This week the Salford Rum Company has opened its very first distillery, bar and rum school just off Chapel Street in Salford.
Aptly named The Dirty Old Town Distillery after The Pogues hit track from their 1985 album Rum Sodomy & the Lash, it’s located in an appropriately industrial setting – a former railway arch on Viaduct Street.
Inside, a bar and seating area put the focus on the rum that started it all – serving a range of simple (but delicious) rum cocktails and spirit mixers, alongside regularly changing beers from local breweries like Shindigger.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
The brand’s iconic bottles, covered in hand-drawn historic maps of industrial Salford by local artist Dave Draws, line shelves behind the bar and on the walls as you enter, with a magnificent column still in pride of place on a stage at the back of the bar.
The walls are covered in more hand-drawn artwork from Dave Draws, this time depicting Salford in 2022 – with landmarks like Peel Park, Salford Cinema, the Ship Canal and Salford Lad’s Club all proudly nodding towards the area’s local history.
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Elsewhere, chunky wooden tables and black and white photographs pulled from Salford’s historical archives line the walls.
Image: The Manc Eats
Here, for the first time since the brand launched in 2018, locals have a place to sit down and enjoy the sweet spirit – be that on its own, as a sipping rum, or in simple but elegant mixers like rum and coke ice cream floats, or a classic rum and ginger beer, elevated by the addition of clementine puree and fresh ginger.
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It’s a big step up for the brand, which has come a long way from its early days on the Manchester Maker’s markets.
Created three years ago by two rugby-league-playing high school friends, James Harrison and Tommy Gaughan, Salford Rum has created two core expressions since its launch in 2018; a golden Salford Spiced Rum and Salford Dark Spice.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
The pair learned about premium rum making on top of their day jobs, and with a small self-funded start up investment of just £8,000, created their first premium golden spiced spirit as a passionate celebration of the history, heritage and people of the Salford Docks
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Inspired by an era whereby the city’s Salford Docks grew to be the third-largest port in the UK, Salford Rum takes its flavour inspiration from the rums, fruits and spices from the Caribbean which were landing on British shores for the first time in that bygone time
Today, inside the brand new distillery and bar, the pair plan to innovate and experiment with new expressions to complement their core range – as well as host rum school experiences where guests can enjoy guided tastings and experiment with making their own rums too.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Speaking on the new opening Tommy Gaughan, one half of the duo responsible for launching Salford Rum, said: “The support we’ve had locally for Salford Rum is nothing short of incredible. When looking for somewhere to take the brand to the next level, it was always going to be in Salford, and always going to be a place whereby our supporters can come and feel like they’re part of the Salford family.”
Salford Rum co-founder James Harrison added: “It’s been quite a ride and our first step into hospitality feels surreal. It’s time for us to grow in Greater Manchester’s vibrant drinks scene and for the brand to have somewhere to develop and – of course – serve awesome drinks.
“We’re grounded in Salford and are wholly dedicated to bringing to life what the city has to offer – be it local talent, drinks and team members.
“We trialled a lot of offering over Christmas and have some brilliant ideas in the pipeline to truly bring to life how special Salford’s place on the Greater Manchester map is. The city has so much to offer, and where we can we’ll be championing it
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Food & Drink
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 -
16th June 2022 
