Feature

The Manc Asked: What’s kept you going throughout lockdown?

Lockdown has come with a series of personal challenges for all, so we asked what's kept you going.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 13th August 2020
Unsplash / Edward Cisneros

It’s been nearly five months now since the world ground to a halt and life as we once knew it was flipped on its head.

For some, 23rd March – the day the UK was placed into lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic – feels like just yesterday, but for others it feels like a lifetime ago.

Since that day, we have all been adjusting to the ‘new normal’.

It’s important to remember that the ‘new normal’ looks different to everyone though, and it can be difficult to compare your version of the ‘new normal’ to someone else. Lockdown has come with a series of personal challenges for all, but amid the doom and gloom, it’s given us a unique opportunity to stop and reflect.

It’s given us time.

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Here at The Manc, we always want to know where you stand and in this case, we’re keen to discover how you’ve used this time and what have been your unexpected and unlikely ‘up-sides’ over these past few months.

A rare chance to fondly reminisce and find a silver lining.

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So, we took to our social platforms this week – Facebook and Instagram – to ask you, our loyal audience of Mancunians – ‘What’s kept you going during lockdown?‘

Here’s what you said:

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Facebook

Our audience over on Facebook showed up in the hundreds to share their stories and spread some much-needed positivity.

This is what Manchester is all about.

Let's spread some positivity and reflect on the last few months ??

Posted by The Manc on Tuesday, 11 August 2020

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Instagram

You may think that Instagram is all about the image, and while we do love posting pictures of Manchester in all its glory, we also value getting the chance to communicate with our audience and share in the love for why our city is so brilliant.

It’s also been great to see how many of you shared your positive lockdown moments with us too.

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How brilliant are all of these?

Finding positives can be tricky, maybe now more so than ever, but it’s been so reassuring to see our audience step up to the challenge.

We received hundreds of replies to our question across all social platforms, so we unfortunately haven’t been able to include every single one in this article. Instead, we chose to feature a few that seemed to resonate the best with our audience and received the most interactions overall.

Are you keen to have your say? Got a positive lockdown story that you’d like to share?

Well, there’s still time to chip in, so make sure you head on over to The Manc on Facebook and Instagram to read the other responses, leave your thoughts and discuss with other Mancunians in the same or different positions to you.

There can never be too much positivity – keep it coming, Manchester.

Feature

The Clink – The top-rated northern restaurant where your meals are prepared by prison inmates

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The Clink in Styal

The Clink is a very extraordinary restaurant in its own right, serving impeccable dishes in a beautiful setting.

But what makes it even more extraordinary is that it stands in the grounds of HMP Styal – an active women’s prison in Cheshire – and is staffed by inmates.

Everything you eat is cooked and served by these students in training, helping them to get a foot in the door of the hospitality industry when their sentence ends.

By the time they finish their shifts at The Clink, they’ll have worked towards their City & Guilds NVQs in Food and Beverage Service, Professional Cookery and Food Hygiene.

It is, as the charity says, ‘their first steps towards a new life’.

So this spot definitely does good for the women here at HMP Styal – but it is also an absolute treat for members of the public too, regardless of its wholesome roots.

The Clink is based inside a converted chapel in a beautiful and leafy corner of Cheshire, with the National Trust’s Quarry Bank just on the doorstep.

Inside, beneath a towering wooden ceiling and colourful stained glass windows, the restaurant itself boasts a simple, historic grandeur.

Inside The Clink restaurant in Styal. Credit: The Manc Group
The Clink restaurant in Styal. Credit: The Manc Group
The Clink restaurant in Styal. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside The Clink restaurant in Styal. Credit: The Manc Group

There are parquet floors underfoot and you can even still see the remains of the chapel’s organ, now standing proudly above the doorway into the kitchen.

The leather upholstery and boardroom tables inside have all been made by prisoners at HMP Frankland.

During the day the menu breaks down into all-day brunch dishes, small plates and hearty larger ones.

For brunches that includes a delightfully spicy shakshuka served with a flatbread, and one of the hand-on-heart best French toasts I’ve found, laced with a smattering of cinnamon and a warming winter berry compote.

Small plates come in the form of pork belly on a bed of red chilli jam and Asian slaw; and a highly-technical plate of beetroot served roasted, in gel form, and pickled, alongside little towers of goats cheese mousse and candied walnuts.

Beetroot and goats cheese, and pork belly small plates Credit: The Manc Group
Beetroot and goats cheese, and pork belly small plates. Credit: The Manc Group
A spicy shakshuka on The Clink brunch menu. Credit: The Manc Group
A spicy shakshuka on The Clink brunch menu. Credit: The Manc Group
French toast. Credit: The Manc Group
French toast. Credit: The Manc Group

There are special evening sittings at The Clink too, where you can feast on four exceptional courses for just £40.

That menu currently includes a slow-cooked beef that falls apart as soon as it so-much as looks at a knife and fork, and a fillet of roast cod perched atop spinach puree and roasted leeks, topped with a bacon crumb.

And then come desserts that wouldn’t look out of place in a Michelin-level restaurant – all the flavours of the beloved Manchester tart, this time reassembled and elevated with raspberry gel, chocolate crumb, a coconut tuile, and coconut ice cream.

A deconstructed Manchester tart. Credit: The Manc Group
A deconstructed Manchester tart. Credit: The Manc Group
Slow-roasted beef. Credit: The Manc Group
Slow-cooked beef. Credit: The Manc Group

There’s another British classic in Eton Mess, which has barely an inkling of ‘mess’ to it, a prettily-presented plate of meringue, fresh fruit and macerated berries.

The Clink consistently sits towards the top of the best restaurants in Cheshire. On TripAdvisor, it currently ranks first in Wilmslow and fourth in all of Cheshire overall.

After one brief lunchtime visit, it’s easy to see why.

And that pudding really does taste better knowing how much good work is going on behind the scenes.

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To find out more, make a donation, or book your table at The Clink, head here.

They’re also hosting a charity night with Sacha Lord soon, who’ll be talking all about his life working in Manchester’s nightlife industry while guests tuck into a three-course dinner.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Feature

‘I fear you’ll forget us’ – Prestwich business owner shares powerful statement as Rudy’s and Gail’s descend on independent village

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Dan Edwards from Chips @ No 8 has shared a statement on the arrival of Rudy's to Prestwich. Credit: The Manc Group

The man behind one of Prestwich’s most successful independent businesses has shared a moving statement this morning as the thriving neighbourhood readies for the arrival of Rudy’s.

Dan Edwards, owner of Chips @ No. 8, has spoken out on chains ‘piggybacking on the the successes’ and dreams of all the many, many local favourites that have made Prestwich into one of the UK’s best places to live (not just our word, either – The Times said it too).

His statement comes on the week that work has begun on the former Barclays bank on the high street, ready for the arrival of Rudy’s – that ever-expanding pizza giant that started life in Manchester and is now infiltrating every corner of Britain with its Neapolitan pizzas.

And it’s rumoured that a Gail’s bakery (a big London name) might also be moving in just across the road in the former Natwest bank.

Now Dan has shared a powerful statement addressing his fears that these chains will change the face of this proudly independent corner of Greater Manchester.

“I fear you’ll forget us,” he wrote.

He vocalised concerns from the suburb that the tiny, family-run, independently-owned, much-loved cafes, bars, restaurants and shops based in Prestwich won’t be able to compete with the ‘unlimited marketing budgets, fancy gimmicks, big shiny interiors’ of Rudy’s and Gail’s.

He said that he’s worried this will drive rents even higher and attract even more chains (at the minute, Costa and KFC are really the only high street names along Bury New Road).

Rudy's will be moving into this unit in Prestwich. Credit: The Manc Group
Rudy’s will be moving into this unit in Prestwich. Credit: The Manc Group
Rudy's in Altrincham is serving up classic Neapolitan pizzas. Credit: The Manc Group
Pizzas from an existing Rudy’s in Altrincham. Credit: The Manc Group

Dan said that it feels as though the chains are ‘piggy backing the dreams, the visions, the hopes and mostly successes of the independent businesses that helped establish Prestwich as a community that we can be proud of’.

He listed many of the local spots who ‘drove the scene’, from the beautiful cafe-bars like Cuckoo, All The Shapes, and Grape to Grain, to restaurants like The Pearl and Dokes (we would, obviously, like to add Chips @ No 8 to that list).

And while Rudy’s and Gail’s will be ‘great additions’ to Prestwich, Dan stressed that these places ‘aren’t unique’.

He wrote: “Their owners don’t live in Prestwich, their kids don’t go to school here. It’s likely they won’t be shopping here.”

And he pleaded: “Support local, support independent. Please. More than ever we all need you.”

Dan Edwards’ statement on Prestwich’s future, and Rudy’s arrival, is below in full

“With the recent news that Rudy’s are finally starting work at the old Barclays and the rumours that Gail’s Bakery secured the lease at the old NatWest being confirmed, we can, and rightly so, get excited.

“Prestwich’s tag of an “up and coming” town really is a thing! The chains have identified it as such and are moving in! The impending redevelopment of the precinct has hastened the charge. Will chains, arrive there too? I hope not.

“The chains are piggy backing the dreams, the visions, the hopes and mostly successes of the independent businesses that helped establish Prestwich as a community that we can be proud of.

“Cuckoo, ATS, G to G, The Pearl, Dokes, KCB, Macca’s, Tito’s, Butterfingers, Hideaway, Us, Everyone Else, all the great little places in Prestwich Village that offer something different, something great, somewhere you can get excited about to share your secret culinary pleasure when family or friends come to visit. We all laid foundations. We all drove the scene.

The Pearl. Credit: The Manc Group
The Pearl. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside Cuckoo, an original Prestwich independent. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside Cuckoo, an original Prestwich independent. Credit: The Manc Group
Food at Chips & No 8. Credit: The Manc Group
Food at Chips & No 8. Credit: The Manc Group
Grape to Grain in Prestwich. Credit: The Manc Group
A few of the businesses Dan named in his statement about the arrival of Rudy’s in Prestwich

“Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be great additions. They’ll give us more choice and they’ll be great places to eat. They’ll give us another reason to get excited about when family or friends come to visit.

“Only, they won’t be a secret, there’s loads of them. Chances are, your visitors have already been, albeit somewhere else, in a different town. They aren’t unique, and they aren’t independently owned. Their owners don’t live in Prestwich, their kids don’t go to school here. It’s likely they won’t be shopping here.

“They won’t panic when they have a bad trading day, they won’t worry that the VAT bill is only days away and there’s not enough money in the pot. They have shareholders, investors, fancy lawyers and fancy accountants, deep pockets and big buying power.

“They won’t be concerned that “Dave’s” place round the corner has seemed quiet for a little too long now, “I hope they survive”.

“I hope they do well, I hope they bring people in, I hope they give us exposure to a wider audience, I hope we can have our turn being carried by the piggy.

“I fear they’ll bring more chains, I fear they’ll drive rents higher, I fear that “Dave’s” place round the corner doesn’t stand a chance, I fear they’ll dazzle us with unlimited marketing budgets, fancy gimmicks, big shiny interiors.

“I fear you’ll forget us. Support local, support independent. Please. More than ever we all need you.”

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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