The hangover is biting, you’ve got a thirst you can’t quite quench, your sugar levels are dipping – what you need is cold, fizzy, liquid sugar.
Imagine, now, popping in to an ordinary-looking corner shop, expecting to grab a Lucozade or maybe a Fanta, and being greeted by something beyond your wildest dreams.
A wall of soft drinks in just about every imaginable flavour, like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but for pop.
This isn’t a weird gimmicky hipster hangout though.
Manchester Mini Market. Credit: The Manc Group
It’s just a standard corner shop that’s quietly developed a niche and a massive following.
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The Manchester Mini Market is on Oldham Street, just off Piccadilly Gardens.
Past its Coca-Cola-red facade and the ATM poking out of the wall, beyond the wall of scratch cards, and you’ll find a glowing wall of cold drinks.
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There’s an entire range of energy drinks, flavours of 7up and Fanta we’ve literally never seen before, and a full spectrum of Vimto.
The wall of Coke at Manchester Mini Market. Credit: The Manc Group
And despite many of the drinks being imported at Manchester Mini Market, they’re not sold at inflated prices like some of the American sweet shops tend to do.
There’s fizzy Ribena, Tizer, Capri Sun and Oasis.
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Strawberry Coke, vanilla Coke, lime Coke, and all its siblings.
There’s a selection of cans inspired by Chupa Chups lollies, with flavours like grape, strawberry and melon.
You’ll find a Mojito 7up from France and a Vietnamese sasparilla Fanta that’s vaguely similar to root beer.
You want a Tango? What about a dark berry one, or a strawberry watermelon flavour?
These are new! Credit: The Manc Group
There are even some of the pink mystery flavour Fantas if you want to play a game of what-the-hell-am-I-drinking.
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And energy drink fans can raid Monsters in pacific punch and mango loco, Rubicon Raws in pomegranate, mango and blueberry, and a massive range of Relentless cans.
Honestly, The Manc staff dash in here every week and we’re always surprised by new drinks to try.
What a gem.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Food & Drink
A historic Stockport pub has officially become a listed building
Danny Jones
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The Angel Inn pub in Stockport has officially become the thriving Greater Manchester borough’s latest listed building.
Being granted Grade II-listed status following an extensive visit and survey by Historic England (HE), Stockport Market Place’s Angel Inn may have had a lick of paint amidst the ‘Old Town Revival’ over the last decade or so, but the pub itself was erected back in the 16th century.
Reopened as one of the area’s most beloved boozers back in 2018, whilst still maintaining key fixtures and that feeling of authenticity, it harks back to the town’s Cheshire roots and taps into a deep vein of local culture.
The assessment, which was completed earlier this month, means that Angel Inn has been recognised as having special architectural or historic significance – i.e. the definition of a listed building.
Writing in a post on social media, the government-backed English heritage organisation detailed that while the inn predates the Early Modern/post-medieval period, the Angel‘s frame is comprised of wood from the 15th century.
But it gets even more interesting than that…
As well as being one of a select few surviving, traditional wattle-and-daub structures in the UK – nearby Bramall Hall being another (and a technique that had died out by the 18th century) – a close inspection of the internal floorboards unearthed something truly fascinating.
It just so happens that tests by HE proved that one particular plank of flooring “was cut from a tree alive in 1086, the year the Domesday Book was completed: the oldest government record held in The National Archives, commissioned by William the Conqueror.
How bloody cool is that?
It’s also worth noting that it’s genuinely a brilliant boozer and one of the most popular watering holes you’ll find in the town centre, promising a cosy interior, an intimate little outdoor area out back and serving plenty of regional ales.
You only have to glance at the exterior to clue into its age, let alone what there is to be found inside.Way back when.Credit: Historic England (handout)/Stockport Archives
Although they say it’s likely that the floorboard in question was originally cut for an earlier building situated in the same location, it still goes to show how old this particular North West settlement is.
“The name ‘Angel Inn’ dates from as early as 1769, though the site’s hospitality roots extend further, with references to “Cotterell’s inn” used for sequestrators’ meetings in the 1640s, who met to organise the confiscation of property of supporters of King Charles I during The English Civil War”, HE went on to add.
Angel Inn is one of only a handful of venues like this in Greater Manchester and Cheshire; safe to say a lot of time, effort and money are being put into preserving these links to the past.
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Historic England (handout)/Stockport Archives
Food & Drink
‘Classy, clever, confident’ – New Manchester restaurant receives glowing Guardian review
Daisy Jackson
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Winsome, one of the newest restaurants on Manchester’s dining scene, has gone and received a seriously glowing review in The Guardian this weekend.
Legendary restaurant criticGrace Dent said that the British bistro ‘may well be my new favourite restaurant’, lauding chef patron Shaun Moffat’s ‘elegant but plentiful modern cooking’.
She said that there’s even a teeny touch of Toby Carvery in their Sunday offering, with meaty and saucy dishes and ‘cartoon-esque XL yorkshire puddings’.
Winsome opened back in March under the steer of three hospitality heavyweights – ex-Edinburgh Castle chef Shaun Moffat, former Schofields head bartender Tom Fastiggi, and Belzan founder Owain Williams.
It’s a beautiful, stripped-back space at the foot of the Whitworth Locke aparthotel and Moffat’s first venture as a chef patron.
Based on this Guardian review, he’s doing a pretty good job so far…
Grace Dent said of Winsome’s nostalgic yet modern menu (featuring dippy eggs and puddings that sound like school dinner puds): “This is Cool Britannia wearing a napkin bib with a side portion of rhubarb jelly and custard for pudding.”
Novelty crockery at Winsome. Credit: The Manc GroupChef patron Shaun Moffat at Winsome. Credit: The Manc GroupDippy egg and asparagus. Credit: The Manc GroupInside WInsome on Princess Street. Credit: The Manc Group
She also wrote that it’s ‘far from a novelty restaurant’ in spite of its animal-shaped crockery.
And Dent added that while there’s an element of fine dining, it’s unpretentious enough that you’re happy to smear it all over the tablecloths and, indeed, yourself.
‘Deeply nostalgic’, ‘forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff’, is how she described her Winsome experience.
“This is confident, clever cooking that stays just the right side of earnest, or at least as earnest as a chef can be when he also serves up a dessert that is essentially a 1980s school sponge pudding with a scoop of milk ice-cream flecked with multicoloured sprinkles, or hundreds and thousands as they will for ever be known in my heart,” she wrote.
Grace Dent’s Guardian review concluded with: “Winsome may well be my new favourite restaurant, and it’s the new, big, generous beating heart of Manchester hospitality. It’s classy but come-all – bring your gran, bring your baby, no one need feel conspicuous.
“There’s something about the place that makes me want to use it as a canteen, not least out of sheer curiosity as to what Moffat will put on the menu next. Great cooking, and forward-thinking fine dining without any of the faff.
“Bring your appetite and don’t wear pale colours. Aaah, Manchester, you have so much to answer for. Winsome will seriously impact your waistline.”
Winsome said in a post on Instagram: “It doesn’t get much better than that! We’re over the moon, full of pride and could not be more grateful to the team who’ve worked so hard to help us deliver this dream.”
Daisy Jackson -
18th February 2022 
