Food & Drink

Local drinks company Crozier Drinks launches new ‘Manchester Bee’ cocktail

20% of all profits from Crozier Drinks' newest tipple will be donated to Ancoats-based homelessness charity, The Mustard Tree.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 19th March 2021

A local lockdown-born independent drinks company has launched a brand new ‘Manchester Bee’ cocktail.

Crozier Drinks – a newly-founded business by local creative Callum Crozier – has been going from strength to strength since its launch in October of last year, but is now bringing it back to the place where it all started with the launch of a drink that celebrates the city of Manchester and everything it stands for.

The Manchester Bee cocktail is a “tribute to the worker bees of the city”.

Paying homage to “the greatest city on earth”, the Manchester Bee cocktail is a delicious mix of honey whisky and honey, blended with refreshing lemon juice.

Crozier Drinks

Made using fresh and quality ingredients, and recommended to be consumed responsibly within four days of opening, the Manchester Bee cocktail is best served by pouring 250ml of the pre-made drink into a shaker of ice, then shaking vigorously with one egg white, and serving through a single strainer over ice.

ADVERTISEMENT

With each bottle serving three / four luxurious drinks, depending on glass size, simply top it off with a lemon wedge and other garnishes of your choice – and enjoy.

If celebrating the spirit of Manchester wasn’t brilliant enough as it is, 20% of all profits from Crozier Drinks’ newest tipple will be donated to Ancoats-based homelessness charity, The Mustard Tree.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Mustard Tree creates opportunities for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, improvements to health and wellbeing, and new experiences that encourage aspiration.

Crozier Drinks

The charity believes in a Greater Manchester where everyone has the chance to be a connected, valued and contributing member of society.

The Manchester Bee cocktail will set you back just £20 for a 500ml (14% ABV) bottle.

You can find more information – including COVID-safe delivery precautions – and grab your very own bottle on the Crozier Drinks website here.

Food & Drink

Rochdale’s newest restaurant The Martlet receives rave review in The Guardian

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The Martlet in Rochdale has received a glowing review in The Guardian. Credit: The Manc Group

The Martlet, the new restaurant that’s recently opened its doors within the magnificent Rochdale Town Hall, has been given a glowing review in The Guardian this weekend.

Restaurant critic Jay Rayner paid a visit to the grand new space and summarised it as ‘Civic pride meets glorious cooking at a remarkably fair price’.

The Marlet opened in the heart of Rochdale town centre a few months ago, led by award-winning chef Darren Parkinson, who grew up locally in Heywood, and Great British Menu star Tristan Welch.

Their menu is packed with classic northern dishes like Jackson’s rag pudding, and bacon chop with Bury Black Pudding and Denshaw egg – and we here at The Manc love it.

But now it’s also caught the eye of the nation’s biggest food critic, who praised The Martlet’s easy but refined all-day approach to feeding its customers, describing it as ‘smart, witty and generous’.

Jay Rayner’s Guardian review said: “[Rochdale Town Hall] could have installed a modish and frankly annoying pan-European small plates bistro that nobody wanted. Or it could have been a bog-standard coffee and cake job…

“But it is so much more. It’s a broad offering drawing on the heritage of Greater Manchester in a smart, witty and generous way, and all at the sort of prices that will make those used to shaking down their bank accounts for a bit of lunch, sigh deeply.”

Jay Rayner praised the Scotch egg at The Martlet in his The Guardian review
Jay Rayner praised the Scotch egg at The Martlet in his The Guardian review
Inside The Martlet at Rochdale Town Hall. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside The Martlet at Rochdale Town Hall. Credit: The Manc Group

Of the many locally-flavoured items on the menu, he singled out the Bury black pudding Scotch egg (‘a class piece of work’); the traditional rag pudding (with ‘gravy so glossy you could check your hair and make up in the reflection’); and the pork chop (with ‘a seared ribbon of fat at its back, guaranteed to sustain you through a Rochdale winter’).

He also wrote: “You may find portion size challenging. In these parts that’s quite as it should be.”

Rayner also praised the Rochdale Town Hall itself (how could you not set foot in this building and not immediately fall in love?), saying ‘Whatever you do, make time to drift slack-jawed through these chambers’.

The Marlet has said it’s ‘over the moon’ with its review in The Guardian.

What a shining endorsement for this Greater Manchester town.

Read more

Featured image: The Manc Group

Food & Drink

The best Sunday roasts in Greater Manchester according to the Good Food Guide 2024

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

The Good Food Guide has named the best Sunday roasts in the UK and there’ve been a few nods for Greater Manchester (naturally).

After 18,000 public nominations, the guide and its team of inspectors have pulled together a list of the very best roasts around the country.

While the overall top spot went to The Abbey Inn in North Yorkshire, there were plenty of shouts for roasts in the North West.

Shrub in Chester took home Best Vegan, with judges saying ‘You miss nothing and gain everything’ with its brilliant trimmings.

And although it’s one of the London branches that was technically listed, Blacklock nabbed the title of having the best Sunday roast for group dining.

Blacklock recently opened its first restaurant here in Manchester, serving traditional chop house food with a modern twist.

The Good Food Guide said: “Unrivalled if you’re with a group of friends, this Canary Wharf chophouse (part of a small London group, with a Manchester outpost), is considered a ‘Sunday wonderland’ by its many fans.

Blacklock has been listed in the Good Food Guide's Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied
Blacklock has been listed in the Good Food Guide’s Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied

“With ‘super-accommodating staff’ and roasts that are ‘almost as good as mum’s’ (their words), it’s a star turn. Order the ‘all in’ sharing feast, which comprises a trio of ‘succulent’ dry-aged beef rump, lamb and pork loin with gigantic yorkies, duck-fat roast potatoes and limitless gravy.”

Another cosy spot in Marple Bridge in Stockport also made the Good Food Guide’s Sunday roast list, hailed for its fire-roasting.

The guide said: “‘Sophisticated yet comforting’ is the verdict on the elevated Sunday deal at this bottle shop and bistro in one of Stockport’s more comely corners.

“Fire-roasting is Fold’s USP, and the flames lick around everything from aged beef bavettes with ‘Yorkie bits’ and smoked salt to porchetta with Manchester ale, fennel and Pink Lady apple. Each plate comes with a wagyu-fat potato slice, but it’s worth ordering some extras (perhaps roast sandy carrots in lamb fat). Great for kids.”

Outside the Pack Horse in Hayfield
Outside the Pack Horse in Hayfield
Inside The Pack Horse Hayfield. Credit: The Manc Group
Inside The Pack Horse Hayfield. Credit: The Manc Group

The Pack Horse in Hayfield – which recently caught our eye with its brilliant breakfasts – has rightly been praised for its post-hike atmosphere and its ‘stylishly rustic and warmly welcoming interior’.

The guide said: “All the Sunday roast trimmings come as standard, whether you’re ordering the melting beef sirloin, the braised lamb shoulder, the venison loin or even the veggie option (carrot, tenderstem broccoli and Tunworth tart, say).

“Everything is thoughtfully prepared, full of flavour and of the highest quality, and the kitchen runs proudly with the seasons.”

Hawksmoor has been listed in the Good Food Guide's Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied
Hawksmoor has been listed in the Good Food Guide's Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied
Hawksmoor has been listed in the Good Food Guide’s Best Sunday Roasts list. Credit: Supplied

And finally, to absolutely no one’s surprise, Hawksmoor also placed comfortably on the top 50 Sunday roasts list.

‘The quality of the meat is unrivalled,’ observed one fan, and there were also rave reviews for the crispy beef-dripping roasties and ‘bottomless’ bone-marrow gravy.

Where’s your favourite roast in Greater Manchester?

Read more

Featured image: The Manc Group

More Food & Drink

The full breakfast at The Pack Horse Hayfield. Credit: The Manc Group

Eats

The Pack Horse – the Michelin-recommended Peak District pub serving the best pre-hike breakfast in the North

Nova Star, a new festive teepee pop-up bar in Manchester

Christmas

Peek inside the space-themed festive tipi bar that’s appeared in Manchester city centre

Beloved Manchester Italian restaurant Italiana Fifty-Five unveils big refurb

Eats

Beloved Manchester Italian restaurant unveils big refurb

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches