Eats

Popular Manchester bar Three Little Words launches full espresso martini menu

Including a CLEAR espresso martini

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 13th March 2025

One of Manchester’s best cocktail bars is rolling out a whole menu dedicated to espresso martinis, in celebration of Espresso Martini Week.

Three Little Words, a bar, restaurant and distillery tucked beneath the arches of Manchester Central, is teaming up with Australian coffee liqueur brand Mr Black to craft the ultimate experience for espresso martini fans.

If you like your cocktails with a kick of caffeine, this is a week dedicated to the world’s most iconic coffee cocktail that you don’t want to miss.

They’re even giving you a chance to win a cocktail tree of four drinks for free.

Three Little Words takes its spirits seriously – it’s founded by Manchester Gin, and the bar is home to the Spirit of Manchester Distillery.

That means a whole host of gins and vodkas are distilled right next to where you’ll be ordering your cocktails from, including Sphere Vanilla and Tonka vodka, which happens to be the perfect base for an espresso martini.

It’s not just the alcohol that’s taken seriously here either, with Three Little Words teaming up with the legendary Mancoco to create a custom coffee blend specifically for espresso martinis.

Espresso Martini tree at Three Little Words
Espresso Martini tree at Three Little Words
Three Little Words in Manchester has a full espresso martini menu
Three Little Words in Manchester has a full espresso martini menu

Running from Wednesday 12 to Sunday 16 March, Three Little Words has a full menu of five different espresso martinis for you to try.

There’s the classic you already know and love, made with Sphere Vanilla and Tonka Vodka and Mr Black Coffee Liqueur.

Then there’s a mind-bending illusion of an espresso martini, the bar’s brand-new Clear Collection #1 – it’s a completely clear cocktail (compared to the usual dark brown espresso martini), which still delivers all the velvety intensity of the classic.

You can also order a Flat White Martini, which has Baileys in it; a Black Cherry Martini, featuring One-Eyed Rebel Black Cherry Spiced Rum; and the Mayan Martini, made with tequila and espresso.

Or if you can’t decide, order an espresso martini tree and you can mix and match any four espresso martinis in one go.

On Espresso Martini Day itself, which falls on Saturday 15 March, there’ll be Espresso Martini Tarot Cards in play – pick the winning card, and your espresso martini tree is free.

Three Little Words’ Espresso Martini Week celebrations will run from 12 until 16 March – find out more HERE.

Read more: There’s a bakery in Manchester where you can decorate your own adorable tiny bento cake

Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

Prestwich wine bar Chin Chin now serves roast dinner sandwiches

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in Prestwich

A new (ish) wine bar in Prestwich has launched one of the city’s coolest Sunday offerings – roast dinner sandwiches, with a side of jazz.

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times – Elnecot is up there as one of Manchester’s best Sunday roasts, with Yorkshire puddings you could fit a jug of gravy inside, blushing slices of roast beef, and generous portions that put you in the sort of food coma you should be in on a Sunday afternoon.

So when Roast Master (okay fine, his official job title is chef/owner) Michael Clay said that his sister venue Chin Chin was launching a Sunday offering, I was there with my nose pressed up at the window. I’m ready, Michael.

Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin, right in the heart of Prestwich village, brings that incredible roast beef and roast potatoes into a more casual format.

You can tuck into roast meat butties, roast potatoes loaded with cheese and gravy, and ice cream sundaes, all while perusing a well-thought-out wine list that’s written up by hand every time new bottles come in.

Oh, and did we mention there are £4 pints all day on Sunday – and that includes Guinness?

On the side of just about everything on the menu, you’re presented with a little bowl of extra gravy (how delightfully Northern) for dipping and dunking.

Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in Prestwich
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in Prestwich
Roast beef sandwiches at Chin Chin
Roast beef sandwiches at Chin Chin
Lancashire cheese toasties
Lancashire cheese toasties
The Bifana
The Bifana
Loaded roasties
Loaded roasties
Wine and vinyl records
Wine and vinyl records
Inside Chin Chin wine bar
Inside Chin Chin wine bar
The wine list at Chin Chin
The wine list at Chin Chin

Our top pick would be the roast beef sandwich, served between ciabatta rolls and laced with mustard mayo and caramelised onions.

But the cheese toastie is worth a visit too – a hefty helping of Lancashire cheese and charred spring onions, with a ‘secret sauce’ on the side.

Coming soon will be a new menu item, a Bifana sandwich. If you’ve trudged the streets of Portugal you’ll have come across these – thin slices of pork marinated in white wine and garlic, piled into bread with a punchy mustard. Chin Chin’s are excellent.

And for afters, because there is always room for dessert, it’s a lovely ice cream sundae topped with miso caramel and a showering of pistachios.

The whole time you’ll be eating with a soundtrack of jazz, played through the wine bar’s vinyl record system and Michael’s own personal collection of vinyls.

Chin Chin is open now on Bury New Road, with food on Sundays served between 12pm and 6pm.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Eats

Drinking around the ‘Beermuda Triangle’ of brewery taprooms in Manchester

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Drinking around the Beermuda Triangle in Manchester

If you’re looking for the best pints in Manchester, turn your ass around at the door of the pub and head to the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, a corner of the city centre where taprooms are king.

Our city has a great rep for craft beer and microbreweries, and a lot of these are concentrated in one brilliant, unexpected stretch of industrial estate.

Head beyond Manchester Piccadilly and you’ll find yourself in an area nicknamed the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, where tucked among tool shops and warehouses are breweries welcoming in thirsty punters.

These are places where you can sip on the freshest lagers, ales and sours, straight from the source.

As you kick back in one of these taprooms, you can see the brewers hard at work on their next creation, and see beers being canned before your eyes.

There are, of course, plenty of other taprooms and brewery-operated bars all over Greater Manchester, but if you want to minimise your step count and maximise your drinking time, this is where to head.

So we’ve gone out exploring the current residents on the Beermuda Triangle (I know, tough job) to give you the low-down for your next pub crawl.

All the taprooms on Manchester’s Beermuda Triangle

Cloudwater

Cloudwater's Taproom on the Beermuda Triangle
Cloudwater's Taproom on the Beermuda Triangle

When you think of craft beer, you probably think of these guys.

Since being founded in 2014, Cloudwater has gone on huge things and is now listed among the largest craft beer brands in the UK.

They’ve got their own pub (The Sadler’s Cat), a taproom down in London, and a huge brewery next-door to their taproom on the Piccadilly Trading Estate.

In here, it’s a stripped-back, Scandi-style interior upstairs, with a few extra tables squeezed in amongst oak barrels downstairs, plus a decent suntrap terrace out the front.

Our order? A pint of Fuzzy pale ale.

Track

Track Taproom
Track Taproom
Track Taproom
Track Taproom

Another big player in the craft beer game, Track’s taproom is comfortably one of Manchester’s coolest bars.

It’s a huge space, split between the actual brewery and the taproom, where beers are displayed on a rainbow-hued menu board and their own merch lines the walls.

With loads of plants, a leafy little beer garden, and a small kitchen that’s home to Slice Culture pizzeria, this one is the least rough-and-ready of all the taprooms on the Beermuda Triangle.

The most logical order here has, and will always be, Sonoma, they’re easy-drinking session pale ale available on both cask and keg – but there are always tonnes of other beers beyond their core range that are worth your attention.

Sureshot

Sureshot taproom
Sureshot taproom
Sureshot taproom

Sureshot proves that you can take the art of brewing seriously but still have a laugh, with silly beer names and a giant bear mascot manically grinning at you as you sip your beer.

What’ll it be – a pint of ‘Wait… What?’, a schooner of ‘Small Man’s Wetsuit’, or a third of ‘Be Polite and Comb Your Hair?’.

They’re known for their hop-forward styles but are always dreaming up new creations and collaborations, like a recent sour with Bundobust, and collaboration with inclusive football club Manchester Lacesm with a donation of each ‘I Thought She Was A Pisces’ sold going to the club.

This one’s off the Piccadilly Trading Estate and is under the railway arches, handily with Nell’s next door who will deliver you a pizza while you’re on your taproom crawl.

Balance Brewing & Blending

Inside Balance Brewing's taproom in Manchester
Inside Balance Brewing's taproom in Manchester

The final stop on the Beermuda triangle is Balance, who specialise in barrel-fermented sours.

The taproom itself is a real looker, with fairy lights festooned overhead, a deep burgundy bar, and persian rugs thrown all over the concrete floors.

The beers here are all funky and punchy and well worth ordering a few testers of before you make your final decision.

Whatever you order, it’s going to have good British roots and a beautiful flavour.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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