Father’s Day is approaching fast, and if you’re anything like us you’ve left sorting something out to the absolute last minute.
Don’t panic, though. It’s all going to be ok. We’ve got you covered.
If you’ve got a dad who already has everything he wants and is, frankly, impossible to buy for, the best thing you can do this Sunday is head out for a bit of quality one on one time.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of places around town offering little gifts and freebies – so all you need to do is book the table, and the staff will take care of the rest.
Keep reading to discover where to take your dad in Manchester this Father’s Day.
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Yard and Coop – Free beer
Image: Yard and Coop
Image: Yard and Coop
This Northern Quarter fried chicken institution is famous for its gigantic buttermilk chicken burgers, fiery wings and chips, and this Father’s Day you can get all three with its Big Daddy Combo.
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The perfect gift for the man who is impossible to buy for, you can get a burger, fries, wings, plus a free pint of Yard’s house pilsner for just £20.
Note that the offer excludes the Massive C*ck burger.
The Real Greek – Free baklava
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Image: The Real Greek
Image: The Real Greek
Head down to The Real Greek inside Manchester’s sun trap Corn Exchange this weekend to soak up some rays on Exchange Square with your old man.
With the warm weather set to continue all weekend, pull up a pew, enjoy an al fresco lunch and let dad enjoy a free baklava on the house.
The Lowry Hotel – Free beer
Image: The Lowry Hotel
Image: The Lowry Hotel
This Father’s Day, The Lowry Hotel is giving away a free Hofmeister beer to every dad.
The 5 star hotel will host a celebratory Gentleman’s Tea with pork pies and scones topped with bacon jam and chive sour cream, from midday to 4pm.
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Those heading down can enjoy a complimentary beer alongside the new Afternoon Tea.
20 Stories – Free gift from Grey Goose
Image: 20 Stories
Image: 20 Stories
For dads who like the good things in life, head up to rooftop bar 20 Stories this Sunday for a special rooftop dining experience in partnership with Grey Goose.
The restaurant is serving a special Father’s Day menu for one day only, and those who get down early will also receive a free gift from Grey Goose.
Honest Burger – £10 off your order
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Great for burger lovers and sun seekers alike, this Bridge Street burger bar is famed for its top-quality beef and salted rosemary hand cut fries.
This Father’s Day, spend over £40 and get another £10 off your bill by using the code FATHERSDAY10.
Suki Suki – Free beer
Image: Suki Suki
Image: Suki Suki
If your dad considers himself a bit of a jokester, then this offer should be well up his street.
Great Northern Warehouse newbie Suki Suki is giving away free pints of Japanese lager Asahi in exchange for its customers’ best dad jakes all day long.
Albert’s Schloss will be handing out free beers to dads from 12pm this Sunday in celebration of Father’s Day.
With belting roast dinners served all day until 9pm as part of the venue’s wunderbar Sunday Service, choose from Lancashire beef, Schwienshaxe, Cheshire chicken or a brand new vegan roast with mushroom celeriac, sun-dried tomato stuffed confit onion, vegan cheese and vegetable gravy.
Featured image – Yard and Coop
Manchester
Manchester has been ranked one of the ‘most influential cities’ in Europe
Danny Jones
As per a development that we’d consider so obvious it’s barely worth writing about (even though we are), Manchester has been ranked one of the most influential cities in Europe.
In other news, water is still very much wet.
While there’s plenty of it here in Greater Manchester, given our standard rainy forecasts, when it comes to anything besides the weather, we deliver in spades.
Let’s be honest: we know it, you do too, and apparently so do plenty of other folks – and there’s some concrete statistics to back it up.
Case in point – First Chanel, now Vogue… (Credit: The Manc Group)
You’ll find all manner of surveys, polls and studies diving into how Manchester ranks across various categories, but knowing we boast nods such as ‘the original industrial city’, the place that helped split the atom and the place that the first modern computer was born, we know all about our global impact.
With that in mind, when we saw that Sixt had recently named us as one of the most influential cities in all of Europe, we couldn’t ignore the well-deserved pat on the back.
That’s right, although you might not associate the car rental company with this sort of stuff, as part of their new exclusive ‘Sixt Ride’ offering (think a posh taxi service), they looked into which cities have the most luxuries, tourist attractions and other cultural bonuses to their name.
Per their recent research, Manchester city centre didn’t just break into the top 100 but found itself among the 30 most influential cities in Europe.
You can see the full rankings table down below.
#
City
Country
*Fortune 500 Companies
Fashion weeks
Film Festivals
International Airports
5-Star Hotels
High End/Luxury Shopping areas
Michelin Restaurants
1
Paris
France
10
6
77
2
122
11
134
2
London
United Kingdom
12
3
241
3
182
5
81
3
Milan
Italy
1
4
52
3
29
5
22
4
Rome
Italy
2
0
97
2
65
4
21
5
Stockholm
Sweden
0
3
14
2
12
2
13
6
Madrid
Spain
5
0
38
1
42
2
29
7
Zurich
Switzerland
6
0
10
1
12
4
18
8
Munich
Germany
5
0
10
1
16
4
17
9
Berlin
Germany
1
1
76
1
40
2
21
10
Hamburg
Germany
1
0
16
2
17
3
16
11
Amsterdam
Netherlands
4
0
24
1
29
1
30
12
Copenhagen
Denmark
1
2
12
1
12
2
20
13
Barcelona
Spain
0
0
45
1
47
1
31
14
Lisbon
Portugal
1
0
38
1
49
1
20
15
Athens
Greece
0
0
41
1
52
2
12
16
Vienna
Austria
1
0
24
1
24
3
14
17
Bucharest
Romania
0
0
22
2
12
2
0
18
Warsaw
Poland
0
0
22
2
17
1
3
19
Glasgow
United Kingdom
0
0
17
2
4
2
2
20
Lyon
France
0
0
9
2
7
0
16
21
Prague
Czechia
0
0
16
1
60
1
2
22
Brussels
Belgium
0
0
18
1
14
1
29
23
Oslo
Norway
0
1
8
1
6
1
11
24
Manchester
United Kingdom
0
0
20
1
7
3
2
25
Budapest
Hungary
0
0
16
1
24
1
7
26
Dublin
Ireland
2
0
16
1
11
0
6
27
Naples
Italy
0
0
34
1
5
0
22
28
Porto
Portugal
0
0
8
1
28
0
10
29
Turin
Italy
1
0
21
1
4
0
10
30
Sofia
Bulgaria
0
0
22
1
14
1
0
31
Helsinki
Finland
0
0
5
1
10
1
5
32
Belgrade
Serbia
0
0
32
1
9
0
1
33
Marseille
France
0
0
5
1
4
0
12
34
Birmingham
United Kingdom
0
0
12
1
4
0
6
35
Minsk
Belarus
0
0
11
1
0
0
0
Read it and weep; we Mancs landed 24th on the leaderboard, just behind Norway’s capital, Oslo, and ever so slightly ahead of Budapest in Hungary.
As you can see, to identify the ‘most influential European cities’, they broke down how the 35 most populous cities on the continent and here UK (barring Russia and Ukraine) and what noteworthy cultural touchstones they possess.
For instance, did you hear that our very own Warehouse Project recently found itself breaking into the top half of the best nightclubs on the entire planet?
Going on to analyse everything from the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city, their connections to film, fashion, fine-dining and more, they found that Paris, London and Milan were the most influential (no surprises there), but we’re glad to be keeping such good company.
After all, in the last couple of years alone, Manchester city centre has welcomed the Metiers D’art fashion show, opened one of the biggest indoor entertainment venues in all of Europe, and still takes eternal credit for giving the world Oasis and, therefore, the Live ’25 reunion. Again, you’re welcome.
What do you make of Sixt’s study, and do you agree with their findings on the whole?
It goes without saying that we’d probably put ourselves higher on the list if anything, but then again, maybe we’re getting too used to being told how brilliant it is to live in this region.
Featured Images — Anthony Parkes (via Geograph)/The Manc Group
Manchester
Police ‘delighted’ after Manchester man is jailed for running county lines drug operation
Emily Sergeant
A Manchester man has been jailed for his part in running a county lines drug operation that exploited vulnerable people.
Following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police‘s (GMP) County Lines Team, John Joyce, of Stuart Street in Manchester, was identified as operating a county lines drugs network that supplied Class A drugs across Greater Manchester, and was subsequently jailed for possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
The investigation – which uncovered extensive evidence of drug supply – found that Joyce was the controller of the “CEE” line – a mobile number used to distribute crack cocaine and heroin.
Among that ‘extensive’ evidence was more than 31,000 text messages and 8,700 calls linked to drug dealing activity, and ‘flare’ messages advertising drugs for sale sent in bulk, as well as forensic analysis linking Joyce to two personal mobile numbers and vehicles used during the operation.
CCTV footage was also uncovered showing Joyce purchasing top-up vouchers for the drugs line.
#JAILED | Man sentenced to over 5 years in prison for running county lines drug operation
Our County Lines Team investigation uncovered extensive evidence of drug supply & found he was the controller of the “CEE” line, a mobile number used to distribute crack cocaine & heroin pic.twitter.com/WAdej9lLxU
And the final nail in the coffin was that a search of the 28-year-old’s Manchester apartment uncovered more than 460g of crack cocaine, heroin, drug paraphernalia, and cash.
Joyce fled the UK and headed to Dubai in an attempt to evade justice, but was arrested upon his return at Manchester Airport in October 2025.
“This case demonstrates our commitment to dismantling county lines networks that exploit vulnerable people and blight communities,” explained Detective Constable Josh Claxton, of GMP’s County Lines Team.
“Joyce’s operation was significant and his sentence reflects the harm caused by class A drug supply in Greater Manchester.
Georgina Pellant -
12th June 2023 
