Eats

Plans to open a brand-new pub on the site of the Rovers Return

Complimentary crisps too!

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 29th May 2025

A brand-new pub is set to open in Manchester city centre net month, with treats in store like complimentary bowls of crisps, an outdoor terrace, and a games parlour.

The Stables Tavern is taking shape in the St John’s district, poetically on the same site that was once home to Coronation Street’s iconic Rovers Return pub.

They’re promising this will be a ‘historic tavern reimagined for today’s lover of a proper pint’.

The pub will come from Shiko Group, which is also behind Courts Club, where you can play tennis or basketball followed by court-side pints, and Side Street, a bar-restaurant-events space with a mid-Century interior.

Neighbouring the Bonded Warehouse, The Stables Tavern will join this rapidly blossoming new creative district, just across the yard from Caravan, The Trading Route and Aviva Studios.

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Inside, punters will find multiple beer taps with local beers, served with complimentary bowls of crisps as well as a menu of pub snacks like handmade sausage rolls and local pies.

The pub will be split into three sections – an outside terrace, a main bar, and a parlour area at the back of the pub for live entertainment, old school games, and rounds of whiskey.

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This might be a new district but it’s a historic area for the city – the same building was a busy watering hole back in the early 19th century for workers, merchants and visitors who made use of the nearby canals and cobbled streets.

It was then the home of the Rovers Return, back when this area was the home of Granada Studios.

Hayley Sammé, Marketing Director, said: “We’re so excited to bring The Stables Tavern back to St John’s. The area’s extensive historical backdrop and burgeoning hospitality scene provides the perfect landscape for a traditional British pub.

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“It’s the perfect addition to the existing scene, and we hope it’s going to become a popular spot in our new creative district.”

The Stables Tavern will open at St John’s on Friday 6 June.

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Featured image: Supplied

Eats

Popular Manchester restaurant bar to give out FREE sausage rolls to people called ‘Greg’

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Sausage roll

One of Manchester’s much-loved restaurant bars is doing a free sausage roll giveaway next week… but there’s a catch.

The catch being you have to have a certain name in particular.

It was only last week that popular high street chain Pret A Manger announced it would be slinging out free sandwiches to any Mancs with ‘Nic’ in their name over the late May bank holiday weekend, and now Tariff & Dale is getting it on the giveaway action, and it’s all to celebrate the iconic event that is National Sausage Roll Day.

In case you didn’t know – which is very likely, let’s be real – next Thursday (5 June) is the day dedicated to all things sausage roll.

So what better way to mark the occasion than with free portions of Tariff & Dale‘s legendary meaty treat?

The popular Northern Quarter restaurant bar is known for its creative comfort food, craft beers and cocktails, and laid-back industrial vibe, with one of the cult-classic dishes on its menu having always been the honey pork sausage roll – which just so happens to be a whopping 15-inches long, by the way.

Resembling something more of a pork wellington than a sausage roll, if you will, the dish is crispy, golden, and glazed with honey on top.

But to celebrate National Sausage Roll day, instead of parting with £9.50 for a portion or £48 for the full 15-inch thing, people with one specific name can actually get a slice for completely free of charge.

Tariff & Dale sausage roll
Tariff & Dale is giving away FREE sausage rolls to people with this name next week / Credit: Supplied

And that name is ‘Greg’, because if we’re honest, when it comes to sausage rolls, we all tend to think of Greggs.

So whether your surname is Gregory or Gregson, or you’re simply just called Greg, then all you need to do to claim your complimentary slice of sausage roll heaven is head on down to Tariff & Dale next Thursday 5 June from 12pm up until 9pm.

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Make sure you show your valid ID proving your name when you order at the bar, and get ready to stuff your face.

Failing that, anyone not called Greg will just have to pop into actual Greggs instead.

Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons

Eats

‘Classy, clever, confident’ – New Manchester restaurant receives glowing Guardian review

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson British classics at Winsome, Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group

Winsome, one of the newest restaurants on Manchester’s dining scene, has gone and received a seriously glowing review in The Guardian this weekend.

Legendary restaurant critic Grace Dent said that the British bistro ‘may well be my new favourite restaurant’, lauding chef patron Shaun Moffat’s ‘elegant but plentiful modern cooking’.

She said that there’s even a teeny touch of Toby Carvery in their Sunday offering, with meaty and saucy dishes and ‘cartoon-esque XL yorkshire puddings’.

Winsome opened back in March under the steer of three hospitality heavyweights – ex-Edinburgh Castle chef Shaun Moffat, former Schofields head bartender Tom Fastiggi, and Belzan founder Owain Williams.

It’s a beautiful, stripped-back space at the foot of the Whitworth Locke aparthotel and Moffat’s first venture as a chef patron.

Based on this Guardian review, he’s doing a pretty good job so far…

Grace Dent said of Winsome’s nostalgic yet modern menu (featuring dippy eggs and puddings that sound like school dinner puds): “This is Cool Britannia wearing a napkin bib with a side portion of rhubarb jelly and custard for pudding.”

Novelty crockery at Winsome. Credit: The Manc Group
Novelty crockery at Winsome. Credit: The Manc Group
Chef patron Shaun Moffat at Winsome. Credit: The Manc Group
Chef patron Shaun Moffat at Winsome. Credit: The Manc Group
Dippy egg and asparagus. Credit: The Manc Group
Dippy egg and asparagus. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside WInsome on Princess Street. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside WInsome on Princess Street. Credit: The Manc Group

She also wrote that it’s ‘far from a novelty restaurant’ in spite of its animal-shaped crockery.

And Dent added that while there’s an element of fine dining, it’s unpretentious enough that you’re happy to smear it all over the tablecloths and, indeed, yourself.

‘Deeply nostalgic’, ‘forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff’, is how she described her Winsome experience.

“This is confident, clever cooking that stays just the right side of earnest, or at least as earnest as a chef can be when he also serves up a dessert that is essentially a 1980s school sponge pudding with a scoop of milk ice-cream flecked with multicoloured sprinkles, or hundreds and thousands as they will for ever be known in my heart,” she wrote.

Grace Dent’s Guardian review concluded with: “Winsome may well be my new favourite restaurant, and it’s the new, big, generous beating heart of Manchester hospitality. It’s classy but come-all – bring your gran, bring your baby, no one need feel conspicuous.

“There’s something about the place that makes me want to use it as a canteen, not least out of sheer curiosity as to what Moffat will put on the menu next. Great cooking, and forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff.

“Bring your appetite and don’t wear pale colours. Aaah, Manchester, you have so much to answer for. Winsome will seriously impact your waistline.”

Winsome said in a post on Instagram: “It doesn’t get much better than that! We’re over the moon, full of pride and could not be more grateful to the team who’ve worked so hard to help us deliver this dream.”

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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