Dog Bowl, a bowling bar that’s been part of Manchester’s bar scene for 12 years, will be closing for good next month ahead of a major rebrand.
The beloved bowling alley will be shutting down on 16 August to make way for Wynwood Lanes, a new downtown Miami-themed venue.
It’s promising ‘pool-side party vibes’ inspired by Miami’s vibrant Wynwood district, famed for its bold geometric murals, neon lit streets and 24/7 energy – but bowling lanes will remain as part of the venue.
The bar will offer five upgraded bowling lanes, east coast playlists, celebratory smoke machines and upgraded lighting effects that bring every strike to life.
That’s alongside new pool tables, basketball hoops and a coconut shy.
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Taking over the kitchens at the Whitworth Street venue will be Kong’s NQ, who’ll be serving up fresh Cuban sandwiches, meat-filled arepas and fried chicken tacos.
Wynwood Lanes will also feature a bottomless brunch menu every Saturday and Sunday from 30 August, with Miami brunch plates and bottomless drinks for 90 minutes and bowling packages available too.
The drinks menu will star cocktails inspired by Miami – think frozen margs, fruity daiquiris, and coladas.
By day, you can expect poolside cocktails, low-fi tunes, and a laid-back atmosphere – with children welcome until 7pm, Sunday to Wednesday.
But then by night, Wynwood Lanes will be all about drinks offers, late night snacks and a late night playlist.
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Dog Bowl has been part of Manchester’s nightlife scene since 2013, and was acquired by gaming bar NQ64 in 2018.
Now it’s ready for its next era as Wynwood Lanes.
Credit: The-Vain – Carl Sukonik – @thevainphotosCredit: The-Vain – Carl Sukonik – @thevainphotosDog Bowl is closing in Manchester to become Wynward Lanes
Matt Robson, Co-founder of Wynwood Lanes, said: “We went and sat in Dog Bowl recently and just realised we weren’t proud of it anymore – (especially the name, we no longer want to compete with pet shops on Google).
“Wynwood Lanes will bring something new to Whitworth Street and we’re buzzing to crack on with it!
“We have a hit list of passions from a trip to Wynwood in Miami and built a space that brings together the things we love – drinking rum and tequila, smashing avo on toast with Cuban coffee for brunch, tacos and fried chicken at night, playing and watching basketball, sharking people at pool and partying late into the night…”
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Bowling prices will start at £9 with food and drink add-ons while you bowl available.
Wynwood Lanes will open at 4pm on Friday 22 August.
Featured image: The-Vain – Carl Sukonik – @thevainphotos
Eats
A fancy new pizzeria has opened in Manchester serving posh pizzas and seasonal sharing plates
Clementine Hall
If you’ve ever wanted a pizza with smoked eel on, then you’re in luck.
Introducing Proloco, the brand spanking new restaurant from chef Richard Carver, founder of Honest Crust Sourdough Pizza, and Dan Hope, co-founder of Manchester club Rainy Heart.
Located in One Port Street over in Ancoats, this isn’t your bog standard pizzeria – this is lavish.
Here you’ll find a weekly rotating selection of 18-inch pizzas and sharing plates all made with the very best local produce imaginable.
Forget your bog standard pepperoni slice, on the menu here you’ll find a porchetta pizza with shishito peppers and Cornish kern, a charred greens pizza with sugar snap peas and anchovies, and our personal favourite – a smoked eel pie with lemon basil and pine nuts.
There’s also a tomato butter pie, which features slithers of butter in place of your usual mozzarella.
And if you just can’t decide, you can have your pizza as a half-and-half of flavours.
Sharing plates include tomatoes with lardo, roasted beetroot and a crispy egg with mortadella and fennel.
A half-and-half pizzaBeautiful interiors of ProlocoThe butter pie pizzaSmall plates, wine, and £7 negroniProloco opens on Great Ancoats Street in AugustScoops of homemade gelatoProloco’s open kitchenThe eel pizza at Proloco
A real selling point, though, is the £7 negroni alongside a selection of honest wine and carefully chosen beer from local suppliers as well as an aperitivo list.
The interior is simple, but beautiful – a colour palette of butter yellow, blue, and huge burgundy speakers to match the chairs that invite you to sit at long banquet-worthy tables or in front of the many windows.
Richard will be calling on his longstanding relationships with producers across the North West (and beyond) for his ingredients, from flour grown and milled in the Lake District, vegetables from Cinderwood Market Garden and Organic North, artisanal charcuterie and cheeses from Somerset, and the best tomatoes and oil from Italy.
He said: “Proloco is about cooking food I genuinely love with the best people and produce around me.
“I want it to feel effortless – warm, a little bit fun, and always worth coming back to.”
Proloco will officially open its doors on Great Ancoats Street on Wednesday 26 August.
Team behind award-winning cocktail bar Stray to open second Manchester bar
Daisy Jackson
The team behind Manchester’s award-winning cocktail bar Stray have announced a second bar is on the way.
Bar Dos will be an all-new neighbourhood bar, promising to be the ‘tearaway younger sibling’ of Stray.
You can expect everything from pints of Stella to refined cocktails, plus DJs all weekend long.
Set to open very soon, with a September launch pencilled into our diaries already, Bar Dos will be joining a couple of other big names in a new building on Great Ancoats Street.
They’ll count Proloco and Osma as neighbours once all three ventures are up and running this year.
Stray first opened at Mackie Mayor back in 2023, and shot into the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars just over a year later.
Bar Dos will open in Manchester in SeptemberBar Dos is the second site for Stray
There, it occupies a beautiful corner unit with huge windows, and an outside terrace, perfect for sipping on their best-selling cocktails like their tomato vine margarita and their Fanta Limon (a boozy version of everyone’s favourite balcony tipple).
Now ready to launch a second site, the team will soon open Bar Dos, which will be a late-night, music-focused neighbourhood bar.
DJs already announced, along with renowned artists who have curated playlists, include Space Afrika, Chunky, Private Joy, Konnie Kon of Children of Zeus, and Stray residents Rhod Parry and Stu Richards.
Bar Dos will open on Great Ancoats Street this September.