Manchester

This Manchester brewery is giving away free lager and pizza

Head down to Common this Wednesday 7 September to get your hands on some Manchester Union Lager freebies

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 6th September 2022

A local Manchester brewery is giving away free lager and pizza this week to celebrate the launch of its newest beer.

Created in collaboration with local clothing brand Hikerdelic, the new limited edition beer is called GORP, or Good Old Raisins & Peanuts, and is the latest release from the city’s only craft lager brewery.

The newest drop from Manchester Union Lager, if you time it right you can grab a can (and a slice of Nell’s pizza) for free at Common on Edge Street this Wednesday.

All you need to do to get your hands on a freebie is to sign up for a free ticket with Skiddle here, then make sure you’re one of the first fifty people in the queue at 6pm.

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There’ll also be a host of merch available, created by Hikerdelic – a relatively young clothing company born out of the ‘sartorial seeds of Proper Magazine’.

Hikerdelic has already had great success in limited edition collaborations with the likes of Barbour, Novesta, Holubar and Yogi, after transitioning from writing about clothes to making their own.

The new GORP can has been designed by local illustrator Daren Newman. / Image: Supplied
Image: Hikerdelic

Now, they’re teaming up a bit closer to home, combining a love for the outdoors lifestyle with high-quality, well-designed clothing made to last.

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Their motto is where the peak meets the precinct, unifying the two worlds of rambling and raving, and let’s be honest there’s not much that does that better than a beer.

Promising to be the ‘perfect refreshment after a post-trail hike’, in spite of the name the Pilsner-style beer is actually completely free of peanuts.

The can label has been illustrated by Daren Newman, a celebrated locally-based illustrator who also created all of the typography for Hikerdelic’s branding.

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Speaking on the new beer launch, Manchester Union’s Jamie Scahill said: ‘We floated the idea of a beer with Hikerdelic a few years ago when they hosted a party at the brewery so we’re delighted for the world to try it.

“This is the perfect partnership with one of my favourite clothing brands and Manchester’s only craft lager brewery.”

Mark Smith from Hikerdelic added: “After the last couple of years, the importance of real life things has definitely grown.

“With social media we can interact with our followers but a real product enjoyed in real life can’t really be beaten.

Read more: Online rumours that The City pub has closed for good aren’t entirely true

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“Working with Jamie and Will has been great and we’re looking forward to getting something a little different to our clothing out there.”

Head down to the Hikerdelic and Manchester Union Brewery present GORP Lager Launch Party this Wednesday, 7 September, at Common in Manchester’s Northern Quarter from 6pm – 10pm.

Tickets are available for free from Skiddle here.

Feature image – Common

Manchester

Chorlton neighbourhood favourite The Creameries has permanently closed

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Chorlton neighbourhood favourite The Creameries has permanently closed, it has been confirmed.

According to chef-owner Mary-Ellen McTague, the business had been doing well at the end of 2019 but has been “f*cked” ever since the pandemic.

Two years of not bringing in enough money, coupled with fewer people eating out, a backlog of loans and then a rise in VAT combined to leave her with little option but to sell – yet whilst there were a few interested buyers, none made it over the finish line.

As a result, after trying a number of different formats to keep the business going, she has made the decision to close up shop for good.

Speaking on closure, Mary-Ellen told the Manchester Evening News: “The whole thing has been awful, but it has been like that since the beginning of the pandemic.

Image: The Creameries
Image: The Creameries

“There was still a chance we were going to make a sale. We had three consecutive buyers who were very close, and then backed away,” she continued.

“The longer the economic instability has gone on, the more and more nervous [buyers] have been. 

“In September 2019, we started operating just as a restaurant, doing tasting menus, and it was working so well,” she said. “We had a brilliant Jay Rayner review, it was packed, we were making money, not just keeping afloat. Then the pandemic hit, and we’ve been f**ked since then.”

Read more: Eat Well: The restaurant-backed charity feeding hidden homeless families in Manchester

The former Edwardian Dairy was first opened in 2018 by the esteemed Manchester chef Mary-Ellen McTague as a bakery and natural wine bar serving a selection of pickles and small plates.

It later switched to operating as a restaurant, serving tasting menus that proved very popular with punters, before – like the rest of hospitality – it was forced to close in early 2020 as the country went into lockdown.

Image: The Creameries
Image: The Creameries

When it reopened, it tried a few different things before introducing Campagna, an affordable Italian menu that, whilst popular, didn’t manage to keep bringing in the footfall in the long term.

It appears that a new tenant has secured the site, although further details surrounding the operator are currently being kept under wraps.

“We tried so hard. To adapt and survive, and it just didn’t work,” Mary-Ellen added.

Read more: The Manchester Food and Drink Festival award winners 2022

“Pre-pandemic it was really, really, really hard to get to the point where more money was going in than coming out. Restaurants don’t talk about it a lot, but if you ask people off the record, most will say that getting to the point where you’ve done slightly better than break even, that’s a strong month.

“Things went from challenging to just completely impossible.”

Read more: One of Manchester’s first vegan restaurants has closed its doors for good

Going forward, Mary-Ellen will focus her efforts on her restaurant-backed community project Eat Well MCR, which feeds hidden homeless families in Manchester and has to date delivered over 70,000 meals to people in need.

She will also continue to work on the new Treehouse Hotel opening, which is expected to open in Manchester city centre in early 2023.

Feature image – The Creameries

Manchester

Massive queue forms FOUR HOURS ahead of Wagamama katsu curry giveaway

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Wagamama is giving away free katsu curries today – and a massive queue has already formed.

The popular restaurant’s site on St Peter’s Square in Manchester city centre has a long line of people eagerly hoping to snap up a free lunch.

The giveaway has been launched in celebration of National Katsu Curry Day, with restaurants right across England, Scotland and Wales taking part.

In Manchester city centre alone, there are Wagamama restaurants at St Peter’s Square, Spinningfields and Printworks – not to mention the six more scattered across Greater Manchester boroughs.

The free curry dishes won’t be given out until 3pm on Tuesday 27 September – but already by 11am there were dozens standing in line in town.

Niko Omilana with a katsu curry. Credit: Wagamama
The huge queue outside Wagamama in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group

With only 50 katsu dishes per Wagamama restaurant up for grabs, handed out on a first-come first-serve basis, it’s looking like the early queueing will be totally necessary.

The freebies are also only available to students who have registered with the new Wagamama Noodle Union, a new student society, which is being fronted by YouTuber Niko Omilana.

Read more: The Manchester Food and Drink Festival award winners 2022

Niko said: “As one of my first acts as noodle union president, I’m proud to announce free katsu to mark National Katsu Curry Day – a day to celebrate across the nation as we come together in honour of all things katsu.

“Make sure to sign up to the noodle union so that you don’t miss out on a free katsu curry and other epic prizes throughout the year!”

Wagamama will give away 50 free katsu dishes per restaurant for dine-in, and diners can choose from chicken, yasai, vegatsu or hot.

Featured image: The Manc Group

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