The Manchester Coffee Festival, presented by Cup North, will make its grand return to the city this month – and you can save on tickets with The Manc.
The renowned event celebrates all things caffeine and is a must-visit for anyone in the industry, or just anyone who’s a coffee fanatic.
You can connect with other coffee lovers from around the UK while doing your favourite thing – drinking loads of coffee.
Visitors can work their way around the vast event at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, where there’ll be everything from a Markets Marketplace for shopping, a tasting room where you can sample loads of different coffees, workshops to have a go at, and talks and panels with industry experts.
As well as that, Manchester Coffee Festival will have live music featuring incredible local artists, and a fun and entertaining LGBTQ+ friendly family program in collaboration with Drag Queen Story Hour UK and The Proud Trust.
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Cup North will be hosting the coffee competition, Extracted Development, over the two days of the event. Baristas and roasters from across the UK will be bringing the real life behind-the-bar scene on stage.
Unlike the usual competitions, attendees will be encouraged to interact with the competitors and get to taste their delicious competition coffee at a brew bar setting.
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There’ll be more than 60 exhibitors joining Manchester Coffee Festival 2023, each bringing their unique coffee products, artisanal treats, and coffee-related products.
Traders at Manchester Coffee FestivalManchester Coffee Festival 2022The tasting room at Manchester Coffee Festival
And coffee fiends will find plenty of familiar names about, such as Oatly, La Marzocco, Stores, KeepCup, WaterCare and Brew-It Group.
This year, the festival will be going paper cup-free – attendees are encouraged ‘sip responsibly’ and to bring their own reusable cups.
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KeepCup will be on hand with free cups you can borrow for the day too.
This year, the Manchester Coffee Festival will be partnering with Farmers’ Voice Radio as part of its Community Partner Program, which aims to support different charity organisations who share their ambition to make a positive contribution towards specialty coffee communities and the communities local to their events.
Farmers’ Voice Radio has a mission to transform the lives of millions of farmers and rural communities through the power of radio.
It is also working with The Proud Trust to build a more diverse and inclusive event for the local community.
6% of all ticket sales will be evenly donated to both organisations, who will be on site to chat to attendees too.
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Festival co-founder Hannah Davies said: “The Manchester Coffee Festival is all about celebrating the vibrant world of specialty coffee and creating a welcoming community, not just for the industry but for all.
“We’re thrilled to be back, bigger and better than ever, with a program that showcases the very best of coffee, sustainability, and accessibility.”
Manchester Coffee Festival will return to Bowlers Exhibition Centre between 18 and 19 November. Tickets are now available to purchase online at manchestercoffeefest.com/tickets. Use code TheManc to save 10% on Sunday tickets.
Featured image: Supplied
Eats
Inside Portfolio, the UK’s first ‘champagne boutique’ and bar in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
A brand-new ‘champagne boutique’ is opening in Manchester this week, boasting more than 250 different champagnes to our city.
Portfolio will be a new bar and ‘immersive wine experience’, which will have one of the largest and most diverse champagne collections in the UK.
Mancs will be able to order champagne by the glass from just £12.50, along with plenty of accessible bottles.
To kick things off, Portfolio will open with a bar food offering that includes Welsh charcuterie, British cheeses and accoutrements, created by co-founder Julian Pizer, formerly of Another Hand and the Edinburgh Castle.
But later down the line, there’ll be a fun, relaxed tasting menu, ranging from a few bites to a full dining experience, obviously paired with the best champagne list in the country.
Inside Portfolio, you’ll be greeted by a striking champagne wall of 100 different bottles, plus a wall of photos from the team’s trips to Champagne in France.
Every drink will be served in exclusive Lehmann glassware imported from Reims, with more than 10 different glass styles and a strict no flutes policy.
There’ll be an open chef’s pass and sommelier station with bar seating, plus a working champagne cellar that will function as a private dining room and event space.
Portfolio champagne boutique opens in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Julian Pizer has created Portfolio with Cameron Foster, founder of Duex Six which specialises in providing exclusive grower champagnes to the UK.
They’ll be joined by Wayne Baxendale as food and beverage director, who has more than 30 years of global wine experience including from Michelin starred restaurants, and Nikolai Kuklenko as general manager, who previously held a role as Head Sommelier at Mana.
Portfolio will be a wine boutique packed with rare grower bottles and vintage prestige cuvées and hopes to ‘strip away the snobbery and make champagne accessible’.
As well as well known names, guests will be able to enjoy rare and highly sought-after cuvées, including Jacques Selosse, Ulysse Collin, Jérôme Prévost, Cédric Bouchard, Larmandier Bernier and Egly Ouriet.
There will also be vintage prestige cuvées from Cristal, Philipponnat, Pommery, Jacquesson, Pierre Peters and Bollinger, some dating back to the 1990s.
As Cameron Foster explains: “We want to strip back the snobbery of Champagne and make it a wine for everyone, whether that’s a quick glass after work, a special celebration, or discovering grower champagne for the first time.”
Portfolio will open on 9 December at 67 Bridge Street, Manchester, with the full restaurant experience launching in February 2026.
Popular American fast food franchise Shake Shack is coming to Manchester
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester is getting another big global franchise as Shake Shack is finally set to make its Northern debut.
With so many good burger joints and a million and one great places to grab a good portion of chips in town alone, they’ll have to hit the ground running to fight off the competition.
The well-known transatlantic multinational is nothing short of massive in the States, vying with the likes of In-N-Out Burger, Five Guys, Carl’s Jr. – also eyeing up multiple UK sites over the next few years – Whataburger and Wendy’s, just to name a rather large handful. Oh yeah, and Maccies, of course.
Yanks will debate until the cows come home (pardon the pun) about which is best, and many believe Shake Shack is right up there, so Manchester foodies have every right to be excited. Consider this a belated Thanksgiving contribution.
The New York-founded company already has multiple locations on this side of the pond, such as several in London, which is where we first sampled it for ourselves.
Other venues include Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford and Cardiff, as well as one inside Gatwick Airport; as for the brand’s first Manchester branch, Shake Shack UK no. 18 will be coming to the borough of Trafford and one of the biggest shopping destinations in the region.
But what sets this burger and milkshake-driven brand apart from the others?
Well, for starters, you could argue they’re not even most famous for their patties, buns or shakes; the first time we ever heard about Shake Shack was regarding their fries – specifically, the crinkle-cut shape and that very American-style cheese sauce.
They have long proved divisive among the masses, but those who love them go NUTS for the stuff, and you’ll find all manner of fakeaway recipes online of people trying to make their best imitation of the side and sauce, specifically.
Put it this way, Colonel’s gravy on KFC chicken is what cheese sauce is on Shake Shack fries. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but fans will stan this scran to no end.
Case and point:
My first time at Shake Shack 👌🏼💚 The cheese fries might be my new hyper fixation 🍟 pic.twitter.com/3HVwAgxRtD
Honestly, you’ll find countless examples of this kind of post on social media…
Richard Franks, Business Director at Shake Shack UK, said: “Manchester’s a city that does things proper; it’s full of heart, graft and great taste. We’re so pumped to be growing Shake Shack across the UK, and to be opening our first Northern Shack at Trafford Centre. We can’t wait to be a part of this city.”
The major mall and North West tourist attraction’s Centre Director, Simon Layton, added: “We’re really excited to welcome Shake Shack’s first Northern restaurant to the Trafford Centre.
“We know our visitors are going to love getting their hands on those iconic ShackBurgers and crinkle-cut fries. It’s a huge moment for the North – and we can’t wait for everyone to experience it with us in 2026.”
Opening in place of the Costa in the Great Hall, the opening of Shake Shack Manchester at the Trafford Centre is scheduled for next March. Exciting times.
Daisy Jackson -
21st September 2023 
