Manchester’s pubs, bars and hospitality professionals will be celebrated in a huge awards ceremony later this month.
Now in its fourth year, the Manchester Bar Awards picks out the very best operators in the city – with 2022’s categories championing the city’s Best Restaurant Bar, Best Speciality Bar, Best New Bar, Best Food Offering, and Bartender of the Year.
Further categories pay homage to professionals within the industry, with awards given to the best bar backs, front of house staff and rising stars.
Run by a group of Manchester bartenders and hospitality professionals, the awards were set up by the admins of a local Facebook group in 2018 to champion local people working in the industry.
First created in 2012 to help fundraise for Movember, today the Facebook group is a decade old and one of the country’s leading hospitality-focused groups – boasting over 17,000 members.
The shortlist for the 2022 awards has just been revealed, with members of the city’s bar community now being encouraged to vote for their favourites.
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Hawksmoor, Cottonopolis, 10 Tib Lane, CBRB and newcomers Namii are all shortlisted for the Best Restaurant Bar category, whilst the Best New Bar award shortlist features Schofield’s, Junior Jackson’s, 10 Tib Lane, Ramona and Lost Cat.
Image: Lost Cat
Image: !0 Tib Lane
Image: 10 Tib Lane
In a nod to the quirkiness of the city’s bar scene, this year’s Best Speciality Bar Award names wine bars Flawd and Salut, The Briton’s Protection (for its epic whiskey collection), brewery-owned bar Northern Monk and gaming bar NQ64.
Shortlisted food offerings, meanwhile, include three businesses launched by local bartenders during lockdown – Bada Bing, Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria and Kong’s Chicken Shop – alongside Wolf At The Door and Parmogeddon.
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Elsewhere, rising stars and MVPS have their own categories, whilst an outstanding achievement award highlights those who’ve done good for the community – picking out a Manchester bartender who hosts a yearly ‘Orphans Christmas’ for staff with nowhere to go, alongside others including mental-health focused organisation So Let’s Talk.
Image: Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
Image: Bada Bing
Image: So Let’s Talk
This year’s event ceremony will be held on 15 March at First Street dive bar Bunny Jackson’s, an industry favourite amongst many of Manchester’s bartenders, and promises to be a raucous, fun-filled affair.
Speaking on the upcoming awards, Manchester Bars admin and organiser Nate Booker said: “We’ve waited a long time for this moment, but the shortlist is finally here. This list was built by the crowd-sourced thoughts of over 100 hospitality professionals from Manchester (and a smattering of the rest of the UK)! We believe this is quite possibly the best shortlist we’ve published, representing a diverse cross-section of the industry.
“We have new faces and venues hitting the list amongst some old favourites, which show how dynamic and tenacious our industry is. Now we’ve just got to wait for the people of the group to vote on their winners!
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“With the Northern Restaurant & Bar Show in the city, every year Manchester is full to the brim with our hospitality peers from across the country. Hosting an awards ceremony on the first night seemed serendipitous, rewarding the hard work and passion so prevalent in the city (when our friends can join us!).
“The awards have become incredibly important to the community and we are proud to organise it, but ultimately it’s an event based embodiment of what Manchester does best, and that is have a whole lot of fun.
“We want to say a massive congratulations to all the nominees, and a huge thank you to the panel, the sponsors and of course Bunny Jackson’s. “
The full shortlist for this year’s Manchester Bar Awards ceremony:
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Best Restaurant Bar sponsored by Crystal Head
Hawksmoor
Cottonopolis
10 Tib Lane
CBRB
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Namii
Outstanding Achievement Award! Sponsored by White Claw
So Let’s Talk
Dom Gold, (Orphan’s Xmas)
Kiera & Amie, Feel Good CLub
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Mike Ramsden (Too Many Owners)
Abbie Dunn, 86 People
Best New Bar Sponsored by Portobello Gin
Schofield’s
Junior Jackson’s
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10 Tib Lane
Ramona
Lost Cat
Manchester’s Best Speciality Bar Sponsored by Maison Ferrand
Briton’s Protection, Whisky
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Northern Monk, Beer
Flawd, Wine
Salut, Wine
NQ64, Gaming
Food Offering of the Year Sponsored by Ten Locks
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Kong’s
Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
Parmogeddon
Wolf at the Door
Bada Bing
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Bartender of the Year – Sponsored by Slane
Conor Knowles, Schofield’s
Rachel Orange. Schofield’s
Connan Henry-Madden, Speak in Code
Jack Sleaford, Sandinista
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Jake Nicholl’s, Junior Jackson’s
Manchester’s Best Bar Back – Sponsored by Sairen & O’Hara’s
Calem Ocram, Smithfield Social
Sid Curry, Sherlock’s
Karis Bleakley, Washhouse
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Ethan, Behind Closed Dorrs
Tom Fastiggi, Schofield’s
Manchester’s Rising Star – Sponsored by WSET & Horse With No Name
Aidan Tibbins, Schofield’s
Dom Cleaver, 10 Tib Lane
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Reah Owen, Clubhouse
Konstantinos Koutis, Rosso
Amanda Lane, Lost Cat
Front of House Star – Sponsored by The MANC
Georgi May, Science & Industry
Leighton Russell, Seven Oaks
Lachlan Meany, Tairff & Dale
Charlotte Felton, Impossible
Meg Williams, Flawd
Feature image – Schofield’s Bar
News
Detectives investigating the ‘unexplained’ death of a Salford man urgently appeal for information
Emily Sergeant
Detectives who are investigating the currently ‘unexplained’ death of a Salford man have urgently appealed for information.
The public appeal comes after officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was called to reports of concern for welfare of a man at Riverside in Salford, near to the River Irwell, last Sunday (9 March) – but sadly, once emergency services arrived on the scene, the man in his 40s was pronounced dead, despite the best efforts of all involved.
Police have now officially named the man as Richard Crawt.
At this time, GMP says his passing is ‘still being treated as unexplained’, and enquiries are currently ongoing to establish the circumstances of his death.
Withe the investigation actively ongoing, GMP is now seeking help from the Greater Manchester public to identify a timeline of Richard’s movements prior to his death.
#APPEAL | Richard Crawt was sadly pronounced dead at Riverside on Sunday 9 March 2025.
We want to identify a timeline of his movements to understand where & when he was prior to being found deceased.
They want to understand where and when he was, prior to being found deceased.
It’s believed that Richard was using a blue tent – a picture of which has been released by GMP – and it’s believed that this tent had been pitched on a sandy beach area near the meadows in Salford on Saturday 1 March.
Richard, who was ‘known and loved’ by many, was described by his distraught family as having ‘a heart of gold’, but had sadly just ‘fallen on some hard times in life’.
Appealing to the public for information, Detective Inspector Justin Bryant, from GMP’s Salford district, said: “Our investigation team has been working tirelessly to piece together a timeline of events leading up to this tragic discovery. We have been trawling CCTV footage, speaking with residents in the area to try and understand how and why Richard came to be in this location.
The image released by GMP of the blue tent Richard was using / Credit: GMP
“At this stage of our investigation, we are still working to establish Richard’s final movements and the circumstances that led him to the river [so] we need your help.
“If you were in the vicinity of the River Irwell in Salford around the Lower Broughton area and in particular the Meadows, or if you had any interaction with Richard in the days before his death, please speak with us, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you.
“Richard’s family deserves answers during this incredibly difficult time.”
Anyone with any information that could assist the investigation is asked to contact GMP on 0161 856 4585 or 101, quoting log number 2221 of 09/03/2025, or you can report anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Featured Image – GMP
News
Leaked ‘Knebworth 2026’ teaser has Oasis fans losing their minds
Danny Jones
The Oasis reunion still feels beyond surreal but Britpop fans are preparing to lose their minds all over again as the Live ’25 comeback tour looks like it could be followed by Knebworth 2026.
We really don’t want to get ahead of ourselves only to be disappointed but we can’t help it, we’re absolutely getting carried away at the mere thought of it.
You can’t trust everything on social media, we all know that, but after a seemingly legit but premature post from the official Knebworth House X account appeared online, you’ll forgive us for thinking this just might be real.
Sharing nothing more than the iconic picture of the Knebworth crowd from back in 1996 (the same one that features on the Time Flies… 1994–2009 singles compilation) with the caption, “This is history” and the date August 2026, it looks like the Hertfordshire estate could be set to host Oasis for a second time.
Oasis (Definitely Maybe) returning to Knebworth in August 2026. This post was taken down as quickly as it went up but some of the beady eyed faithful spotted it – dare to dream? pic.twitter.com/uJ6Jv4pgCJ
As shared by Clash Magazine, the post was deleted almost immediately. The question is was it a technical error, a mistake on the admin’s part or just a very clever way of teasing the masses?
Either, it’s succeeded in sending Oasis fans into a frenzy – ourselves very much included.
There has obviously been no update from the band themselves nor the Gallagher brothers themselves; we wouldn’t put it past Liam to comment on it as a way of toying with his followers but, sadly, there’s been nothing yet.
Burnage’s finest are set to play over 40 dates on the world tour and there was some speculation that their reunion could spill over into Glastonbury, but with the lineup now announced we can confirm that was far too much wishful thinking for one comeback cycle.
That being, Knebworth 2.0 was very much filed under our pie-in-the-sky daydreams up until we saw that deleted post but now we have, we can’t think about anything else over than another quarter of a million Oasis fans, if not more, descending upon the parish and its Tudor gardens for another biblical festival.
It’s up their with Woodstock as one of the most iconic festivals ever. (Credit: Mewerlackvia Wikimedia Commons)
Put it this way, if it does indeed happen and Oasis return to Knebworth is confirmed for August 2026 or any date for that matter, it’s single-handedly the only piece of music news that could possibly outweigh the gravity of their reunion tour this summer.
Plus, if it does, there’ll be one very big closing act to round off that upcoming documentary which will capture these highly-anticipated shows on film.
Georgina Pellant -
9th March 2022 
