Food & Drink

A wine bar is opening at Kampus as new neighbourhood fills with local independents

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 20th December 2021

Beeswing, a new wine bar and all-day kitchen, will be the latest to open at Kampus in Manchester city centre.

Beeswing is a collaboration between two local hospitality heavyweights, Anna Tutton (of Vin-yard, formerly at Hatch) and Joe Maddock (from West Didsbury’s Pinchjos).

The two have already worked together on pop-up supper clubs but will take over a vacant plot directly above Nell’s New York Pizza & Bar for their very own venue.

With seating both inside and out, Beeswing will have views right across Kampus’s garden, as well as of Canal Street across the water.

It’s the latest independent operator to be announced at Capital & Centric and HBD’s neighbourhood, joining Pollen and General Stores on the list of 2022 openings.

ADVERTISEMENT
Anna Tutton and Joe Maddock of Beeswing. Credit: Supplied

Beeswing is named after the crust that forms on old wines, which resembles the wing of a bee.

It will serve a rotating list of wines from small producers across the globe, all available by the glass, carafe or bottle.

ADVERTISEMENT

Light bites and sharing plates will be available throughout the day, made with local ingredients.

Beeswing, which will also include a wine shop on its site, will be open for breakfast and until late in the evenings.

At Beeswing’s new site at Kampus in Manchester.

Anna said: “We want Beeswing to be a real neighbourhood bar, a warm and inviting place where you can come and enjoy a glass (or two) of wine and an hour turns into several without you noticing.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’ll be serving simple but delicious food, all day long, with an ever changing menu using the best fresh local produce.

“Being alongside like-minded independent businesses in the amazing surroundings of the garden neighbourhood is what attracted us to Kampus and we can’t wait to be part of the community.”

Adam Higgins, co-founder at CAPITAL&CENTRIC said: “This isn’t going to be some stuffy wine bar with intimidating wine lists.

Read more: Cosy country pubs in and around Greater Manchester

“In true Kampus style it’ll have a super relaxed vibe offering something a bit different to what you get elsewhere.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’ll also have Kampus’ very own wine shop where residents can come and grab a bottle on their doorstep.

“With Nell’s pizza and bar already open, Pollen and General Stores coming early next year and now Beeswing, we’ve already got a really nice mix of indie businesses in the Kampus neighbourhood – and we’ve lots more to come!”

Beeswing is set to open in March 2022.

Featured image: Kampus

Food & Drink

‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data

Danny Jones Danny Jones the average price of a pint in the UK by region

Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.

Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.

The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.

While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.

@the.manc Just trying to walk home and the Northern Quarter keeps tempting me in for a pint. 🙈 #themanc #manchester #mcr #northernquarter #spring ♬ original sound – The Manc

The average price of a pint per region in the UK

  1. Wales – £4.21
  2. North East – £4.28
  3. Northern Ireland – £4.42
  4. Scotland – £4.42
  5. Yorkshire and the Humber – £4.42
  6. North West – £4.42
  7. West Midlands – £4.42
  8. East Midlands – £4.42
  9. East England – £4.56
  10. South West – £4.93
  11. South East – £4.94
  12. London – £5.44

That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.

Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.

Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.

Happy hour Manchester – The best drinks deals in the city centre
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.

London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)

While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.

To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.

CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.

Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

Food & Drink

Tesco are introducing ‘VAR-style’ self-checkouts in the UK

Danny Jones Danny Jones Tesco VAR self checkout video

Many people think VAR has already gone too far and want it gone from football full stop, and we’re here to tell you that you’re a fool; your hopes are in vain, and the technology is only going to become more common as time goes on. Sorry.

So much so, in fact, that Tesco look are bringing in their own virtual referee into self-checkout systems in shops. You could say the ‘game’s gone…’

Of course, we’re being a bit flippant here, but if you have seen ‘VAR’ and ‘Tesco‘, you’re not seeing things: this is genuinely a thing that is being rolled out here in the UK, with video footage of the supermarket chain’s next self-checkout technology going viral online.

Thought you’d got away with sneaking an extra little something in the bag without paying? Think again.

We’ll admit, this was the first time we’d come across the technology, but as it turns out, the updated self-checkout service has been in place for a while.

Similar VAR checkouts have already been installed at other retailers, Sainsbury’s and ASDA, although some reports claim that while stores capture footage of shoppers to check if they’ve scanned all of their items, it is thought that not all of these self-service tills show a playback when an error is detected.

Although this particular speculation has sparked some uproar and debate online, many have quite rightly pointed out that CCTV records your movement in any given shop.

Regardless, it’s fair to say that aside from the obvious memes and people poking fun at the new system, many on social media have shared some pretty strong opinions on the matter.

Not that it matters much – it’s likely this will soon become increasingly the norm, with the likes of Sainsbury’s having already introduced barriers which require customers to scan their receipt in order to leave at branches such as the site on Regent Road Retail Park over in Salford.

As yet, it’s unclear how many of these new self-service tills are in operation and whether they are limited to larger supermarket locations of their Express convenience stores, but don’t be surprised if you come across one.

Put simply, if a barcode isn’t registered before being put on the scale and/or set aside to be packed away, the Tesco till will read: “The last item wasn’t scanned properly. Remove from bagging area and try again.”

While it is obviously an effort to curb stealing, which remains one of the big drawbacks of self-service (shoplifting in England and Wales went up by 20% last year), Tesco has insisted that the goal is to improve convenience.

Addressing these new VAR-style checkouts in an official statement, a company spokesperson said: “We are always looking at technology to make life easier for our customers.

“We have recently installed a new system at some stores which helps customers using self-service checkouts identify if an item has not been scanned properly, making the checkout process quicker and easier.”

What do you make of the new Tesco and their new VAR self-checkout technology?

Read more:

You can now get a Pot Noodle as part of your Tesco meal deal
We don’t know about Tesco perpetuating VAR, but we can definitely get behind this one – that’s for damn sure.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Tesco PLC/pin add/Mikey (via Flickr)

More Food & Drink

Sausage roll

Eats

Popular Manchester restaurant bar to give out FREE sausage rolls to people called ‘Greg’

The Stables Tavern is coming to Manchester in June. Credit: Supplied

Eats

Plans to open a brand-new pub on the site of the Rovers Return

The Angel Inn pub Stockport made a grade II listed building

Art & Culture

A historic Stockport pub has officially become a listed building

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches