One of Manchester‘s newest retro games bars has teamed up with Hooch throw a 90s-themed weekend this summer.
There’ll be tournaments, competitions, and some cracking prizes up for grabs.
Pong & Puck – which opened doors inside the Great Northern Warehouse back in March, and has already become one of the go-to places to play shuffleboard, table tennis, and more in the city – has decided to take the classic drinking game of beer pong and give it a Hooch spin to celebrate the summer.
The retro venue is inviting people to “drink, play and party” at its Hooch Takeover Weekend next Friday 12 – Sunday 14 August.
Kicking the weekend off with a Hooch Pong tournament from 5-9pm, players can pair up to try and win one of three “zingy” prizes.
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Pong & Puck has taken the classic game beer pong and given it a Hooch twist / Credit: Pong & Puck (via It’s Me Louis Photography)
The first place prize will be the two winners’ combined height in Hooch cans, as well as a free booking of Hooch pong for a later date, while those who finish in second place will get the team’s tallest player’s height in Hooch cans and a free booking of Hooch pong.
Three cans of Hooch and a free booking of Hooch pong will be up for grabs for those in third place.
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If fruity tipples are your thing, but you don’t fancy unleashing your competitive side, then luckily, you can also get cans of Hooch for just £8 all weekend at Pong & Puck, and there’ll even be a £100 bar tab up for grabs too.
And if all of that wasn’t enough as it is, you can expect there to be a throwback soundtrack of guilty pleasure tunes all weekend.
The retro games bar opened its doors inside the Great Northern Warehouse in March / Credit: Pong & Puck (via It’s Me Louis Photography)
The Hooch Weekend Takeover is taking place from Friday 12 – Sunday 14 August 2022.
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Pong & Punk also runs bottomless brunches on both Saturdays and Sundays from 12-2pm, and even on Wednesdays too from 5-7:30pm – with group games, pizza, unlimited drinks, and prosecco pong.
Featured Image – Pong & Puck (via It’s Me Louis Photography)
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Team behind award-winning cocktail bar Stray to open second Manchester bar
Daisy Jackson
The team behind Manchester’s award-winning cocktail bar Stray have announced a second bar is on the way.
Bar Dos will be an all-new neighbourhood bar, promising to be the ‘tearaway younger sibling’ of Stray.
You can expect everything from pints of Stella to refined cocktails, plus DJs all weekend long.
Set to open very soon, with a September launch pencilled into our diaries already, Bar Dos will be joining a couple of other big names in a new building on Great Ancoats Street.
They’ll count Proloco and Osma as neighbours once all three ventures are up and running this year.
Stray first opened at Mackie Mayor back in 2023, and shot into the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars just over a year later.
Bar Dos will open in Manchester in SeptemberBar Dos is the second site for Stray
There, it occupies a beautiful corner unit with huge windows, and an outside terrace, perfect for sipping on their best-selling cocktails like their tomato vine margarita and their Fanta Limon (a boozy version of everyone’s favourite balcony tipple).
Now ready to launch a second site, the team will soon open Bar Dos, which will be a late-night, music-focused neighbourhood bar.
DJs already announced, along with renowned artists who have curated playlists, include Space Afrika, Chunky, Private Joy, Konnie Kon of Children of Zeus, and Stray residents Rhod Parry and Stu Richards.
Bar Dos will open on Great Ancoats Street this September.
Family behind Salvi’s launch new concept, weeks after iconic restaurant closure
Daisy Jackson
Just weeks after the closure of its iconic, 16-year-old Italian restaurant in the Corn Exchange, the family behind Salvi’s have revealed a brand-new concept.
And this time, the reins are being handed over to the next generation.
Salvi’s founder Maurizio Cecco has helped to shape Amò, but it’s all the brainchild of his daughter, Sienna.
Sienna will run the business out of a unit up on Deansgate Mews, serving fresh pasta dishes, pizza sandwiches, tubs of tiramisu, and two-for-£10 spritzes.
The deli aspect of the original Salvi’s has been carried over to Amò too – you’ll find shelves almost to the ceiling filled with Italian pasta, wine, olive oils, pistachio spreads, and more.
Sienna has grown up in restaurants, with her parents launching Salvi’s when she was just two years old.
She said she wants the space to be a livelier, fresher version of the Italian restaurant that has been so loved by Mancs for so many years.
Sienna outside AmòFresh pasta dishesInside Amò by Salvi’sTheir viral frozen crema di caffeLemon granitaInside Amò by Salvi’sTiramisu pots
Amò, which is Neapolitan slang for ‘my love’, will have loads of fresh Italian dishes, including arancini, gnocchi, and hearty pasta plates.
At lunchtimes, guests can order from a £10 lunch menu, with dishes changing daily depending on the best produce the kitchen can get – it could be a pizza sandwich with proscuitto and tomato, a spicy pasta, or a gnocchi bake, always served with your choice of soft drink.
With its position on Deansgate Mews, Amò basks in the sunshine at lunchtimes.
And while it’s definitely a different concept to the original Salvi’s, Amò looks set to carry the family’s Italian food legacy into its next generation.
Emily Sergeant -
3rd August 2022 
