Stow in Manchester is already making waves beyond the city, just weeks after it opened, receiving a glowing review in The Sunday Times.
The new restaurant on Bridge Street is a cosy space with a ‘supercool bar’ in front and a white-bricked dining room out back.
And what sets it apart from the others is that everything – desserts, breads, meat and more – is cooked over fire. No ovens, no hobs.
It’s this theatrical element that’s earned it its first (and surely not last) glowing review in a national title, impressing restaurant critic Charlotte Ivers in a dazzling review in The Sunday Times.
She raved about Stow’s potatoes, particularly, but also about the cosy restaurant’s service, theatre, decor, atmosphere, and basically everything they touched.
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In the column, she said: “Particularly good restaurants make you feel as if you are at the centre of the world when you walk in… Stow is one of these restaurants.”
The Sunday Times piece continued to say that Matt Nellany and Jamie Pickles are creating food that is ‘far more exciting’ than their roots, down the road at much-loved Northern Quarter bar Trof.
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She heaped praise on their milk bread, served with salty onion butter, the ricotta and beetroots which are roasted overnight on the embers of that huge grill, and the pork and fennel sausage with creme fraiche and tomato sauce.
The review then added that she will think of the ratte potatoes, topped with fat slices of garlic and shavings of Corra Linn cheese, ‘on my deathbed’.
Since the review went to print, Stow has said: “This day goes down as a big one for the Stow team – we couldn’t be any happier.”
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Congratulations to the whole team. If you haven’t checked Stow out yet, make sure you do HERE.
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Daisy Jackson -
31st January 2025 
