A new, ethical waterfront cafe has opened inside the People’s History Museum on the edge of Spinningfields.
Serving up fat breakfast sandwiches and pastries for breakfast and wholesome dishes like tagines, stews and daals for lunch, it’s got seating inside and out – including a beautiful evening sun trap overlooking the River Irwell.
Its owners are also currently in talks with Allied London to take over the space directly on the water, overlooked by Axel Void’s Peterloo mural – a move we think would be a great boost to the area.
Here, menus are for “cowards” – or so we’re told by founder and director Corin Bell, who we meet for an ethical breakfast and coffee ahead of the cafe’s launch on Wednesday 19 May.
Asked how it feels to be opening after all the madness of the past year, she quips: “We’re still in the middle of the madness, we’re not done with the madness.”
In all seriousness, though, Corin seems to have it all very much together. As she admits herself, “it’s not easy being green” – even more so when you’re trying to use any and all buying power the best you can to support the future you want to see.
Peterloo mural by Axel Void, commissioned by PHM to mark the massacre’s 200th anniversary / Image : David Dixon
But the way we see it, they’re doing a damned good job. Everything in the cafe is ethically sourced, right down to the chairs we’re sitting on, which she tells us are made from repurposed fishing lines.
Initially, Open Kitchen had hoped to open the cafe in 2020, but instead were called upon to feed those in need during the pandemic – putting together roughly 140,000 meals for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Now firmly installed in the PHM and working with a huge range of food businesses right up and down the supply chain, the cafe intercepts food that would have otherwise ended up in the bin and turns it into hearty meals.
Working with everyone from farmers and wholesalers, to product manufacturers and big food factories that make products for supermarkets, they’re touching on every point you can imagine – ensuring no food goes to waste.
Corin states: “If it’s mouldy or it’s bad, food is a business and it goes to waste. It’s cheaper to dump it from the system than to keep it in. And that’s where we come in.”
“We work with cosmetic grade outs, fruit and veg that is too big, too small, a little bit bug-bitten, the wrong colour.
“We’ve had cauliflowers before that were rejected by a very large supermarket because they were the wrong shade of white.”
“We [also] take lots of part-prepped ingredients, you know those massive bags of chopped onions and part-prepped potatoes and things like that you get. As soon as you start prepping veg like that it gets a very short shelf life.”
The daal at Open Kitchen / Image: Lucas Smith photography
But they don’t source everything for free. Some things, like the thick cuts of bacon in our breakfast sandwich, or the chunky slices of sourdough encasing it, are instead purchased locally from suppliers that meet the cafe’s high ethical, sustainable and local requirements.
“It’s that bit trickier from a food safety point of view, obviously you’ve got to be a lot more on it with high-risk foods,” Corin explains.
This includes some small businesses the team knows are working very ethically, but have not perhaps bothered to go through the proper certifications, because “it’s a hassle if you’re a little family-run operation.”
She tells us about a small farm in Derbyshire that has offered the cafe a whole mutton “about twice a year” and the kitchen’s plans to do nose-to-tail butchering to ensure nothing goes to waste.
A new, ethical waterfront cafe has opened inside the People’s History Museum / Megan Eaves via Flickr
Further down the line, she also wants to introduce tasting evenings with small plates and wine that would educate diners on some of their amazing suppliers and ethical production processes.
Corin is aware that many people find the concept of living ethically daunting, and she acknowledges sourcing ethically is never simple.
Just by talking about the process of finding their coffee supplier Bird and Wild, who support the RSPB and use an old, sustainable farming method that also protects the habitats of birds, she reveals the minutiae detail that needs to be considered when making such decisions.
“You go, ‘we need a coffee supplier’ and then, ‘oh god it’s not that simple’, because [often] they’re clearing land, they’re destroying the environment, there’s child labour, there’s militias controlling entire governments because coffee is a cash crop … so you go down these massive rabbit holes and every simple decision you want to make [is never simple].
“I can understand why some people think ‘I can’t win and it’s exhausting’ ’cause it is hard work, but I think that message, so long as you’re making conscious choices and you’re thinking about where it’s come from and who is involved in making it, that’s a start, and you just go from there.”
To us, the beauty of a cafe like this means that, even if you do feel too overwhelmed to start implementing all of these ethical practices into your everyday life, you can start somewhere.
Namely, with a tasty bowl of ethical daal sat in the sun overlooking the River Irwell.
Food & Drink
Lupo Caffe Italiano – a taste of sunny Rome on a Prestwich industrial estate
Daisy Jackson
The sun is beating down on you, there’s a couple of luminous orange Aperol Spritzes on the checked tablecloth, Italian pop music is trickling out over the speakers and you’ve got two heaping bowls of pasta on the way.
The setting could easily be a cobbled street in front of the Colosseum in Rome. But it’s not. It’s an industrial estate in Prestwich.
Lupo must be one of Greater Manchester’s most hidden gems in a very literal sense.
To get here, you have to drive or walk a strange looping circuit around industrial warehouses peddling everything from splashbacks to burglar alarms to grow tents.
One of these warehouses, located in the very furthest yard, looks a little different to the others, festooned with bunches of garlic and dried herbs strung up from the ceiling.
There are shelves full of pasta, sauces and even crisps, a fridge packed with delicious Italian wines and beers, and retro football shirt-inspired merch hanging from the walls.
Its awkward location does nothing to hold back its loyal customers, who repeatedly return for the authentic taste of Rome on offer here.
Lupo is operated by Nico Pasquali, who first ran it as a tiny Italian cafe on Chapel Street in Salford (before all the high-rises appeared), then shifted it over to the odd shiny-commercial-office-land that is Exchange Quay, then took it almost entirely remote to trudge through the pandemic.
Lupo’s charming interiorsNico has added outside seating to LupoThe pasticceria selection at Lupo
At one point, Caffè Lupo existed mostly on WhatsApp, with customers texting in their orders ready for a doorstep drop on a Friday night.
But now the large-ish commercial unit is its main business, and it’s a special one.
You are greeted, always, with a friendly wave, then given the sort of service where you’re very gently guided to order all the best things on the menu that day, feeling like you’ll personally offend Nico if you order differently and stray from his recommendations. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to trust this man.
It’s extremely hard for me to see amatriciana on a menu and not order it – so I don’t try. One bowl of rigatoni amatriciana for me, and make it cheesy.
This is a textbook example of the deceptively simple pasta dish. Fatty guanciale cooked right down so that all that delicious pork fat melts into the tomatoes, then it’s seasoned with, I presume, several generations of secrets and love from Italian nonnas.
Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchietteA spread of Lupo’s Italian foodPepernata – Nico’s mum’s recipeThe Pizza Lupo
The sweet, salty, meaty sauce is available on a pizza too, which will be top of my list next time I visit.
Across the table it’s a special (but it’s been on the menu for a while now) of orecchiette with fennel sausage and romanesco broccoli.
Nico tells us a customer once refused to pay for this dish because it wasn’t ‘saucy’ enough. Heathen.
That’s the running theme with Lupo – don’t come here expecting Neapolitan pizzas, or flat whites, or hot honey dips for your pizza crusts. It isn’t the Roman way, and Nico isn’t about to veer away from his proud roots to mould into any passing fads or trends.
If you’re after authenticity and tradition though, this is comfortably the top Italian in Greater Manchester.
If you can come to Lupo and walk away without ordering something sweet from the counter, you’re a stronger person than me.
PasticceriaOwner NicoLupo’s famous millefoglie
They’re famed for their doughnuts (rightly), with bouncy dough filled with flavours including pistachio cream, lemon, and homemade jams.
Also displayed in neat rows are fruit tarts with a glossy glaze, towering cream cakes in neat layers, and puff pastry cannoncini.
But Nico is adamant, absolutely adamant, that we order a slice of his millefoglie. It’s a sell-out, he says. We’re lucky he even has some in stock, he tells us. Who are we to argue?
And if you’ve made it this far, just stop reading right now, get in the damn car and go get yourself a slice before it sells out again.
Layers of lighter-than-air homemade pastry are sandwiched together with delicately sweet cream, hints of almond throughout, and it’s good enough to bring a tear to your eye.
We leave with a doughnut in a box too, so that we at least have a snack if we get completely lost finding our way back out of the industrial estate.
Aldi is back looking for another taste tester to send FREE crisps to
Emily Sergeant
Aldi is looking for a special someone to become its official crisp taster, and will send the lucky winner a bunch of bags to try for free.
Calling all self-confessed crisp connoisseurs, this one’s for you.
That’s right, Aldi is ready to make savoury snack food lovers’ dreams come true, as the supermarket retailer is back on the look-out for another official ‘Crisp Taster’ to join the team, especially after the inaugural search last year proved to be so popular with shoppers, amassing hundreds of applications.
The highly-anticipated return also follows interest from local celebrities last year too, with Manc actress Michelle Keegan declaring to her 7.5 million Instagram: “IS THIS TRUE @aldiuk? Because I am READY and available with lots of experience.”
Last summer, it was 39-year-old NHS worker George Critchley from Sheffield who became Aldi’s first-ever Official Crisp Taster… but now it’s your turn.
Aldi is back looking for another taste tester to send FREE crisps to / Credit: Aldi UK | Esperanza Doronila (via Unsplash)
The successful applicant will receive a selection of Aldi’s most popular crisps to sample at home for free, including Aldi’s Specially Selected Lightly Sea Salted Hand Cooked Crisps, Specially Selected Mature Cheddar & Red Onion Hand Cooked Crisps, the Snackrite Delta Strips, and Snackrite Cheese Flavour Cheezios.
All that’s required in return is a set of exclusive reviews rating the crisps’ taste, crunch, texture and appearance to help guide the supermarket’s Buying Team on potential future flavours.
“After the success of last year with hundreds of entries, we welcome our shoppers feedback once again to make sure our latest products provide the quality, taste and price they deserve,” explained Julie Ashfield, who is the Chief Commerical Officer at Aldi UK.
“Our range of crisps are going down a treat this year, so launching the role for a new Crisp Taster is the perfect way to encourage innovative ideas and delicious products onto shelves.”
Fancy it then? To apply, you’ll just need to be aged 16 or over, a legal UK resident, and create a short application video, that’s no more than a minute long, explaining why you should be Aldi’s next ‘Crisp Taster’.
Applications are now open, with a closing deadline of Thursday 21 August.
You’ll need to share your application video via the email address [email protected], and you can find out more information on the official ‘Crisp Taster’ webpage here.
Georgina Pellant -
20th May 2021 
