Manchester

Inside Medlock Canteen – a brand new restaurant for Manchester inspired by American diners and Parisian bistros

It'll have its own rotisserie chicken oven and you can take your roast bird home in a bag.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 25th March 2024

One of the year’s most exciting restaurant openings is officially ready to open in Manchester, with Medlock Canteen now fully kitted-out at Deansgate Square.

The restaurant comes from the team behind Madre (the Mexican restaurant at Kampus) and Belzan (one of Liverpool’s top restaurants).

And when it officially opens on 29 March, diners will be spoiled with bottomless coffee, a rotisserie chicken oven, and ‘strong sandwiches’.

Oh, did we mention they’ll also be offering 50% off for the restaurant’s soft launch period?

Medlock Canteen is taking its inspiration from eateries on opposite sides of the pond – the laid-back and accessible style of American diners and the hospitality of Parisian bistros.

There’ll be an all-day menu served alongside those bottomless coffees, with guest welcome to sit as long as they like.

You can expect breakfasts ranging from classic Full Englishes to duck-egg hash to ‘millennial eggs’ (smashed avo and poached eggs).

There’ll be familiar brunch dishes like oats, pancakes, and breakfast sandwiches, plus French inspired dishes like a crab and gruyere omelette, with several brekkies available to take away.

Fresh baguettes stuffed with rotisserie chicken straight out of the oven
Fresh baguettes stuffed with rotisserie chicken straight out of the oven
Medlock Canteen will have bottomless coffee - and excellent espresso martinis
Medlock Canteen will have bottomless coffee – and excellent espresso martinis
Leeks and peas at Medlock Canteen
Leeks and peas at Medlock Canteen
Steaks at Medlock Canteen, which are cooked over coals. Credit: The Manc Group
Steaks at Medlock Canteen, which are cooked over coals. Credit: The Manc Group

Then at lunch, chef patron Sam Grainger is promising a ‘strong sandwich game’ – we’re talking roast beef sandwich with caramelised onions, gruyere and jus; turkey schnitzel with mozzarella and marinara; and a grilled cheese with three different cheeses and pickles.

And in the evenings, it’s all about steaks and fish of the day, as well as that rotisserie chicken oven.

Believed to be the only restaurant rotisserie oven in Manchester, Medlock Canteen will be serving chicken baguettes with chicken mayo, butterhead lettuce and jus at lunchtimes, and half- or whole-chicken with a choice of sides all day.

You can even pick up a chicken in a bag to take home with you.

Owner Chris Edwards said: “Picture your typical canteen; a spot where everyone and anyone can gather.

“On one table you have a group of friends catching up over dinner, two colleagues are sitting at the bar enjoying a post work drink, a worker pops in for a coffee before their night shift and a couple swing by for dessert en route home from dinner.

“We want people to come as they are, use the space as their own and eat and drink as they desire.”

Owain Williams added: “Medlock Canteen is inspired by American diners and French bistros. In these venues, everyone is always welcome for unfussy, traditional, everyday faire.

“The British equivalent of these spaces has always been the pub but the community bond created by these spaces has become collateral damage in the UK’s reframed relationship with the pub.

“We still want the community, the accessibility and the prices, but it needs to exist in a different atmosphere suitable for the city dwellers of Manchester.”

Medlock Canteen will be opening on 29 March at 5 Owen Street at Deansgate Square (near Kitten and Salvi’s).

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Manchester

Aitch is playing a huge hometown set at The Warehouse Project

Danny Jones Danny Jones

Aitch has booked another massive hometown slot as the Moston-born rapper will be playing none other than the home of clubbing here in Manchester: The Warehouse Project.

Joining the WHP25 programme, which is already stacked right up until New Year’s Eve, the 25-year-old is the latest rapper to take on the famous club venue, following the likes of Little Simz and Loyle Carner, who played the event series back in October.

Aitch‘s new album, 4 – which denotes the number of studio LPs he’s made to date and acts as a nod to the M4 postcode – was released on June 20 and has already proved popular with fans.

Having just played Parklife as well as a secret set at Glastonbury this year, he’s already performed most of his biggest slots for the year, but the ever-rising local rapper thought he’d given Manchester another big gig and one more chance to see him live in 2025.

Booking the main stage at Depot Mayfield this autumn, Aitch will be playing to hordes of die-hards inside the massive space.

It’s not his first time playing WHP, having previously joined fellow native and DJ Bou (the very same producer he joined in Glasto 2025) last year, but you can guarantee this one will be bigger.

As an increasingly popular main event act across the UK, a headline show at Warehouse Project is nothing short of a massive deal for any artist, let alone a Manc.

The date itself will see him see him performing songs from the new record, which is his second to hit the top 10, as well as a selection of multiple platinum-selling hits.

Sharing details of early access tickets on Instagram stories shortly after the announcement, the UK hip-hop and grime star reminded fans: “This is the only chance to see me shut this sh*t down this year!!!”

It’s actually his only major domestic show in full stop, so if you’re a die-hard fan of Harrison Armstrong and his music, you really don’t want to miss this one.

He’s not the only big name coming to Mayfield this season either.

The concert is coming to Manchester city centre on Wednesday, 29 October, and you can check Aitch’s social media for info on how to get pre-sale.

Meanwhile, in terms of general admission for Aitch at The Warehouse Project, tickets go live this Thursday, 3rd July at 10am.

Keep your eyes peeled for a link when tickets officially drop, and we’ll make sure to let you know when they do. See you there.

In the meantime, you can always watch us eat a burger with him…

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Featured Images — Jahnay Tennai (supplied)/Aitch (via TikTok)

Manchester

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025

Danny Jones Danny Jones New Manchester music artists June 2025

Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.

You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.

We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.

Get your playlists at the ready.

Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently

1. Arkayla

First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”

However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.

There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.

2. iNNAFIELD

They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.

If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.

Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.

@innafield.band Tell Me What’s On Your Mind. On all streaming platforms now. #fyp #foryoupage #music #stevienicks #indie #band #wunderhorse #keo #pinkfloyd #fleetwoodmac ♬ original sound – innafield.band

3. Grace Kelly

No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.

She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.

Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.

We’d also give her Nashville twist on ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, too – trust us, it works.

4. Prido

We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.

And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.

‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.

5. Josh Baker

Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.

Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.

We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.

DJ at centre of Parklife cancellations speaks out over ‘unsafe’ crowds

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And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.

But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.

Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.

See you next time.

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2025

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Prido (via Facebook)/Arkayla (via X)/Grace Kelly (via Facebook)

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