Food & Drink

New bar at Hatch opens that’s decorated exactly like a can of beer

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 8th May 2022

A new bar has opened its doors at street food village Hatch, transforming one of the shipping container units.

The Beavertown bar, a collaboration with the popular brewery, is plastered in so much Beavertown artwork it’s like you’re drinking cans inside a can.

The brand’s recognisable illustrations of skulls, rockets and other intergalactic objects now cover the walls, in shades of orange, blue and yellow.

  • Beavertown’s new bar at Hatch. Credit: Supplied
  • Beavertown’s new bar at Hatch. Credit: Supplied

Fans of Beavertown’s beers like Neck Oil, Gamma Ray and Bones will feel right at home.

The themed bar will have all of the aforementioned beers on draft, as well as cans of Nano Bot, Bones and Heavy Gravity, plus other limited edition special beers and new releases.

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The new venue has a small terrace outside and will soon open up a much larger rooftop terrace space.

Beavertown’s new bar at Hatch. Credit: Supplied

Customers can order food from any of the traders in Hatch to the Beavertown bar.

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Nick Dwyer, creative director from Beavertown Brewery, said: “Our initial ethos of everything looking as good as it tastes, and vice versa, has evolved over time to cover everything from experiences, to venues, to brick walls and shipping containers.

Read more: Kong’s is opening a sandwich shop at Hatch with crisp butties on the menu

“Our biggest illustration invasion to date, Hatch is a perfect opportunity to get Beavertown across via every sense imaginable, with our amazing beers on the bars, our distinctive visually adorning every wall and hopefully people having the time of their lives.”

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Pete Brizio, operations manager from Hatch, added: “Our new Beavertown Bar is set to be the hit of the summer in Manchester.

“Together with Beavertown we’ve created the perfect spot to enjoy the brand’s legendary range of IPAs and lager overlooking Hatch and sheltered by the Mancunian Way. It’s ‘summer in the city’ beer heaven!”

Featured image: Supplied

Food & Drink

The ‘secret’ cash-and-carry near Piccadilly that’s selling amazing Italian food for less than the supermarkets

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson You can pick up top-quality Italian produce like tinned tomatoes

We all know the pain of finally settling on what you want to eat for dinner, only to Google a recipe and discover a list of ingredients that your local Tesco definitely won’t have in stock. 

‘Where the f*** am I going to get guanciale from at this hour?’, you think. 

Well, just a stone’s throw from Manchester Piccadilly, you’ll find a cash-and-carry that’s an Aladdin’s cave of Italian food – and a damn sight cheaper than a supermarket, too. 

Amato is a name you might recognise, with their grey vans regularly trundling around Greater Manchester delivering top Italian produce to all your favourite restaurants. 

But you don’t need a wholesale membership to take advantage of their massive range of pastas, sauces, drinks, meat, cheese, and just about everything else you can think of – or to make the most of the prices either. 

Amato has given up a small section of its 20,000 sq ft warehouse to be a retail space, where you can pick up everything from fresh filled pasta to truffle oil. 

There’s also a selection of produce from beyond Italy, like Kewpie mayonnaise and gochujang. 

Part of the huge warehouse operates as a retail space
Part of the huge warehouse operates as a retail space
Bob Amato started the business more than 30 years ago
Bob Amato started the business more than 30 years ago

And they’ve honoured the prices given to wholesale clients too, with smaller retail sizing, meaning you can pick up affordable produce without needing to bulk-buy (or lug home a 25kg bag of flour).

The business was launched by Bob and Deloras Amato more than 30 years ago, getting top Italian ingredients to chefs across the North West. 

But the retail side has really taken off since the Covid pandemic, Bob explains.

“It’s a bit of a secret place,” he says, “As we don’t tend to advertise it too much.”

It all began (as so many local businesses did) back in 2020.

He says: “During the pandemic, as we’re a wholesaler, we realised there was a big demand for flour, which we had plenty of. People were crying out for flour and we had absolutely tonnes of it in 25kg sacks.

A whole range of little pasta - or pastina
A whole range of little pasta – or pastina
One of two aisles dedicated to Italian pasta
One of two aisles dedicated to Italian pasta
Pasta shapes you won't find in a supermarket
Pasta shapes you won’t find in a supermarket

“So we got some of our staff to come in and to repackage it in smaller packages that we could sell to retail customers.

“From that, people weren’t allowed to go out and they wanted to make pizzas and pasta, so they wanted tomatoes and mozzarella and pepperoni and other products.”

As a customer now, you can pick up things like tinned San Marzano tomatoes, harvested in the foothills of Mount Vesuvius; fresh burrata from Puglia (or frozen, if you want it to have a slightly longer shelf life); and traditionally-cured meats like guanciale, speck, and prosciutto. 

Essentially, there’s everything you need to make a hearty Italian feast from scratch, or you can grab a bag of homemade pesto and pasta, made fresh on site, from the fridges for an easier dinner. 

Bob and his team are encyclopaedias of information about the food produced all the way across Italy, knowing the back story of every one of their 1,500+ products. 

Cured meat including guanciale
Cured meat including guanciale
Trays of cannoli
Trays of cannoli
You can also pick up fresh filled pasta at Amato
You can also pick up fresh filled pasta at Amato

He tells us about why pasta shapes get their name, like Schiaffoni, which loosely translates as ‘slaps’ because of the sound they make when they plop onto the plate.  

Bob also explains the reason that Scamorza comes in a snowman-like shape, with the cheese being strung up by its ‘neck’ to dry and age. 

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He chats us through all the different flours, and why you would use which in your pizzas; why good tinned tomatoes are worth seeking out (cheap ones are like ‘bullets’); and that you should always bring your burrata up to room temperature.

Even as we’re checking out with our armfuls of pasta, the staff member serving us is passing on tips for a perfect amatriciana sauce.

Amato is open from 7am daily (except Sundays), and if you’re stuck on what to make for dinner, pay Bob and his team a visit.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Food & Drink

Neighbourhood restaurant slams lack of ‘common decency’ after huge booking no-shows

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Neighbourhood restaurant Anello slams lack of 'common decency' after huge booking no-shows

A neighbourhood restaurant with rave reviews has been forced to speak out and change its booking system after a huge table didn’t show up for their reservation.

Anello, a pizzeria and small plate restaurant, said that it was left with a large empty table for two hours on a busy Saturday night because a group of 10 people failed to honour their booking.

The restaurant, which comes from the original founders of Rudy’s, said they received ‘no call, no email, no notice, no chance of us filling the space’.

They’d accepted the large booking for 10 people with no deposit, which had always been the system in place.

Anello said: “We’ve always wanted to go off trust when taking bookings for tables. It’s common decency to let someone know you’re not coming – right?

“Life is busy and plans change and I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of punishing people financially for that.”

However, losing that amount of potential revenue on a Saturday night when the hospitality is ‘in a state’ has left the business with no choice.

They wrote: “I could bang on and on about the state of the hospitality industry, but we are where we are with that. But with that and the amount of times this has happened, we’re now going to take a booking deposit for groups of 6+.

“Sorry folks. It doesn’t sit quite right but we just don’t have a choice at the moment.”

The Anello team and family outside the restaurant
The Anello team and family outside the restaurant. Credit: Instagram, @anellopizzeria

Anello opened in the heart of Slaithwaite, a pretty town halfway between Manchester and Leeds, back in 2022, taking over a former library.

Not only does it have serious pizza credentials (again – Rudy’s founders Jim Morgan and Kate Wilson are at the helm), but real local produce credentials too.

A lot of the ingredients used at Anello have been grown in their very own kitchen garden, where they also host occasional open days with wood-fired butties.

And as well as Neapolitan pizza, you’ll find excellent seasonal small plates and starters, plus homemade ice cream.

Their necessary change to their reservation policy has been welcomed by customers.

One person commented: “I think that’s fair and reasonable, it’s not on to ghost a small business like that.”

Another said: “That’s so frustrating! Deposits are a great idea – will always happily pay a deposit.”

And someone else wrote: “Sorry to hear this keeps happening. Not sure what sort of bubble of ignorance people exist in to not be considerate to providers. Hope the deposit system helps.”

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Featured image: Instagram, @anellopizzeria

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