Food & Drink

New street food hall and taproom Society MCR opens in Barbirolli Square

Pizzas, burgers, Indian street food and pan-Asian dishes are all on the menu - along with dozens of different beers.

The Manc The Manc - 20th May 2021

A new multipurpose drink and dining venue with a taproom, cocktail bar, street food kitchens and DJ sets will fling open its doors in Manchester city centre this week.

Society MCR – an 8,000 sq ft hub based in Baribrolli Square near Manchester Central Complex – will welcome its first guests today (May 20) from 10am.

The 350-capacity food and drink space will be home to a mouth-watering selection of independent traders including:

  • Dokes Pizzeria: A stone-baked pizza site from the founders of Cutting Room Square favourite Elnecot
  • Slap & Pickle: Banging burgers, vegan patties and loaded fries that first rose to popularity in Leeds (and have resulted in the diner expanding to four locations).
  • Chaat Cart: Authentic South Indian street food named Street Food Vendor of the Year in the Manchester Food and Drink Awards 2017
  • Manzoku Street Food: Pan-Asian specialists whipping up favourites such as Chicken Katsu Curry, Char Sui Pulled Pork Buns, and Korean Fried Chicken Wings
Dokes Pizzeria will be serving stone-baked slices / Image: Society MCR
Slap & Pickle’s wildly popular burgers are coming to Manchester / Image: Society MCR
Pan-Asian dishes will be on the menu at Society MCR courtesy of Manzoku / Image: Society MCR

Also settling into Society MCR is Vocation taproom.

One of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the UK with sites already in Hebden Bridge and Leeds, Vocation’s new site is expectedly diverse – boasting over two-dozen different types of beer to choose from.

As Society MCR turns into a post-work venue when the lights go down, a lineup of resident DJs spearheaded by Manchester party favourites Regal Disco will spin tunes throughout the evening.

Society MCR opens on May 20 / Image: Society MCR

Co-founder of Society MCR Nick Gregory stated: “We’re very excited to finally open the doors to this iconic venue and look forward to welcoming guests throughout the day, evenings and weekends at Society.

“We’ve got an incredible line up that will showcase local food operators as well as our 2021 events programme that will be dedicated to highlighting independent artists from Manchester’s thriving music scene. 

“It’s so important to us to create a destination that showcases the very best of Manchester, and Society will be just that.”

Learn more about Manchester’s new multipurpose venue online.

Food & Drink

Lupo Caffe Italiano – a taste of sunny Rome on a Prestwich industrial estate

Daisy Jackson 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 interiors
Lupo’s charming interiors
Nico has added outside seating to Lupo
Nico has added outside seating to Lupo
The pasticceria selection at Lupo
The 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 orecchiette
Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchiette
A spread of Lupo's Italian food
A spread of Lupo’s Italian food
Pepernata - Nico's mum's recipe
Pepernata – Nico’s mum’s recipe
The Pizza Lupo
The 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.

Pasticceria
Pasticceria
Owner Nico
Owner Nico
Lupo's famous millefoglie
Lupo’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.

You can find out more about Lupo here.

Read more

Featured image: The Manc Group

Food & Drink

Aldi is back looking for another taste tester to send FREE crisps to

Emily Sergeant 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.

Pub group launches 'bottomless crunch' menu where you can eat unlimited crisps
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.

Read more:

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.

Featured Image – Aldi UK

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