Once the hustle and bustle of the festive season dies down, January can often be a much quieter month with not a lot to look forward to.
Those carefree summer nights are still in the distant future, and your friends may have resolved to drinking less, spending less, and sleeping more. The long and short of it? The party’s over, basically, which is the last thing you want to hear when your birthday falls in January.
People with January birthdays have drawn the short straw when it comes to celebrations.
But luckily, one of Greater Manchester’s most-popular restaurants is offering Capricorns and Aquarians the chance to ease the January blues with a ‘Birthday Bonus’ offer.
The Botanist – which has a number of local branches on Deansgate in the city centre, MediaCityUK, Didsbury, Alderley Edge, Warrington, and Chester – is giving those who choose to celebrate their January birthday at one of its restaurants the chance to “pay for the year you were born”.
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The offer means that those with the January birthday and everyone in their booking will only pay for the amount that corresponds to the year you were born when dining from the restaurant’s group set menu.
Need an example? Let’s say, if you were born in 1993, then you’ll only pay £19.93 each, instead of the usual cost of £30 per person.
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The Botanist is giving people with January birthdays the chance to “pay for the year you were born” / Credit: The Botanist
The older you are, the cheaper your meal is.
That means you’ll make a saving of about a third per person, so if you do have a January birthday, your friends will have no excuse but to celebrate with you over one of The Botanist’s signature dishes.
The menu offer applies to lunch and dinner sittings and includes three courses plus a glass of wine, bottle of beer, or non-alcoholic mocktail.
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Some of the dishes on offer include favourites such as Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings, Rump Steak, and the mouthwatering Oreo Cookie Dough, as well as vegan options including the Plant Based Burger, Cauliflower Wings, and Raspberry and Almond Frangipane Tart, and for an extra special touch, you can also pre-order a birthday dessert or cocktail, complete with an edible ‘Happy Birthday’ message.
Booking is essential to redeem the ‘Birthday Bonus’ offer, so you can view the menu and book at your nearest restaurant on The Botanist website here.
Featured Image – The Botanist
Food & Drink
Salford industrial estate bakery with incredible cinnamon rolls to open new site
Daisy Jackson
Mayya Bakery, a local ‘hidden gem’ with incredible cinnamon rolls, is set to open a brand-new bakery that will make it significantly less hidden.
Until now, Mayya has been quietly trading from an industrial estate in Salford, where it’s built a great reputation for its bakes despite an off-the-beaten-track-location and relatively little social media fanfare.
It opened its doors in 2024, operated by former primary school teacher Meli and her husband, dentist Oguz.
This is an artisan bakery with a real Turkish flare, with plenty of comfort food like freshly made gözleme (or gozzies for short) and bigger dishes if you fancy sitting in.
Their counters are stuffed with sweet bakes, like their perfect cinnamon rolls, plus loaves, babka, cookies, and homemade cheesecake.
For bigger dishes, you’ll find breakfast dishes like Turkish eggs, Simit (a traditional sesame bagel) breakfasts, and menemen.
The counters at Mayya Bakery’s current locationIncredible cheesecake at Mayya BakerySigns on Chapel Street Salford for the new Mayya Bakery
And now Mayya Bakery has revealed plans to open a new location in a much more prominent spot in town, with signs appearing in the windows of a unit on Chapel Street.
The sign reads: “Everything is homemade – including this picture.”
It also quips: “They called us hidden gem… not hidden anymore.”
Mayya will open on Chapel Street soon – keep an eye on our food and drink Instagram page The Manc Eats for the latest.
Sacha Lord set to back local hospitality again with money behind the bar of one Greater Manchester pub
Danny Jones
Local figure Sacha Lord is once again looking to help support Greater Manchester’s food and drink scene once again this spring by putting a total of £2.5k behind the bar of one lucky pub.
Well, let’s be honest, we’re about to be the real lucky ones.
It’s far from the first time that the Night Time Economy Advisor has done this, having previously put sizeable sums towards shared tabs on a few ocassions over the last few years.
Lining up his next handout for this coming early May bank holiday (perfect timing), it’s going to be a super and potentially very sloppy Sunday…
Tell me your favourite pub in Greater Manchester.
Bank Holiday Sunday 3rd May, I’ll be turning up and putting £2500 behind the bar.
Sharing the video above online earlier this week, the 54-year-old simply wrote, “Tell me your favourite pub in Greater Manchester. Bank Holiday Sunday, 3rd May, I’ll be turning up and putting £2500 behind the bar.”
The message is as straightforward as ever: “Support your local pub.”
Now obviously, the fact that people can reply with their go-to boozers and help influence the decision is one thing – something that has certainly always created an attraction each time he’s done this – but it’s also just a good way of marketing these watering holes to begin with.
Whether or not someone’s favourite public house tucked away in one of the 10 boroughs, or their bar of choice here in Manchester city centre, ends up being selected or not, it’s obviously great publicity having their names plastered on a notable social media account.
This is especially so when you see how much the post itself ends up being reshared and the overall exposure Lord ultimately lends them via creating such a big crowd discussion.
Here’s hoping we get proper beer garden weather over that long weekend.
It’s also worth noting that the further support stunts like this have helped garner support for other regional businesses – in particular, indies that are battling the cost of living crisis and so many other challenges within the sector – has proved crucial for some places to stay open to begin with.
A good example is the Thirsty Korean, who teamed up with the Altrincham-born entrepreneur to cover hundreds of bills back in 2023, and has now been able to expand into a larger venue down the road from their original Chorlton location.
The obstacles facing the hospitality industry remain varied and numerous, but gestures like this can go a long way to helping prop up those who need it.
Emily Sergeant -
12th January 2022 
