The Oast House has already started getting into the Christmas spirit with the return of its famous winter tipi.
Arguably one of the most festive parts of the city centre each year and billed as a “winter escape in the heart of Spinningfields”, the Curious Tipi never fails to be a massive hit – with thousands of Mancunians and visitors to the city taking refuge from the cold and descending upon venue to enjoy a steaming mug of mulled wine and some good hearty grub next to an open fireplace.
And this year will be no exception.
After the much-loved event sadly had to be closed for a big chunk of the festive season last year, “Manchester’s original and most loved” tipi is back, and there’s plenty of exciting things lined up.
Manchester’s original and most loved tipi is back at The Oast House / Credit: Instagram (@theoasthousemcr)
In case you didn’t already know, The Oast House is currently celebrating its 10th birthday, and has been throwing a series of special parties to celebrate this big milestone.
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The venue is throwing 10 parties with the aim of raising £10,000 each for 10 worthy local charities.
The next party on the list is ‘Oastoberfest’ – the pub’s take on Oktoberfest, with Back Chat Brass, lots of bratwurst, and endless tankards of its signature lager, Budvar – which is happening this Friday 15 October, and then the week after that on 21 October, there’ll be a special ‘Hanging Kebabs Showcase’ the week.
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To round off this month’s busy events schedule, there’ll be a party celebrating both old and new Oast House staff members on 29 October.
The Curious Tipi never fails to be a massive hit, with thousands of people descending upon the venue each year / Credit: Instagram (@theoasthousemcr)
Speaking on the events taking place over the next couple of weeks, The Oast House’s Matt Lewty said: “We’re super excited to bring back Manchester’s original – and most loved – Tipi [and] I’m looking forward to seeing old faces from days gone by for The Oast House staff celebration on October 29th.
“If you’ve ever done a shift behind the bar, hung a kebab, greeted guests, played the stage or ran around the floor helping customers, we’d love to see you.”
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Throughout the winter, there will also be a number of Christmassy events taking place – including the iconic cinema nights, wreath making classes, and more.
The Curious Tipi will also be available to hire out for functions and staff Christmas throughout the festive period.
You can find more information about Christmas 2021 at The Oast House here.
Featured Image – The Oast House
Food & Drink
This Manchester bar serves a bottomless cheese fondue with endless beer and wine
Georgina Pellant
There’s a bar in Manchester serving a bottomless cheese fondue with endless wine and beer, and it honestly sounds like the perfect treat.
While it might scream cosy winter night in, with a huge outdoor terrace, The Mews is also a firm favourite during the summer months.
Add in a board of melt-in-the-mouth charcuterie, springy pieces of garlic sourdough and a host of crunchy cheese biscuits, and you’ve got yourself the ideal afternoon if you ask us.
But there’s more. Alongside all that cheese and meat and bread, included in the price of The Mews’ bottomless fondue, cheese lovers can also enjoy 90 minutes of non-stop drinks.
Bottomless cheese fondue at The Mews on Deansgate in Manchester. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
Costing £37.50 each, included in the deal is a huge pot of melted Italian Fontina cheese served with homemade garlic croutons, sourdough crackers, and slices of British charcuterie.
You’ll also get to enjoy an hour and a half of endless pints of house pilsner and carafes of red or white wine to enjoy alongside.
Serving up to six people, the bottomless cheese fondue is available only when you pre-book, so make sure to get in touch ahead of your visit to let The Mews know that you’re coming.
If you’re not on the sauce, you can opt for the cheese fondue alone. Without the booze, it’s quite a bit cheaper at £25 for one, and £2.50 on top for any additional people who want to get stuck in.
Housed up on Deansgate Mews, just behind the main hustle and bustle of Deansgate, there’s plenty of space inside as well as a large, secluded terrace that is quite the suntrap (when the Manchester sun is shining).
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Emily Sergeant -
12th October 2021 
