Food & Drink

A futuristic new Blade Runner-style bar has opened beneath NQ restaurant District

Hidden beneath District on Oldham Street, the new bar comes from the team - bringing its distinct, new wave Thai experience underground

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 22nd October 2021

Dark, mysterious and sexily lit up in red and blue neons, this new Blade Runner-inspired underground bar is a must-visit if you’re out drinking in town this weekend.

Hidden beneath District on Oldham Street, the new bar comes from the same team behind Tokyo Ramen and District – a new wave Thai kitchen and bar that brings a progressive approach to dining.

Inside District’s new underground bar, which has just launched in the NQ this week / Image: District

Upstairs in District, the team is intent on bringing a futuristic vision of Bangkok’s fire- and- barbecue-lined streets to the Northern Quarter’s bustling Oldham Street, with a menu that focuses on wood-fired, modern barbecue cookery.

Here, the team creates engaging, long-lasting dinner experiences that aim to consistently engage diner’s senses – from the smells of char that waft from the kitchen to the futuristic, synth-wave soundtrack. 

Raw wild bass, nam jim, purple yam, Thai basil at District / Image: Eatmcr / District

And that vibe now continues below ground. The team has transformed the restaurant’s basement into a Blade Runner-inspired set-up, with a strong focus on cocktails.

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Between the lighting, soundtrack and cocktail menu itself, you do feel like you’ve been transported into another space and time altogether down here.

Just like every other part of District, the cocktail menu has been developed to draw on all of your senses – encompassing sight, smell and taste in particular. All eight drinks on the menu draw inspiration from Thai cuisine, utilising some unique ingredients like fish sauce, tomato, turmeric and grilled bananas.

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Inside the neon lit underground bar at District

The beef fat-washed FORNAX tastes like a sort of sexy gravy. Designed to replicate the flavours of Nam Tok, a classic Thai barbecued steak salad, it’s comprised of smoked beef fat rum, fish sauce caramel, tomato and Thai parsley – then topped with a slice of Thai-style deep-fried beef jerky.

Another drink of note is the Dream Gun, comprised of grilled banana bourbon, milk of the poppy and turmeric. It is inspired by the ‘Golden Triangle, a name coined by the CIA to describe one of the largest areas of opium production in the world.

The beef fat-washed FORNAX at District

Further cocktails embrace mezcal, gin and more – whilst elsewhere you’ll find a collaboration with Manchester brewery Shindigger, listed as a District Thai_pam a selection of wines and house-made soft drinks like turmeric pop and screwpine soda. 

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District’s basement bar is open now every Thursday to Saturday from 5 pm to late.

Feature image – District

Food & Drink

A tiny new train station pub is set to open at Manchester Oxford Road

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The team behind Piccadilly Tap and Victoria Tap have applied to open a new pub at Manchester Oxford Road

A tiny craft beer pub is set to open at Manchester Oxford Road, making all those inevitable train cancellations a little sweeter.

The new boozer will come from the same team behind some of the UK’s best train station pubs, who already have bars at Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria.

A licensing application has now been submitted by Bloomsbury Leisure Holdings Limited to take over the former cycle hub at Manchester Oxford Road.

The small building is directly opposite the entrance to the busy train station on the southern side of the city centre.

If approved, it will be the third site for the pub group in Manchester.

They already operate the Piccadilly Tap, that two-storey beer bar on Piccadilly Approach with a heated rooftop space and outdoor patio.

The team are also responsible for the more recently-opened Victoria Tap, which took over the former bin store at Manchester Victoria.

That particular pub has a heated beer garden constructed just inches away from where the trams tootle past and has a departures board where time is measured by pints (got 10 mins til your train leaves? That’s one pint, sir!)

As for the Oxford Road Tap, a new account on X appeared a few weeks ago that appears to confirm the imminent arrival of a new pub.

The Oxford Road Tap have applied to have opening hours through to half-past-midnight Sunday to Thursday, and until 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays.

They teased a mocked-up photo of posters outside the station with the new pub logo, plus a slogan of ‘Great beer is just a few steps away…’

They later shared ‘Triple threat incoming’ with all three pub brands lined up as a deck of cards.

Very exciting times ahead.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Food & Drink

Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s ‘favourite’ brand of teabags, according to new data

Danny Jones Danny Jones Yorkshire Tea is Manchester's favourite teabag

The Great British debate of which teabag is best is one that will rage on for millennia, that’s just the way it is, but according to new data, it sounds like we might at least have an answer to which brand makes for Manchester’s favourite brew.

It won’t be a surprise to many of you and we can certainly confirm it on our end but the one and only Yorkshire Tea looks to have taken the cuppa crown when it comes not only to Manchester’s preferred teabag but seemingly the best-loved in Britain as a whole.

This is according to numbers pulled by local firm, TonerGiant. The Atherton-based ink and toner suppliers decided a poll around the office wasn’t enough and instead chose to turn their knowledge of the market and consumer trends into a bit of online research.

At the end of the day, tea has got to be the most important of all office supplies, surely?

mancunians favourite brand of teabags
According to the stats, Yorkshire Tea is Manchester’s favourite brand of tea bags. (Credit: Yorkshire Tea)

Using data from trusted online source Statista, which nailed down the top 25 teabag brands in the UK, each make was then ranked in relation to its average monthly searches via Google Keyword Planner to reveal that Yorkshire Tea was clearly the top dog.

With roughly 390 searches per month in Manchester alone, compared to PG Tips as the next best (260), it seems us Mancs have to concede at least one thing to our fellow Northern county: Yorkshire makes a bloody good brew.

The Roses rivalry raged for centuries but if there’s one thing that brings us together, it’s a good cuppa.

In terms of other tea brands that came in high on the leaderboard, Pukka Tea (170), Twinings (140)and Teapigs (90) made up the rest of the top five most-searched tea brands in Greater Manchester. It’s also interesting to see how those figures looked when extrapolated nationwide. Here’s the full ranking:

RankTeaAverage UK monthly searches
1Yorkshire Tea27,100
2PG Tips18,100
3Pukka Tea14,800
4Twinings12,100
5Teapigs8,100
6Whittards Tea6,600
7Tetley4,400
8Clipper Tea4,400
9Lipton Tea3,600
10Barrys Tea3,600
11Thompsons Tea1,300
12Typhoo1,300
13Taylors Tea1,300
14M&S Tea1,300
15Tesco Tea1,000
16Tick Tock Tea880
17Sainsbury’s Tea720
18Lyons Tea720
19Asda Tea590
20Aldi Tea590
21Waitrose Tea590
22Lidl Tea480
23Morrisons Tea320
24Bewleys Tea90
25Cafedirect Tea40
Few of these on here we’ve never heard of. Taste test, anyone?

While Yorkshire Tea was found to be Manchester’s and the nation’s favourite, Belfast was the only UK city where Yorkshire Tea didn’t take the top spot. Instead, it was Irish-owned Barry’s Tea that came out as their favourite – we definitely need to hold a ‘brew-off’ between the two. The Hoot, you up for it?

As for supermarket’s own-brand offerings, out of the eight options on the list, Marks and Spencer’s teabags were found to be the most popular, closely followed by Tesco and then Sainsbury’s.

Commenting on the findings, TonerGiant’s Stuart Deavall said: “With so many office workers opting for tea to get through the day, it’s no surprise that the UK has a day dedicated to the drink.

“In light of National Tea Day on Sunday, 21 April, our new data shows that Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s favourite, with over 27,000 Brits searching every month… We can expect many Brits to be celebrating in style this Sunday, no doubt with a mug of Yorkshire tea in hand”. Speaking of, anyone fancy a brew?…

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Featured Images — Yorkshire Tea/Rumman Amin (via Unsplash)

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