Manchester’s pubs, bars and hospitality professionals will be celebrated in a huge awards ceremony later this month.
Now in its fifth year, the Manchester Bar Awards picks out the very best operators in the city – with 2022’s categories championing the city’s Best Restaurant Bar, Best Speciality Bar, Best New Bar, Best Food Offering, and Bartender of the Year.
Further categories pay homage to professionals within the industry, with awards given to the best bar backs, front of house staff and rising stars.
Run by a group of Manchester bartenders and hospitality professionals, the awards were set up by the admins of a local Facebook group in 2018 to champion local people working in the industry.
First created in 2012 to help fundraise for Movember, today the Facebook group is a decade old and one of the country’s leading hospitality-focused groups – boasting over 17,000 members.
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Image: Climat
Image: Blinker
The shortlist for the 2023 awards has just been revealed, with members of the city’s bar community now being encouraged to vote for their favourites.
In a nod to the quirkiness of the city’s bar scene, this year’s Best Speciality Bar Award names Ancoats wine bar Flawd, The Briton’s Protection (for its epic Jack Daniels collection) and The Whiskey Jar, brewery-owned bar Northern Monk, and Mulligan’s of Deansgate (widely renowned for having the most perfect pint of Guinness in the city.)
Salt & Pepper, The Sparrows, Kong’s, Climat and Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria are all shortlisted for the Restaurant / Food Concept of the Year category, whilst the Best New Bar award shortlist features Blinker, Sterling, Exhibition, New Century and Project Halcyon.
Elsewhere, rising stars and MVPS have their own categories, whilst an outstanding achievement award highlights those who’ve done good for the community – picking out a key leader of Manchester’s hospitality recruitment scene, alongside others including mental-health focused organisation So Let’s Talk.
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Image: Speak In Code
Image: Schofield’s Bar
This year’s event ceremony will be held on 14 March at First Street dive bar Bunny Jackson’s, an industry favourite amongst many of Manchester’s bartenders, and promises to be a raucous, fun-filled affair.
Speaking on the upcoming awards ceremony, organiser Nate Booker said: “We were amazed and proud at the breadth of people and venues included in this year’s Manchester’s Bars Awards shortlist.
“It truly is the pinnacle of the great talent and ambition we have in the city. We want to thank everyone who voted for helping to build this shortlist and we can’t wait to see the results as we put it forward to our wider community to have their say!
“And we’d like to say a big thank you to all the sponsors that help make the event so vibrant and enjoyable! See you on the 14th at Bunny Jackson’s.”
Voting is open now and will close next Monday 13 March at midnight.
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The full shortlist for this year’s Manchester Bar Awards ceremony:
Bartender of the Year – Sponsored by Angel’s Envy Kentucky Bourbon
Jonathan Moncur – Speak in Code
Deana Ferguson – Hawksmoor/Redlight
Adam Montanaro-Taylor – Project Halcyon
Dionysios ‘Dio’ Tzorouchof – Cane & Grain
Conor Knowles – Schofield’s
Manchester’s Best Bar Back – Sponsored by Belle de Brillet Liqueur
Sid Curry – Sherlock’s
Huanxuejiao Xiong – Sterling
Craig Dwyer – Junior Jackson’s
Eduardo Barbosa – 20 Stories
Iglis Zaraj – Tattu
Manchester’s Rising Star – Sponsored by Old J Rum
Reah Owen – Project Halcyon
Caitlyn Grocott – Blind Tyger
Eddie Smyth – Tariff
Joe Kereszteny-Lewis – 10 Tib Lane
Ben Topham-Taylor – Blind Tyger
Front of House Hero- Sponsored by Cazcabel Tequila
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Alex Proudfoot – Wolf at the Door
Paola Mariotti – Sterling
Hannah Wingfield – Ramona
Taylor Martin – Tariff & Dale
Oliver Hughes – Ramona
Outstanding Achievement Award! Sponsored by Jägermeister
Abi Dunn – 68 People
The Schofields – Schofields, Sterling, Stock Market Grill, Atomeca
Nathan Larkin – Speak in Code
Dan Berger – Blinker Bar
Paddy & the Team at So Let’s Talk
Manchester’s Bar of the Year Sponsored by Jameson
Decided by the industry.
Best New Bar Sponsored by Ford’s Gin
Blinker
Sterling
Exhibition
New Century
Project Halcyon
Speciality Venue of the Year Sponsored by Tipples
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Briton’s Protection – Whisky
Flawd, Wine
Northern Monk, Beer
Mulligan’s – Guiness
Whisky Jar – Whisky
Restaurant/Food Concept the Year sponsored by Tito’s Vodka
Salt & Pepper
Sparrows
Kong’s
Climat
Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
Further event partners include MONIN (The Official Syrup & Liqueur Partner), The Official Mixer & Softs Partner (Fever Tree), The Official Hooch of the MBAs (Hooch), The Official Media Partner (The Manc), The Official Reception Drink of the MBAs (Buzzball), The Official NOLO Partner (Lyre’s) The Official Hydration Partner (Marlish Water) and The Awards Partner (Urban Bar).
A new ’boutique’ chicken spot has opened in Manchester’s Northern Quarter
Danny Jones
A brand-new chicken spot called ‘Le Coq Boutique’ has just opened in Manchester city centre, serving out of a popular Northern Quarter bar.
Is this the best name we’ve ever heard in our time writing about food and drink? It just might be…
Opening from inside The Social NQ on Thomas Street (formerly known as Smithfield Social), their new resident and poultry-centric kitchen is a bit of a pun on the classic French sportswear label, but having now been versed in the word about the bird for ourselves, we can confirm it’s much more than that.
For starters, the only thing more decadent than the roasted meats are the sides and cocktail menu, which features everything from chunky hash browns and some of the richest sauces you could ask for.
As you can see, the most chicken is well and truly the star of the show here, but what they have done is find unique ways of innovating and experimenting with it.
For instance, if you’ve never had a cocktail with chicken fat in it, here’s a place you can try one.
Honestly, this isn’t our first rodeo with this very particular kind of drink – but for those of you that haven’t, we promise, it really is quite good.
Aside from surprisingly saline kicks beside the salty marg rims we’ve become more accustomed to over the years, there are some very nice drinks on the menu.
But we’ll be honest, if you’re a sucker for the famous ‘chicken wine’ – a.k.a. La Vieille Ferme, if you want to be all formal – we imagine you’ll be sticking to plenty of this.
Having already spent many a weekend, be that afternoon or night, at the old Smithfield over the years, now that it has this fine new in-house food offering tacked on, we suspect we’ll be going back a lot more.
Whether you want lots of crispy chicken skin or prefer it smothered in gravy and various other kinds of savoury jus, if you’re an unadulterated mothercluckin’ chicken lover, then you’ll have a great time here.
As the team has joked in the comments under their first few social media posts, while it isn’t technically mandatory to wear the vintage 80s brand upon visiting, it is “expected”, with “bonus marks and shots” and promised for your efforts.
It’s also worth noting that they have an exclusive launch offer for those who sort a booking early, so we wouldn’t wait around if we were you.
Let us know what you think if you visit anytime soon.
Bunny Jackson’s offer Foo Fighters and Mancs incredible deal if they play their stage after Ritz gig
Danny Jones
Beloved dive bar Bunny Jackson’s has offered the Foo Fighters and Mancunians alike an incredible deal, provided the legendary band if they play on their stage after their gig at the O2 Ritz.
As well as Manchester ramping up the 2026 BRITs Week buzz ahead of the awards at Co-op Live this weekend, a little-known American rock group called the Foo Fighters decided to announce a surprise gig here in town.
But the bigger story now, we’d argue, is that the city centre boozer – which serves as a regular go-to both before and after gigs – is offering free drinks if Dave Grohl and co. pop up to perform on their usual bandaoke platform. As in for EVERYONE.
As explained by the Bunny’s boss, if the Foos make what is quite literally a minute trip down the road to OG Jackson’s wing joint and late-night watering hole after their Ritz gig is over, they’re promising to hand out free booze to all inside the venue.
Joking that they can quite literally “do anything” and may not even fit on their even smaller stage – with this being one of the tiniest of Manchester’s small-cap venues – it’s worth reminding that they wouldn’t be the first big name to surprise punters.
It was only a couple of years ago that both The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo showed their faces, with the former getting behind the bar and pouring drinks themselves, and the latter even hopping on the mic herself – yes, really.
Just last March, members of Bilmuri also hopped behind the decks for a DJ set, and saxophone player Gabi Rose couldn’t resist hitting some horns live for the crowd, too.
You might want to be at Bunny’s even if you’re not going to the gig anyway. (Credit: Bunny Jackson’s)
So what we’re telling you is that this isn’t entirely beyond the realms of possibility. Keep absolutely everything crossed.
BJ’s was already hosting a pre- and post-curfew party for the big Manchester gig, as they often do, but just think how incredible it would be if the rock icons actually turned up in person. You can find out what else they’ve got planned on the night HERE.
Not only would it mean free-flowing beer for everyone in the gaff, but this would go down as one of the greatest stories in Greater Manchester music history.
If you want to up the chances of this happening, make sure you share it far and wide, getting @ing and pestering them, and hopefully we’ll see you at Bunny Jackson’s with the boys from Foo Fighters!
Oh, and lads, if you’re wondering why we all love it here, look no further:
Georgina Pellant -
6th March 2023 
