A brand new Detroit-style pizza spot is set to open in Manchester in the coming months, from the team behind Ramona, Firehouse and Diecast.
Detroit Slims will be serving 10″ long rectangular pizzas, made fresh to order, with prices starting from just £5.
And to celebrate its opening at Circle Square on Oxford Road (which is also home to Onda, Hello Oriental and the new self-serve beer bar The Tap House), Detroit Slims will be giving away 10,000 pizzas for free. More on that later…
The new quick-service pizza joint will be serving up Detroit-style pizzas, which are made with a light and fluffy textured base using a special 48-hour, slow-fermented focaccia dough.
Toppings will include the Cheese Burger Slim, BBQ Meat Feast and the Shroom Slim – with the standout signature The Pepperoni Crown.
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The individual-sized pizzas – known as ‘The Slims’ – are a perfect match for house-made dips including Kimchi Mayo, Hot Honey, and Dill and Jalapeño Ranch.
As for sides, there’ll be dishes including chicken tenders tossed in homemade cajun pepper and crispy scooper fries.
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There’ll also be thick ‘Slim Shaky’ milkshakes, with flavours like banoffee pie and a Detroit-style ‘Bumpy Cake’ (vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch cake), plus ice cream sandwiches, cookie trays and soft-serve ice creams.
Detroit Slims is a brand new pizza project in Manchester from the team behind Ramona. Credit: Supplied
The restaurant space will span 1800 sq ft at Circle Square, and is just a three-minute walk from Oxford Road station.
Guests will be able to dine in the 30-cover restaurant, takeaway, or order their pizzas on Deliveroo.
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The team behind Manchester’s wildly popular venues Ramona, Diecast, and The Firehouse are now gearing up to launch Detroit Slims, inspired by their love of Manchester’s ‘twin city’.
Dan Mullen, director at Detroit Slims, commented: “Detroit Slims has been in the works for a while now and we are so excited to finally introduce this new concept. Detroit has been a city close to our hearts since we first visited, so much so, we brought a piece of it back home when we opened Ramona in 2021. Detroit Slims is the newest iteration of our love for Detroit-style pizza!
“We’re so excited to finally introduce the Slims brand to our home city of Manchester, and eventually bring Detroit-style pizza to everyone UK-wide!”
They’re giving away 10,000 pizzas to celebrate the launch. Credit: Supplied
Will Taplin, executive chef for Detroit Slims, commented: “We’re confident that everyone will love our pizza just as much as we do.
“All Detroit Slims pizzas will be completely homemade, made up of proper ingredients – making for high-quality fast food that will leave you feeling good. All of our bases will be made right here in the city, and eventually, as the brand grows, they will be shipped across the country to reach our other locations.
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“There is nothing like Detroit Slims in the UK, and we’re ready to introduce ourselves with some proper American hospitality.”
Matt Pazos, retail commercial manager for Bruntwood SciTech (which is behind Circle Square), shared: “Curating a broad range of restaurants, bars and retail venues for businesses and the general public to enjoy and explore has been crucial to realising our ambitious vision for Circle Square.
“We’re delighted to welcome Detroit Slims, whose team have already been so successful in the city, and this will be a great new offering for the Oxford Road Corridor knowledge quarter. Venues like theirs are what is truly bringing Circle Square to life.”
How to claim one of 10,000 free Detroit Slims pizzas
Detroit Slims is giving away 10,000 free pizzas to celebrate its launch – that’s the equivalent of more than 23 American football pitches when you line them up.
To claim your free pizza, you just need to be one of the first 10,000 people to sign up for the newsletter here.
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You’ll then receive a unique code to order your free Slim during their first few weeks of opening.
Deansgate bar Simmons closes just over a year after opening
Danny Jones
London-born bar brand Simmons has closed their Manchester site just over a year after opening their first Northern location.
They’ve lasted roughly 15 months on one of our busiest nightlife strips.
Opening on Deansgate back in October 2024, Simmons Manchester wasn’t just their first foray here up in this half of the country but their only other venue outside of the capital.
An otherwise well-established and popular chain down south, they have a total of 15 different bars in central London, but things clearly haven’t quite taken off as planned here in Manchester.
Placing a poster in the unit’s shopfront besides the likes of Be At One, Yours, The Moon Under The Water Spoons and the Deansgate branch of Slug and Lettuce, as you can see, the fellow franchise founded over a decade ago said: “After much consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our doors.
“It’s never easy to say goodbye”, they add, “We’re incredibly proud of what the team built here and so grateful to them, as well as everyone who joined us over the past year.
“We’ve had some unforgettable nights. We love Manchester, and we hope to be back under the right conditions.”
They go on to thank everyone for being “part of the journey”, but for now, it looks like the room has closed effective immediately.
Simmons started back in 2012 when founder Nick Campbell opened the first bar below his flat in Kings Cross, and their presence has grown hugely since then. The closing sign was spotted and shared on social media earlier this week.
Offering everything from stylish cocktails to New York-style pizza, live music and even private karaoke booths, the place had plenty going on.
With rising business rates, energy bills and more dovetailing with the continuing cost of living crisis that is still hampering both hospitality and the nightime economy, they are just one of many to unfortunately close their doors of late.
For instance, it was only earlier this month that we saw multiple well-known names shut up shop here in the city centre or elsewhere in Greater Manchester, including another long-standing late-night favourite, Revolution.
It’s a shame for any business to close, and we certainly hope they’ll return someday with a model that can be sustained in the current climate.
Inside Butter Bird – Ancoats’ hottest new neighbourhood rotisserie with a menu dedicated to butter
Clementine Hall
A new restaurant has opened its doors in Ancoats serving up two of life’s greatest pleasures.
Those two things being chicken and butter. And coincidentally, they go very well together.
Introducing Butter Bird, a new neighbourhood rotisserie restaurant that has taken over the old Counter House site on Blossom Street.
If you’ve been living under a rock or you have a healthy relationship with social media, then you won’t know that rotisserie chicken is very much ‘in’ for 2026.
Images: The Manc Eats
So of course, just like anything, Ancoats is first to hop on that trendy bandwagon.
When simple things are done properly then they’re very satisfying indeed, and that’s exactly what Butter Bird have achieved.
Built around classic spit cooking and time honoured technique, with an impressive Rotisol Millenium rotisserie oven at the heart of the space, the chickens are seasoned and brined in house, then slowly rotated over open heat so the meat self bastes as it cooks.
Images: The Manc Eats
The result? Moreish, crisp, golden skin, succulent meat and deep flavour.
If that doesn’t sound enticing enough, they’ve also got a section of their menu dedicated entirely to their house butters.
Flavoured, complex butters designed to compliment your bird in however you desire.
My personal favourite was the moroccan-spiced Chermoula, but the tarragon with wildflower and mustard was also stellar.
Images: The Manc Eats
Drinks wise they’ve got a great selection of Crémant, chosen to cut through the chicken fat, as well as fun cocktails and decent wines.
Obviously you’ll need some sides to go with your bird which you can order as a quarter or half, and they’ve got everything from rotisserie potatoes which you can douse in chicken gravy to a Caesar salad stuffed with enough croutons it’s probably not classed as a salad anymore.
Butter Bird opens to the public on Thursday 29 January, with a launch offer offering 50% off rotisserie chicken when booked in advance for the first two weeks.
Daisy Jackson -
13th August 2024 
