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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
“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.
ADVERTISEMENT
You’ll then receive a unique code to order your free Slim during their first few weeks of opening.
Glamorous new Salford restaurant speaks out as controversial resident parrot is rehomed
Daisy Jackson
A new riverside restaurant and shisha lounge has addressed the live parrot that was living in the middle of the restaurant.
Gardens Lounge in Salford opened last week, bringing Mediterranean dining to the banks of the River Irwell, just across the water from Manchester city centre.
But among those admiring the stylish decor were many issuing an outcry over Rio, a beautiful blue macaw displayed in a glass box at the heart of the restaurant.
A loud online campaign, Free Rio, was launched this week, including a petition that’s gained more than 10,000 signatures, which described his conditions as ‘suffering’.
The petition said: “Rio is a highly intelligent, wild animal who is being kept in wholly inadequate conditions. He is being used as a prop and décor to attract customers, this is not an appropriate or acceptable use of a living, sentient being.
“His current conditions cause us serious concern: His cage is entirely unsuitable for a macaw of his size and needs. He has no room to fly. He has nowhere to hide or retreat from the loud music and flashing lights he is subjected to for hours on en
“Macaws are highly social animals who mate for life and live in large family groups, Rio has no mate, no companionship, and no ability to express any natural behaviour whatsoever.
The restaurant has since been working closely with those campaigners – Protect the Wild and Vegan Manchester – and has made the decision to rehome Rio the parrot, saying that the bird has always been ‘a much-loved member of the Garden Lounge’s family’.
Gardens said that the parrot’s welfare has always been ‘of the utmost importance’ and stressed that his living conditions have been fully assessed and approved by the RSPCA.
In their full statement, Gardens said: “The welfare of Rio has always been of the utmost importance to everyone at Garden’s Lounge Manchester.
“Throughout his time with us, his health, wellbeing and environment have been thoroughly monitored and fully assessed and approved by the RSPCA.
The cage that housed Rio the parrot visible from the front door of the Salford restaurantGardens Lounge in Salford is open now
“Following extensive discussions and careful consideration, including conversations with members of the Manchester community whose views we greatly respect, we have made the decision to relocate Rio to a sanctuary environment, where he will have the opportunity to fly freely while continuing to receive specialist care and attention.
“Rio has been, and always will be, a much-loved member of the Garden’s Lounge family, and this decision has been made with his best interests at heart.
“We are proud of the love and care he has received over the years and are grateful to everyone who has shown him such affection and support.
“We look forward to welcoming everyone back to Garden’s Lounge Manchester soon and thank our customers, friends and the wider community for their continued support.”
The tiny van parked beneath a tram stop that’s quietly making some of the best coffee in town
Danny Jones
In a city as big and bustling as Manchester, let alone all the other great on-the-go food and drink spots across the ten boroughs, it can be hard to know where to start – that’s why Elliott’s coffee van is cleverly grabbing people on their way in and out of town to sample his stuff.
With brilliant blends, bakes and other kinds of brews up for grabs, it’s becoming a regular stop for us.
Finding a good cafe in transit can often be somewhat of a challenge, especially when you want to support independent businesses wherever possible.
If you’re happy to settle with one of the big brands that you’ll find at most major stations, grand, but if you want a proper good grind, perfect temperature, not to mention great service from a friendly face, then come and see Elliot.
Having recently celebrated more than a year since he first posted up outside the admittedly ‘no man’s land’-ish Metrolink station, this busy little bee has brought a welcome dose of energy and colour to this particular Bee Network interchange.
While Cornbrook doesn’t feel as lonely and forgotten as, say, Pomona, just one stop along, it’s long felt ever so slightly too out of the way, lonely, and a bit grey.
Thankfully, these days (at least if you time it right), when you go around the corner and head towards the archways bordering Castlefield and the edge of Trafford, you’ll now hear tunes coming down the road, and instead of simply smelling petrol or dank water, you’re hit with a whiff of freshly roasted beans.
We get the same warm feeling when we arrive here as when we see neighbouring Libby’s canal boat cafe floating just outside The Wharf.
It’s also worth noting that Elliot doesn’t just buy any old grounds: he’s a passionate barista who has such a love for the good stuff that he decided to buy a little Piaggio Ape 50 three-wheeler van and turn it into a mobile cafe, serving speciality coffee from around Greater Manchester and loading it all up himself.
Spotlighting everyone from Kobean and Assembly to wholesalers like Carter – not to mention fresh pastries and sweet treats from beloved Stockport bakery, Sticky Fingers – this lovely lad is indie through and through.
As well as loyalty, he even does gift cards.When we say everything is freshly pressed, we mean it…
Having gone full-time last August after starting in June 2025, we’re chuffed to bits to see it going so well for him, especially seeing him slog through the Manc weather come rain or shine, even giving us our fix during the colder months in that often rather dark Cornbrook corner.
What’s more, he’s also got some solid tunes on rotation, whether you need an extra early morning pick-me-up on your commute besides the caffeine, or just want that added boost later in the day.
Elliot serves with a smile and is always happy to have a little chinwag; better still, while he’s getting bigger and longer lines nowadays, the queue always moves quicker than you think it will.
For anyone looking to pay him a visit, his opening hours are 7am-1pm every day bar Mondays (six days a week is still no joke), and you get him for an extra hour until 2pm on Saturdays.
Daisy Jackson -
13th August 2024 
