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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
You’ll then receive a unique code to order your free Slim during their first few weeks of opening.
Inside the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
Hotel Chocolat has today opened the doors to its first Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester, serving up shakes, hot chocolates, sundaes, and loads more.
Part cafe, part retail space, inside you’ll find everything from molten chocolate fountains to a full range of chocolate boxes, bars and hot chocolate powders.
The popular chocolatier has stores up and down the UK selling its ethically-sourced sweet treats, hitting a new level of fame with its Velvetiser, an invention that creates velvety smooth hot drinks at the touch of a button.
They’ve been so popular, Hotel Chocolat is now opening Velvetiser Cafes across the UK – and Manchester is next.
There are exclusive-to-Manchester-sundaes in store, each one inspired by their most popular chocolates, like a Billionaire’s Shortbread and an Eton Mess.
You can also grab yourself a hot choc shake, with loads of flavours, milks and toppings to choose from.
Hotel Chocolat’s new Velvetiser Cafe in ManchesterThe chocolate boxes at Hotel ChocolatInside the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe in ManchesterMix-and-match hot chocolate selection boxesInside the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe in ManchesterExclusive-to-Manchester ice cream sundaesCroissant with a molten chocolate potInside the Velvetiser Cafe in ManchesterInside the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe in Manchester
The Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe also has pastries, which you can order with a side of melted chocolate for dipping and drizzling.
As part of the experience inside, there’s a wall of hot chocolate sachets, which you can mix and match to build your own selection box.
And all along the way there’ll be samples, and loads to learn about the chocolate industry.
The Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser Cafe has officially opened its doors today on Cross Street in Manchester city centre, just next to the new Joe & The Juice.
The old fire station in Salford that’s now home to a bakery, brewery and bar
Daisy Jackson
A former fire station in Salford has been turned into a bustling base for some of the North West’s finest baking and brewing talents.
The Old Fire Station, right beside the University of Salford, is now operating as a bakery, brewery, bar, cafe and restaurant.
That means pastries, bread, pizzas and even beers are made within a few feet of where you’ll be eating and drinking them.
The space is beautiful, still boasting those gigantic red fire station doors and the traditional ceramic tiles that would have been here when the space was still home to fire engines instead of bread mixers.
Around half of the pastries coming out of the bakery, headed up by Erick Molero Delgado (his CV includes top bakeries across the USA and Europe), are completely vegan – not that you can tell from looking at their glossy, laminated layers and extravagant fillings.
We’re talking perfectly cubed laminated brioche with sweet maple flavours, mini pizzettes with olives and tomatoes dotted inside a pastry wall, and striped pain suisse stuffed with nuts and chocolate.
Then there are the not-very-vegan-at-all pastries, like a spandaeur, which is like a croissant and pastel de nata hybrid, and thick slices of Basque cheesecake.
There are new signature ‘Salford bagels’ too developed by assistant head baker Scott Shannon, which are a fusion of North American, German and Jewish styles, fermented for up to 48 hours with a crisp outer shell and a chewy centre.
A spandaeur pastry and a pain suisseHeirloom tomato bruschetta on sourdoughThe bakery line-upThe ‘Salford Bagel’ with smoked salmon
We had ours stuffed with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers and raved about it all the way home.
Erick says: “Our new menu is a true labour of love by the whole team – from early ideas and experiments right through to the final bake.
“If someone has an idea, we run with it. That creative freedom is priceless. It keeps the work exciting, and it means our customers have the opportunity to get something fresh every time they visit.”
As for the beers, they’re all made on site too – on the opposite side of The Old Fire Station is Lark Hill Brewery, headed up by Jack Dixon, who’s able to experiment and explore new flavours in this top-spec microbrewery.
Jack Dixon in the Lark Hill BreweryLaminated briocheThe Old Fire Station bakers at work
There are experimental beers, sometimes made in collaboration with researchers at the University, as well as true-to-style classics like a New England Pale Ale and the Lark Helles, a fresh take on a classic German lager.
Jack said: “Having the autonomy to design and brew what I want, without limits, is rare and exciting,.
“It means every beer we pour here has a story and a personality. We’re proud to bring something new to Salford’s craft scene.”
This summer, they’re launching New York-style pizzas, made on slow-fermented, hand-stretched pizza dough.
And very little goes to waste here – the trimmed-off croissant pastry is now being turned into their own croissant loaf, which they’re whipping into French toast for the brunch menu.
Everything at The Old Fire Station is crafted with talent and love, and you can really taste it.
Daisy Jackson -
13th August 2024 
