A new alcohol-free pop up bar experience is opening at Kampus next month, promising a series of events that don’t rely on booze.
This thriving neighbourhood, which is packed full of bars, restaurants and cafes, will soon welcome Love From to its ranks.
The pop-up, open between 12 and 22 October, is founded by Karl Considine, who hosts the What Next podcast and shares stories of sobriety.
Love From will help to pave the way for the rapidly-growing alcohol-free market as more and more people turn their backs on booze.
Events will include a tasting masterclass with alcohol-free spirit brand Lyres, an art workshop and cocktail tasting with local artist Caroline Dowsett, and loads more.
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Over the two weeks, Love From will be supported by pioneers including Sober Girl Society, So Let’s Talk and Manchester Pride, hosting a mixer, open mic night and a queer film screening respectively.
Karl hopes Love From will attract those who are already sober, sober-curious, or just looking for something outside of their norm to try, and will challenge the narrative that alcohol-free living can be just as fun-filled as drinking.
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Karl Considine at Love From, a new alcohol-free bar pop-up at Kampus. Credit: SuppliedKarl Considine at Love From, a new alcohol-free bar pop-up at Kampus. Credit: Supplied
He is an Alcohol Change UK (ACUK) Ambassador and has recently left his 15 year corporate job to pursue Love From full time.
Karl has now been sober for more than two and half year, having previously lived a life that involved heavy drinking.
He described Love From as ‘very much a passion project’ and added: “We’re creating a space for people to connect in a setting that serves super tasty alcohol-alternative drinks coupled with hosting awesome events.”
He also hopes that he can use feedback from the pop-up to create a more permanent space in Manchester.
Adam Higgins, co-founder of Capital&Centric, said: “Karl’s a massive champion for change and this run of unique pop-up events is something different for the city to coincide with Sober October.
“It offers a real alternative for those who want to meet up and connect with people in a space that doesn’t revolve around alcohol.”
The menu will consist of cocktails developed in partnership with Lyre’s, Everleaf and Caleno, and alcohol free beers from Lucky Saint and Beavertown. There will also be original cocktails available throughout the two weeks at Kampus where the team at Love From will be testing out some unique styles and flavours ahead of opening a permanent space.
You can follow Love From and Kampus on Instagram for the latest events and tickets.
New Manchester restaurant receives rave review as another is slammed as ‘torture’
Daisy Jackson
Pip, a new restaurant in Manchester, has received a rave national review this week – a review which slammed another restaurant in the same feature.
Food critic William Sitwell wrote in his review in The Telegraph that Pip is charming, refined, and fabulous.
“Bravo, Pip. Pip pip!” he wrote in the glowing write-up on the new restaurant, which stands at the foot of the new Treehouse Hotel and has the acclaimed Mary-Ellen McTague at its helm.
Sitwell’s Telegraph review particularly raved about dishes including Lancashire hot pot (‘fabulously good’), a wild garlic soup (‘a gorgeous thing’), and an apple trifle (‘a gift from heaven’).
But while it was all good for Pip, there were significantly less positive adjectives heaped on another restaurant in Manchester.
In fact, he said that Pip is ‘a great-value tonic’ for the ‘brash (and pricey) torture’ across town.
That restaurant was KAJI, formerly known as MUSU, which he said was ‘all tummies, bald heads, tattoos and heat’.
Sitwell said that while the service and sashimi are good at KAJI, the ‘place is afflicted by some overbearing cooking that cheapens the noble name of Japanese cuisine’.
He wrote: “Lamb chops fail the tender test and are properly wrecked sitting on a vulgar pond of sticky “tomato ponzu”. No beast should die to have that stuff squirted anywhere near it.
“And Kaji is a Japanese gaff without sake. Which is like opening a British pub in Tokyo and forgetting to put an ale on tap.”
Sharing the review, Pip wrote: “Thankyou @telegraph and @williamsitwell for the fantastic feature. We’re so proud of our team here.”
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Daisy Jackson
Ice cream doesn’t come much fresher than those served at Milk Maids – in fact, you’ll be standing right on the family farm where the cows that produce the milk live, as you tuck into your scoop.
This unassuming dairy farm in Bolton has been in operation for decades, and in the same family for generations.
But it’s when sisters Fiona and Rebecca saw the full potential of all that award-winning milk being produced on their farm that Milk Maids was born.
This ice cream parlour on Dearden’s Farm in Over Hulton is now one of the hottest spots in Greater Manchester, especially when the weather is similarly hot.
Every month they release a whole batch of flavours, all made fresh daily (you can literally see Fiona legging it across the yard with buckets of milk to make fresh batches), with May specials including white chocolate and sea salt caramel, raspberry cookie, and passionfruit pavlova.
Milk Maids, Bolton – The family-run ice cream parlour on an award-winning farm
Cones can be filled with molten chocolate or pistachio creme before your ice cream is scooped and pressed into the cone.
Or you can have your chosen flavour whizzed up into a milkshake, served in a milk bun, or presented in an insulated take-home box for later.
We could wax lyrical about how good this ice cream is, but the queues really do speak for themselves, and you should go and get in it right now.
Daisy Jackson -
25th September 2023 
