Eats

You can now play Hooch pong at this Manchester bar – and win your height in cans

There'll be tournaments, competitions, and some cracking prizes up for grabs at Pong & Puck's Hooch Weekend Takeover.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 3rd August 2022

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.

ADVERTISEMENT
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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

All bookings can be made online here.

Featured Image – Pong & Puck (via It’s Me Louis Photography)

Eats

This Manchester restaurant serves an all-vegan roast with ‘meat’ and all the trimmings

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

A Manchester vegan restaurant is serving an all-vegan roast with mock ‘meat’ and all the trimmings, putting an ethical twist on the British Sunday classic. Keen to see if it’s worth the hype, I took a trip down to try it out for myself – and left feeling pretty impressed.

Not being a vegan personally, I enlisted the help of two friends of the plant-powered persuasion to accompany me to get a real feel for every option.

Suffice it to say, it was a success and, whilst I won’t be converting to veganism any time soon, it’s nice to know that there are options out there for when I feel like being ‘good’.

With three different roast choices on offer, Wholesome Junkies is the first restaurant in the city centre to venture past the usual vegan choices of mushroom Wellington and roasted squash and go all-out with a variety of mock meat options.

Meats have been created in partnership with Liverpool vegan brand CB Sushi, using their mock beef and turkey joints to give vegans the feeling of a ‘proper’ roast.

Glazed ‘turkey’ roast at Wholesome Junkies with Mabel’s vegan Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings. / Image: The Manc Eats
‘Beef’ roast at Wholesome Junkies with onion gravy, Mabel’s vegan Yorkshire puddings and all the good bits. / Image: The Manc Eats

Think glazed ‘turkey’ filled with stuffing, medallions of ‘beef’ and crispy deep-fried oyster mushrooms, all served with lashings of onion gravy, ‘buttered’ seasonal greens, glazed carrots and parsnips, deep-fried stuffing balls, crispy roasties and fluffy Yorkshire puddings created by Mabel’s.

Having tried all three, I have to say that my favourite was the turkey. It’s actually my least favourite meat to eat, so it was something of a surprise to find I enjoyed the vegan version much more than the real thing.

The texture was spot on, and there was none of the dryness you typically associate with the bird. Washed down with a pint of locally-brewed Cloudwater Fuzzy Hazy Pale Ale, it absolutely hit the spot.

The deep-fried oyster mushroom roast at Wholesome Junkies. / Image: The Manc Eats
Cloudwater’s Fuzzy Hazy Pale Ale. / Image: The Manc Eats

Coming in a close second was the deep-fried oyster mushroom roast, which was so packed with flavour that it almost felt like I was eating fried chicken with my Sunday dinner.

As for the beef, it didn’t really do it for me – tasting more of herbs than red meat, but then, I don’t suppose there are many vegans queueing up the block for a bloody meat substitute.

Wholesome Junkies has long been a favourite with Manchester vegans. First shooting to fame in 2018 with an appearance on BBC2’s Million Pound Menu, owner Chelsea appeared on the show to ask for 95,000 to open her own vegan junk food restaurant.

Prior to that, she’d been running her Wholesome Junkies concept as a street food pop-up at sites like Grub and Ancoats General Store.

Whilst her bid to impress the BBC judges was not successful at the time, the TV appearance put her on the map and within a year she had her own Arndale market stall.

Read more: This hidden Manchester pasta and dumplings restaurant has just made the Michelin Guide

Fast forward a few more, and in 2022 she opened her first bricks and mortar restaurant – taking over the former Umezushi site at 4 Mirabel Street.

Since moving in, she’s completely transformed it: decking it out in bright colours and filling every corner with quirky little ornaments and decorations.

Strings of fairy lights, hanging mushrooms and frames filled with pictures from local artists all make the small space feel incredibly warm and welcoming – and our visit the restaurant was absolutely packed.

Read more: Tim Martin is blaming ‘people drinking at home’ for UK Wetherspoons closures

At a time when so many vegan restaurants seem to be closing, it was an absolute joy to see so many bums on seats during our visit.

Veganuary might almost be over, but if you’re a vegan – or simply just trying to cut down on your meat consumption – it’s definitely worth giving this one a go.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

Eats

Meet the couple who quit their jobs to sell sandwiches from their Northern Quarter flat

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

If you’re a fan of things in bread (and honestly, who isn’t) then there’s a new Italian sandwich dealer in town that you absolutely need to get down your neck.

Serving up some of the best butties we’ve had in a long time, it’s called Ad Maiora and is being run by a couple who are making absolutely everything out of a kitchen in their little Manchester flat.

Collected from a nondescript door on a Norther Quarter back street, we’re talking giant focaccia-style loaves generously stuffed with premium ingredients like ‘nduja, spicy Tuscan sausage, smoked scamorza, mortadella, burrata and red pesto.

The brainchild of Sardinian couple Daniela Steri and Enrico Pinna, all of their sandwiches are made using only top quality Italian ingredients with a total of nine different options to choose from.

From the vegan-friendly La Nonna (Italian hummus, roasted aubergine, olives, sundried tomatoes and rocket) to a huge array of different cheesy and meaty delights, fillings include parma ham, gorgonzola DOP, truffled brie, Milano salami and crumbled pistachios.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Their bread is baked freshly by hand each morning using a tiny domestic oven, and they’re already baking up to 60 loaves of schiacciata (a traditional Tuscan flatbread) a day to keep up with the demand – putting just four in the oven at a time, over and over again.

Read more: This Manchester pub is hosting an all-you-can-eat Valentine’s cheese night

On our visit, the pair tell us that they moved over from Sardinia to the UK six years ago and first tried living in London for a year (they say they hated it) before making the move up to Manchester.

In that time, they say they’ve fallen in love with the city of Manchester and with the Northern Quarter in particular.

Inspired by the brilliant food scene in their area, two months ago they both decided to pack in their jobs and pursue their own business instead – and haven’t looked back since.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Previously, Daniela tells us she’d worked at hotel Dakota in housekeeping for three years whilst her partner, Enrico, had been employed at Ezra and Gil. Despite their hospitality experience, though, neither of them had made bread before.

That doesn’t seem to be holding them back, though, and demand for their sandwiches is rocketing as word spreads about the new homemade Italian butties for sale on a Manchester backstreet.

Read more: Northern Belle in Manchester – one of the world’s most luxurious trains with £440 tickets and seven-course dinners on board

Available to order via Deliveroo for collection or delivery, use the code ADMAIORA5 to get a cheeky five pounds off your order courtesy of The Manc.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

More Eats

Eats

Northern Belle in Manchester – one of the world’s most luxurious trains with £440 tickets and seven-course dinners on board

Eats

Tim Martin is blaming ‘people drinking at home’ for UK Wetherspoons closures

City Centre

This hidden Manchester pasta and dumplings restaurant has just made the Michelin Guide

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches