This month award-winning piemakers Great North Pie Co will officially open in Manchester city centre, bringing its high-quality goodies to Kampus for the very first time.
Serving up a modern take on traditional pie and mash dinners, a new, seasonal menu features four butter-pastry pies, stuffed to the brim using only the best ingredients from North West producers.
From 14-hour braised beef and ale pies, to roast chicken and mushroom and the company’s hero classic Lancashire cheese and onion, pie fans can expect to find classic flavour combinations done well at the cosy and intimate new space.
Each pie on the menu is served with a wide range of sides, with choices including buttery mash or proper home-style chips, cauliflower cheese, pickled red cabbage, mushy garden peas or chip shop mushy peasall served withroast onion and brown sauce gravy or the house curry sauce- the ultimate feed.
There will also be weekly comfort food specials such as lamb and pea steamed suet puddings, corned beef hash, Lancashire Hot Pot, and keema and chips.
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Image: Great North Pie Co
Image: Great North Pie Co
To round off the perfect meal, puddings include school dinner-style sweet treats like chocolate sponge and custard and the classic sticky toffee pudding.
Breakfast sandwiches will be served daily between 10:30am and 2.30pm and will feature quality versions of all the breakfast classics including Cheshire Smokehouse honey-cured bacon and Stornoway black pudding.
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The drinks menu, meanwhile, includes the likes of Manchester Union Lager on draught, a selection of quality wines and proseccos, plus a handful of spritz style cocktails.
With booth-style seating for 20 inside and an outdoor area seating area for up to 30 more overlooking the Kampus garden and canal, the cosy new pie cafe is the first resident to arrive on the cobbles of Kampus’s Little David Street.
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Neil Broomfield, co-founder of Great North Pie Co, said: “Since we started making pies it’s always been an ambition to have a base in the city centre.
“We’d been looking for a while and as soon as we saw Kampus, Little David Street and the gardens, we knew it was the right place for us. While it’s our first city centre venue, we don’t have plans to rollout out any more, as we place our focus on keeping the quality and consistency we aim for.
Image: Great North Pie Co
Image: Great North Pie Co
“We just want to concentrate on doing one thing and doing it well. The mix of traders coming into Kampus is amazing and we’re so proud to be part of it.”
Great North Pie Co also has venues in Lake District’s Ambleside and in Altrincham Market. Its products can also be found at monthly farmers markets, where they started the business, in locations such as Urmston, Knutsford, Northwich, Altrincham, Chester, Wilmslow, Chorlton, Bakewell, Macclesfield and West Didsbury.
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The pie brand supplies pubs and restaurants nationwide and also supplies to the likes of Booths, Robinsons’s brewery, Dukeshill Hams, Manchester City Football Club, Stockport County FC, and other popular pubs and restaurants across the country.
Its new cafe will officially open its kitchen & bar at Kampus on Monday, 27 February, with its handcrafted pies available to take away cold as well as eat in.
There are worse ways to spend a day than sitting around drinking wine – but at The Manchester Wine School, you can actually come away knowing what you’re talking about too.
The team here can talk you through the very basics up to the finer points of wine, so you can impress at your next dinner party or confidently pick up the heavy wine list on a date.
If you’re wondering what it’s like to go back to school as an adult, where the main subject is wine, let us fill you in (and fill your glass, while we’re at it).
We headed along to take on the WSET Level 1 Award in Wines, a one-day introduction to the world of wine designed specifically for people with little-to-no previous knowledge. So, thankfully, there’s absolutely no expectation that you’ll arrive knowing your Chardonnay from your Chablis.
The day takes you right back to basics, starting with how grapes are grown and what actually happens during the winemaking process. You learn how different climates affect grapes, how white, red and rosé wines are produced, and why all those little differences eventually have such a big impact on what ends up in your glass.
Then, obviously, comes the fun bit – drinking wine the tasting and pairing.
Rather than simply deciding whether you like something or not, you’re taught how to properly taste wine, looking at its appearance before moving onto aromas, sweetness, acidity, tannins, alcohol, body and flavours. Suddenly, swirling your glass and having a good sniff feels considerably less pretentious when you actually know what you’re looking for.
You’ll also get familiar with some of the big-name grapes – think Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir – as well as wines like Champagne, Prosecco, Rioja, Chianti and Port.
There’s even a section on food pairing, explaining how things like sweetness, salt, acidity, fat and chilli can completely change the way a wine tastes.
It’s informative without feeling intimidating, and genuinely fascinating even if you’ve never taken wine particularly seriously before.
The day finishes with a 30-question multiple-choice exam, with 70% needed to pass – meaning you can leave not only considerably more knowledgeable about wine, but potentially with an internationally recognised WSET qualification under your belt too.
Whether you’re looking to gain knowledge to enhance your career or just want to have a fun afternoon finding a bit more out about what you do and don’t like, this is the course for you.
Tiny Stockport restaurant shares plea after 36 people fail to turn up for reservation
Daisy Jackson
Another local business has had to issue a plea to customers, after an enormous group booking failed to turn up for their reservation.
Casa De Casa in Heaton Moor has shared that a reservation for a whopping 36 guests no-showed over the August bank holiday weekend.
For this tapas bar and Mediterranean restaurant, that’s pretty much the capacity of the entire venue, left empty on what should be one of the busiest weekends of the year.
Casa De Casa said that they had spent time preparing food, sorting staffing, and making sure the restaurant was ready for the large group of 36.
But when ‘nobody showed up’, it left them with a ‘significant loss’.
They said: “We understand that plans can change, but please let us know if you can’t make your booking.
“A simple message can make a big difference.
“Thank you to everyone who continues to support us.”
Casa De Casa took to their Facebook page to share the tale of the ‘difficult night’, and have been flooded with messages of support since.
One person wrote: “That’s actually disgusting. You have a brilliant restaurant – fabulous food every time & top service. I’d happily pay a deposit & not be offended if asked for one.”
Another said: “Absolutely diabolical – I hope they’re reading comments on here and contact you to not only apologise but to pay you at least for the cost of the food. Shocking!”
And someone else posted: “Absolutely awful !!!! …. At least if there is a legit reason they ring and tell you !!!! Awful that you will have to ask now for a deposit on a big booking !!! Why are people so nasty ???? We love it here so keep on being fab xxx”
Georgina Pellant -
7th February 2023 
