a side, and desserts. Or you can just have your fill at the sushi buffet for £28 per person.
Then you can add on free-flowing cocktails for £30 per person or indulge in limitless bubbles from £34 per person.
6. Diecast – Piccadilly East
Diecast in Manchester does a bottomless brunch with its frozen daiquiris. (Credit: The Manc)
90 minutes of pure drag entertainment is what’s on the menu at Diecast in Piccadilly East, as ‘Dragstravaganza’ takes over for an interactive bottomless battle.
There are also more regular bottomless brunch offerings, where you can choose a pizza from the menu, plus add on 90 minutes of frozen daiquiris.
The event schedule is a busy one, so check HERE to book your bottomless at Diecast.
Another solid Manchester bottomless brunch spot is Banyan, offering two hours of the good stuff for £36.95 and free rein on their food menu – we’re talking breakfast hash, Korean fried chicken burgers, flat iron steak and curry.
You can go bottomless in the evenings too for £39.95.
And endless drinks include loads of their house cocktails, plus your usual suspects like prosecco, beer and spirits.
A Pan-Asian bottomless brunch with dishes like an Asian twist on a full English, a Rendang roti, a Bali brunch bowl and ‘Bang Bang’ steak and eggs? Sign us up.
Running seven (yep, seven!) days a week, the Tampopo bottomless (and they have two restaurants in Manchester) includes 90 minutes of free-flowing bubbles, lager, ‘rum beach buckets’ and house cocktails, plus any brunch plate or vegetarian, chicken or pork large plate.
Not bad for £38 a head.
9. Italiana Fifty-Five – Great Northern Warehouse and Castlefield
Italiana Fifty-Five does bottomless Aperol brunch and a tower of treats at all three of its Manchester restaurants
Next up is one we’d consider an old faithful: Italiana Fifty-Five, formerly known as Cibo. With three sites in Manchester, which now includes one in Didsbury. We’ve had this particular bottomless brunch so many times now we’ve lost count, but it never disappoints.
Bottomless tapas and sangria at Canto puts a Portuguese twist on boozy brunch proceedings over in Ancoats. The sister site of AA Rosette restaurant, El Gato Negro, this is what they call ‘tipsy tapas’.
Priced at £40 a head, you get a choice of three plates each and 90 minutes of unlimited drinks with choices like sangria, fizz, bellinis, house wine and lager.
Tapas choices include options like jamón croquetas, salt cod fritters, patatas bravas, crispy squid and plenty more. Never fails.
One of the best bottomless brunches in Manchester? Don’t mind if we do. They keep it simple at Elnecot as you just opt for your unlimited drinks on top of the usual, but you’ll hear no complaints from us whilst we’re sipping on house cosmos, mimosas, Bloody Marys, boozy ice teas and lager.
Brunch dishes, meanwhile, feature the likes of crispy pork belly with rosti, fried eggs, savoy kimchi, Elnecot chilli jam and yoghurt; wild mushrooms on toast with goat’s curd and dukkah, as well as Elnecot’s full English and eggs on toast, just to name a few.
Bottomless drinks are £26 per person, plus whatever brunch dish you want, for two hours of drinking time.
12. The Bay Horse Tavern – Northern Quarter
Credit: The Manc Group
Affectionately known by locals as ‘Horse-moor’, the boozy brunch menu at upmarket NQ pub The Bay Horse Tavern is a pretty traditional affair dish-wise, although there is a funky peanut butter, bacon and fried banana croissant bad boy to be found here too.
Priced at £32.50 for a dish and unlimited drinks until 4pm every weekend, think egg, bacon and sausage butties; fry-ups; poached and scrambled eggs (they do eggs really well here) mushrooms, avo and smoked salmon on toast, as well as fizz, Irish coffee, beer, mimosas, bloody marys and house wine. Easy.
Maybe one of the more expensive on this list, but worth every penny, Gaucho‘s ‘Electro Brunch’ is one of the Manchester OGs, and it also happens to be one of the best steaks in town. Setting you back £65, it’s all about the beef here, which is wet-aged and can be cut with a butter knife – it really is that soft.
The music-fuelled all-you-can-eat midday feast also features cocktails like pornstar martinis and Aperol spritz alongside glasses of Argentinian Domain Chandon and even includes a brunch dessert of smoked chocolate ganache. They have a maximum of eight drinks per person, but let’s be honest, that’s plenty.
Another more boujee, boozy brunch option is at Gordon Ramsay’s very own Lucky Cat.
For 90 minutes, you can enjoy endless prosecco alongside a two-course meal, with dishes like vegetable tempura, crispy beef rice bowls, and teriyaki salmon.
You can also add a dessert platter for an extra tenner or upgrade from prosecco to champagne for £20. This is definitely a more classy excuse to get tipsy, whilst enjoying some proper high-quality food.
Fress is an award-winning white-subway tiled restaurant on Oldham Street that often has queues out the door for its bottomless boozy brunch. There’s a hearty menu featuring all the favourites, from a full English and beans on toast to mouth-watering waffles and pancakes, but it’s the sweet stuff we go for.
With a 1 hour 15 minute £37 per person sitting (that price includes a main from the menu), drinks choices include prosecco, mimosas, house wine and lager.
16. Zouk Tea Bar and Grill – Quadrangle
Credit: The Manc
Just off Oxford Road Corridor, you’ll find one of the very best bottomless brunches in Manchester, and it’s over at Zouk – also one of the best places for a curry in town that you can enjoy bottomless style, but that’s a separate matter. Two plates and as much booze as you can stomach. Glorious.
Either way, for £35 a pop from 11am-4:30pm every Saturday, you can get an incredible South Indian and Pakistani-inspired menu featuring everything from masala omelettes to the ‘Bollywood Benedict’ and SO much more. Absolutely slaps every single time.
A favourite amongst the flag-waving bottomless brunch brigade, we can’t think of many places that come more immediately to mind than Manahatta on Deansgate. Two whole hours of non-stop booze and some Insta-worthy scran for £36.95 until 3pm, and you can upgrade to any dish for an extra fiver.
Manahatta’s brunch menu features a wide range of spritzes, bloody marys or lager to enjoy alongside plates that range from Mexican wraps to breakfast hash, pancakes, steak frites and other NYC-inspired plates. You can also book big parties and the main menu for £41.95.
18. The Pen and Pencil – NQ
Another long-standing favourite over ours, you’ll find plenty of people heading to The Pen and Pencil when they’re around the Northern Quarter way and after a solid bottomless brunch.
Their bottomless brunch runs on the last Saturday of every month, costs £50 and will leave you full to bursting – and that’s just the booze part.
You’ve got all of the staple egg dishes, pancake stacks and more, as well as all your classic cocktails – and you can eat and drink as much as you like.
Similar vibes here – no list of the best bottomless brunch gaffs in Manchester is complete without BLVD, the Spinningfields venue without the vowels but all the flavour, putting their own unique spin on things with a selection of small plates like veg tempura, duck spring rolls or salt and pepper chicken wings.
You can choose two small plates, one side, and then dive into different flavours of bellinis, prosecco, rum punch, gin smash cocktails, vodka raspberry ripples, and bottled beers.
It costs £35 per person and is available every day that BLVD is open.
20. Crazy Pedro’s – NQ and Deansgate
Yes, Crazy P‘s does do bottomless brunch, and yes, it is mint. Enjoy unlimited slices from their ever-rotating daily menu of crazy pizza concoctions, as well as non-stop Hooch, beer, prosecco and their classic Frozen Margz for 90 minutes
It’s just £29.50pp for pure carbs and the fun-time juice when you book, and it also happens to be ‘r Amy’s favourite pizza place and quite a few of us would probably agree with her.
Shack’s brilliant disco brunch starts from £32.50 per person, with a few levels of drinks packages if you want to step things up a little bit.
Dishes include French toast, chorizo chilli eggs, breakfast buns, and absolutely massive pancake and waffle stacks, plus a full menu of grilled cheeses, wraps and burgers.
In our opinion, Ducie Street Warehouse quietly does some of the best bottomless brunch in Manchester; there just aren’t enough people who know about it, so we’re fixing that. Croque monsieurs, pancake stacks, breakfast baps and more. This menu is elite.
Changing themes each month, as well as wheeling out their ‘disco’ brunch every Saturday, their parties (and believe us, they are) will set you back £42.
Once again, no list of bottomless brunch hotspots in Manchester city centre would be complete without the Deansgate cornerstone that is Dirty Martini. Someone pass us a phone, we need another picture in front of their wings because the last 20 or so weren’t quite good enough.
Just as good during the day as it is for a night out, their bottomless brunch costs £37.50pp on Fridays and Saturdays, but their Martini brunch from Sunday-Thursday is the cheaper option at just £30.
24. Almost Famous – NQ
Credit: The Manc Group
We will take any excuse to head to one of the best burger joints in Manchester, so naturally, the fact that Almost Famous also does bottomless brunch is ideal. Available Friday-Sunday from 12-3pm, you get the standard 90-minute sitting for £37.50pp.
Get ready for this: get absolutely ANY famous burger with winning or bacon bacon fries and chicken nuggets as well as a free run at as much draught beer, cider, prosecco and cocktails as you fancy sinking. We call that heaven.
25. The Foundry Project – NQ
Finally, The Foundry Project over on Thomas Street does a bang-up bottomless brunch with plenty of variety for just £36 per person.
Hash brown nachos, breakfast brioche, fry-ups, brunch burgers and more to go with prosecco, bellinis, mimosas, Aperol spritz or pints of Amstel. What more could you possibly want?
It goes without saying that there are plenty more places we could have out on this list, and we’re sure it’ll keep growing over time, but 25 should do you for now.
Manchester really does have some of the best bottomless brunch culture in the country, and we’re saying that with our chests, so don’t even try and argue with us.
Lastly, if you do fancy the brunch without the need for the bottomless element, we’ve found there’s a great new mini-district for it forming in a popular part of Manchester city centre….
A new coffee shop by a familiar Manc influencer with an ‘Oasis-inspired’ name is opening in town
Danny Jones
We’re never short of cafés here in Manchester, especially in the city centre, and there are a fair few great ones in the Northern Quarter alone, but this new coffee shop from a famous local influencer is one to keep an eye on – especially as it’s a bit of an Oasis pun.
‘What’s the story?’, we hear you ask: Morning Glory, that’s what.
That’s right, NQ’s latest coffee spot is not only a fun little nod to the Britpop classic but a little bit of innuendo by an equally cheeky chappy and familiar content creator, Zack Hipps.
With the Oasis puns and double-entendre boxes ticked off, it already ticks a couple of boxes, but there are still plenty more reasons to think this will be a success.
Morning Glory is opening in the Northern Quarter at the end of the month. (Credit: Morning Glory)
To start with, the jokes don’t stop as sandwich lovers will be glad to hear that there will be ‘Glory Holes’ on the menu…
Calm down, it’s not that kind of gaff. These are bagels that are sliced, stuffed with whipped cream, brushed with garlic butter, before being rebaked to golden perfection and finished with a drizzle of honey thyme. That admittedly does sound rather naughty.
Bagels are the main foodstuff on the menu, with a lineup of stacked fillings such as grilled peach with goat’s cheese and chilli jam; roast chicken thigh with smoked garlic mayo, iceberg lettuce and red onion and a ‘next-level’ ham and cheese stack.
Oh yeah, and it’s not only a coffee shop but promises to be a great and affordable spot for grab-and-go joe, specifically, too.
Morning Glory will be helping kickstart Manc mornings in the best way: with a banging coffee and bagel brekkie deal for just £5, making it perfect for those early risers and rushes to the commuter trams – OR, indeed, the ideal hangover cure after a night out in the city.
Apart from the obvious Manchester music reference, the coffee bar is a fitting honey-yellow.The bagels are looking big and beautiful.The diagonal floor stripes are a nod to The Hacienda nightclub. (Credit: Supplied)
Now, with the space itself spanning just 50sqm and featuring just 12 seats, not to mention fast, value-for-money food and drink, everyone can admit this isn’t necessarily the spot to sit for hours chatting with your mates over a brew.
Although Zack describes the room as “casual, cosy and full of personality” and “proper good vibes”, assuring quality at all times, they also state it is about “no faff” and the menu is made for being on the move, which is absolutely fine with us.
For instance, indie suppliers Kyoto Matcha will be chipping in with drinks and local bakery Vainllis over in Ancoats will be delivering a fresh twist on the Manchester tart, both of which are easy to order takeout and enjoy on the go.
Best of all, to mark the launch, the first 100 people through the doors on from 8am on opening Saturday, 30 August. August will not only bag a free drink, but three lucky customers will be randomly chosen to win a golden ticket, entitling them to free coffee every single day for A WHOLE YEAR.
Speaking on the impending opening just weeks after Oasis left the city, Hipps says, “Morning Glory Coffee is my love letter to Manchester. We’ve grafted for months building the space, and it’s mad to think we’re finally opening the doors.
“It’s a warm, welcoming spot with proper Manc charm, and I’m buzzing to be working alongside some of my favourite local makers. Manchester’s got one of the best food scenes in the country, and we can’t wait to shine a light on all the incredible talent out there, whilst fuelling up Manc’s one brew at a time.”
See you in the queue on Oldham Street come launch day for great coffee, Oasis in the headphones and hopefully some rare but glorious Manchester morning sun.
The Manc -
11th December 2020 
