This week we’ve been absolutely spoilt for choice when picking out the best new food and drink spots to try in Manchester. Get excited, because we’ve got some absolute crackers on the list for you this week.
The Black Friar – the historic Salford pub that’s survived an inner city bypass, fires, vandalism and an horrific, fatal car crash just before its opening weekend – has reopened its doors after nearly twenty years of closure to offer not one but two fantastic-looking menus.
The Black Friar pub in Salford has reopened after nearly twenty years of closure / Image: Ben Chaplin
Elsewhere, Northern Quarter stalwart Trof has to get an honorary mention, having finally reopened its doors for breakfast after a year and a half of doing dinner and drinks only – something that gives us great comfort indeed.
On top of all that, we’ve got some ice cream choux bun sandwiches for you, a top-notch Afro Carribean market stall in Piccadilly, a new cafe inside Affleck’s Palace and the return of one of Manchester’s most hotly-tipped kitchen pop-ups.
It’s going to be a very good week.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Black Friar pub in Salford has reopened following a £1.4 million pound investment / Image: The Manc Eats
Legendary Salford pub The Black Friar reopens after nearly 20 years
It was shut for almost two decades, but now historic Salford pub The Black Friar has reopened its doors once again. Inside, the decor is a mix of traditional pub and modern restaurant with floor to ceiling glass windows at the back that lead on to a gorgeous drinking and dining terrace area.
The modern restaurant is headed up by Ben Chaplin, formerly Head Chef at 20 Stories, serving a menu packed with wonderfully balanced seasonal dishes. Think juniper cured creedy duck breast with roast cherries and pickled kohlrabi, sweet pea and truffle tortellini with a wild nettle and watercress sauce, and a melt-in-the-mouth Lake District Himalayan salt aged 10oz rib eye, served with roast shallots and peppercorn.
ADVERTISEMENT
Pub food, meanwhile, includes tried and tested favourites like pies of the day served with buttered mash and gravy, and Boddingtons beer battered fish with minted crushed peas, tartare and chips. We’ve so much to say about this place, but the TLDR is essentially just ‘go immediately, you won’t regret it’.
Find The Black Friar on Blackfriars Road, Salford, M3 7DH.
The cafe at the top of Affleck’s Palace has been taken over by Earth Friendly Rocker and has relaunched with a new zero waste menu focused on Northern classics / Image: Potion at Affleck’s
A new zero waste cafe inside Affleck’s Palace
From the owner of Affleck’s zero waste shop Earth Friendly Rocker comes Potion, a new zero waste cafe that aims to be as sustainable as the shop that precedes it.
ADVERTISEMENT
With a menu focused on Northern classics, all ingredients here are sourced locally to minimise carbon footprint. In-keeping with Potion’s sustainable ethos, there are plenty of vegan dishes on the menu here too. Look out for the gorgeous pink and green interiors when you head up to the top floor to find them.
Potion opens from today, 26 July for its soft launch. Find it on the top floor of Afflecks Palace in the Northern Quarter, 52 Church St, Manchester M4 1PW.
Tine is back on the scene at last. Chefs Joshua Shanahan and James Lord return this weekend with a pop-up at Atomeca Bar / Image: Tine
Pop-up kitchen Tine is back on the scene
Tine is a pop-up kitchen run by two very talented Mancunian chefs, Joshua Shanahan (Where The Light Gets In) and James Lord (Manchester House / Wolf at the Door).
The duo came onto our radar just before the start of the pandemic in 2020. There they were, all set to be Manchester’s newest obsession making magic in a tiny kitchen at Ancoats’ wine bar Blossom Street Social, when suddenly the world ground to a halt
This weekend they’ll be throwing their first post-covid event at Atomeca Bar alongside some of our other hospitality favourites, the Schofield brothers. Tine will be using the konro grill to cook up a super small menu of small plates, served in tandem with drinks from Atomeca.
ADVERTISEMENT
Further details are being kept under wraps for now, but we’ve also been told about a new planned residency pop-up announcement that’ll be coming out officially next week. Think a proper restaurant format and a 6-course set menu with paired wines. We can’t say any more than that for now, but we are very excited.
Afro Carribbean street food boxes at Piccadilly Gardens market
Rita’s Reign has been getting all the love of late and for good reason too. Her Afro Carribbean street food stall is one of the most popular at Piccadilly Street food market, dishing up big boxes of dumplings, plantain, curried and roasted meats and what is known coloquially amongst her fans as simply “the purple stuff”.
If you’re not sure what to get we recomend trying her best seller, the combo box with jerk chicken, ‘the purple stuff’ (aka coleslaw made with red cabbage), two different types of rice (jollof rice AND rice and peas), curry goat, plantain, salad heaped together in one. It’s very special.
Rita’s Reign can be found at Piccadilly Gardens Street Food Market weekly, Wednesday to Sunday from 1030 am – 530 pm.
ADVERTISEMENT
Micro bakery Baby It’s Choux is popping up with her ice cream sandwiches at Media City this Saturday 31 July / Image: Baby It’s Choux
Ice cream choux sandwiches at Media City General Store
Although we keep hearing that the weather is about to take a turn for the worse, we’re still very keen to get our hands on some of this ice cream choux bun sandwiches at Media City this weekend.
This delicate pastry, which is also used in making eclairs and profiteroles, is first coated in a sweet and crunchy chocolate craquelin before being sliced in half and stuffed with Jersey ice cream from Cheshire’s Hopewell Farm. For an absolute bargain, you can even add in malted chocolate ganache for free.
Find Baby It’s Choux at Media City General Store, Unit 1 Lighbox, Salford M50 2AD on Saturday 31 July from 11 am – 3 pm.
A new ’boutique’ chicken spot has opened in Manchester’s Northern Quarter
Danny Jones
A brand-new chicken spot called ‘Le Coq Boutique’ has just opened in Manchester city centre, serving out of a popular Northern Quarter bar.
Is this the best name we’ve ever heard in our time writing about food and drink? It just might be…
Opening from inside The Social NQ on Thomas Street (formerly known as Smithfield Social), their new resident and poultry-centric kitchen is a bit of a pun on the classic French sportswear label, but having now been versed in the word about the bird for ourselves, we can confirm it’s much more than that.
For starters, the only thing more decadent than the roasted meats are the sides and cocktail menu, which features everything from chunky hash browns and some of the richest sauces you could ask for.
As you can see, the most chicken is well and truly the star of the show here, but what they have done is find unique ways of innovating and experimenting with it.
For instance, if you’ve never had a cocktail with chicken fat in it, here’s a place you can try one.
Honestly, this isn’t our first rodeo with this very particular kind of drink – but for those of you that haven’t, we promise, it really is quite good.
Aside from surprisingly saline kicks beside the salty marg rims we’ve become more accustomed to over the years, there are some very nice drinks on the menu.
But we’ll be honest, if you’re a sucker for the famous ‘chicken wine’ – a.k.a. La Vieille Ferme, if you want to be all formal – we imagine you’ll be sticking to plenty of this.
Having already spent many a weekend, be that afternoon or night, at the old Smithfield over the years, now that it has this fine new in-house food offering tacked on, we suspect we’ll be going back a lot more.
Whether you want lots of crispy chicken skin or prefer it smothered in gravy and various other kinds of savoury jus, if you’re an unadulterated mothercluckin’ chicken lover, then you’ll have a great time here.
As the team has joked in the comments under their first few social media posts, while it isn’t technically mandatory to wear the vintage 80s brand upon visiting, it is “expected”, with “bonus marks and shots” and promised for your efforts.
It’s also worth noting that they have an exclusive launch offer for those who sort a booking early, so we wouldn’t wait around if we were you.
Let us know what you think if you visit anytime soon.
Bunny Jackson’s offer Foo Fighters and Mancs incredible deal if they play their stage after Ritz gig
Danny Jones
Beloved dive bar Bunny Jackson’s has offered the Foo Fighters and Mancunians alike an incredible deal, provided the legendary band if they play on their stage after their gig at the O2 Ritz.
As well as Manchester ramping up the 2026 BRITs Week buzz ahead of the awards at Co-op Live this weekend, a little-known American rock group called the Foo Fighters decided to announce a surprise gig here in town.
But the bigger story now, we’d argue, is that the city centre boozer – which serves as a regular go-to both before and after gigs – is offering free drinks if Dave Grohl and co. pop up to perform on their usual bandaoke platform. As in for EVERYONE.
As explained by the Bunny’s boss, if the Foos make what is quite literally a minute trip down the road to OG Jackson’s wing joint and late-night watering hole after their Ritz gig is over, they’re promising to hand out free booze to all inside the venue.
Joking that they can quite literally “do anything” and may not even fit on their even smaller stage – with this being one of the tiniest of Manchester’s small-cap venues – it’s worth reminding that they wouldn’t be the first big name to surprise punters.
It was only a couple of years ago that both The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo showed their faces, with the former getting behind the bar and pouring drinks themselves, and the latter even hopping on the mic herself – yes, really.
Just last March, members of Bilmuri also hopped behind the decks for a DJ set, and saxophone player Gabi Rose couldn’t resist hitting some horns live for the crowd, too.
You might want to be at Bunny’s even if you’re not going to the gig anyway. (Credit: Bunny Jackson’s)
So what we’re telling you is that this isn’t entirely beyond the realms of possibility. Keep absolutely everything crossed.
BJ’s was already hosting a pre- and post-curfew party for the big Manchester gig, as they often do, but just think how incredible it would be if the rock icons actually turned up in person. You can find out what else they’ve got planned on the night HERE.
Not only would it mean free-flowing beer for everyone in the gaff, but this would go down as one of the greatest stories in Greater Manchester music history.
If you want to up the chances of this happening, make sure you share it far and wide, getting @ing and pestering them, and hopefully we’ll see you at Bunny Jackson’s with the boys from Foo Fighters!
Oh, and lads, if you’re wondering why we all love it here, look no further:
Georgina Pellant -
26th July 2021 
