A huge new late-night bar, music venue and restaurant has just tentatively opened its doors on Manchester’s Oxford Road ahead of a swanky launch this Friday.
Split across three floors, a 600-capacity underground club will host a mixture of live gigs, panel sessions and club nights, with a special members-only viewing mezzanine and late-night bar open until 4am, seven nights a week.
Upstairs, a sleek restaurant and bar from the same team behind the city’s south American Peru Perdu restaurant will serve a globe-trotting menu of crowd-pleasing small plates alongside a long drinks list of inventive aperitifs, highballs and sundowners.
Image: The Manc Eats
Belvedere lemon and basil with yuzu sake, pistachio and lemon tonic. / Image: The Manc Eats
Duck leg with sweet and sour roast plum, hoisin and pickled cucumber salad. / Image: The Manc Eats
From the chinola picante, a spicy mix of scotch bonnet, passionfuit and vanilla, to a ‘frozen nuclear daiquiri’ made with overproof Wray & Nephew, chartreus verte and citrus, the restaurant’s bar menu is worth popping in for alone.
Highballs span the likes of Plantation pineapple rum with mint and kombucha, a refreshing Belvedere lemon and basil with yuzu sake, pistachio and lemon tonic, and the cafe torino – a mixture of Mr Black’s coffee amaro with sweet martini and soda.
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Elsewhere on the drinks front, you’ll find a good selection of wines, beers and softs, as well as different spirit mixers to order.
As for the small plates, which span everything from fish and chips to steamed prawn and pork dumplings, there really is something for everyone here – although, we have to bemoan the fact that there are no chopsticks to eat the dumplings with.
Image: The Manc Eats
Smack bang in the heart of university land with a wealth of international students living above, the menu seeks to cater to global tastes. This makes it an ideal choice for fussy friends, as there’s no way anyone can look at the varied list of 30+ dishes and decide there’s nothing there for them.
Here, beautifully crispy Korean fried chicken sits side-by-side with garlic portobello mushrooms and ‘disco fries’ topped with saffron mayo, jalapenos and truffle.
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Further choices include steak bavette with roast tomatoes and chimmichurri, green pea hummus, Thai fishcakes and a good range of sandwiches ideal for a quick but hearty lunch. Like we say, plenty of choice.
Pork and prawn dumplings. / Image: The Manc Eats
Charred baby gem with croutons and radish. / Image: The Manc Eats
The chinola picante, a spicy mix of Scotch bonnet, passionfruit and vanilla. / Image: The Manc Eats
The new venue is currently in its soft launch period with 50% off small plate until 6 July. It is also gearing up to launch a new breakfast menu, which will also be available for diners to enjoy at a discount from 11-17 July.
Membership is priced at £15 per month for under-30s, including perks like two free gigs per month, free guest passes and access to invitation-only parties, as well as entry to the 4am members-only bar and acess to the best views via the members’ mezzanine. Prices for over-30s start at £25.
Members will also get guestlist access to events, priority bookings and restaurant discounts – all whilst being part of the community with their say on key decisions within the club.
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All of the Canvas venues will be fully open to the public from Friday 8 July, whilst later this summer, a plunge pool and sauna will be added to the expansive site.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
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Greater Manchester public urged to help get people ‘off the streets and on their feet’ before Christmas
Emily Sergeant
Locals are being urged to help get hundreds of people “off the streets and back on their feet” this festive season.
As the temperatures told colder by the day, and Christmas creeps closer and closer, Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity is bringing back ‘1000 Beds for Christmas’, and the massively-important initiative is aiming to provide 1,000 nights of accommodation to people at risk of homelessness before the big day arrives.
Forming part of the ongoing ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme, this festive fundraising mission is designed to provide food, shelter, warmth, and dedicated vital wrap-around support for those who need it most.
The charity says it wants to build on the “incredible success of 2023”, which raised more than £55,000 and provided 1,800 nights of accommodation.
Stockport-based property finance specialists, Together – which has supported the campaign for the last two years – has, once again, generously pledged to match every public donation for the first £20,000 raised.
Unfamiliar with the ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme? Since 2017, when rough sleeping peaked, the initiative has helped ensure a significantly-higher rate of reduction in the numbers of people facing a night on streets in Greater Manchester than seen nationally.
The landmark scheme has given people the chance to rebuild their lives, while also giving them access to key services and opportunities that allows them to stay off the streets for good.
Despite the scheme’s recent success, organisations across Greater Manchester are under “a huge amount of pressure” to meet the demand for their services this winter, and given the current economic outlook, household budgets will continue to be squeezed – leaving people on the sharp end of inequality and poverty.
“Help us be a lifeline to organisations on the frontline,” Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity urged in it’s public appeal for donations.
You can help make sure ‘A Bed Every Night’ is a reality for all by donating here.
Featured Image – EthelRedThePetrolHead (via Flickr)
News
Former Manchester police officer jailed after sexually assaulting a child while on duty
Emily Sergeant
A former Manchester police officer has been jailed after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child while he was on duty.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) explained that, on 29 December 2023, Dean Dempster was one of three officers responding to a domestic incident involving an adult and children, and it was while he was taking an account from a six-year-old girl, away from his colleagues, that he sexually abused her when he should have been there to protect her.
After GMP investigated a complaint received later that evening in relation to the incident, Dempster was immediately confronted by his supervisor when he returned to duty the next morning.
The 35-year-old was arrested that day by officers in Oldham, and then “relentlessly pursued” by GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate to “explore any further evidence of offending” in an investigation directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A former officer has been jailed for sexually abusing a child on duty last year.
Swift action from local officers made sure Dean Dempster never stepped foot in the community again.
Our unit for professional standards has brought Dempster to justice for his despicable crimes. pic.twitter.com/IN2HQOHQEw
A review of Dempster’s electronic devices revealed “further serious offending”, GMP revealed, including the making of indecent images of children.
Sadly, the police investigation also found images on Dempster’s mobile phone taken from his body-worn video camera at the incident in December 2023 of a second clothed child, and of another clothed child at a separate incident dating back to 2022 – with the victims of both families having been made aware, and kept updated throughout the investigation
Dempster was convicted and sacked “at the earliest legal opportunity” by the Chief Constable at an accelerated misconduct hearing in May this year, and he has since admitted six counts of making indecent images, and two counts of Misconduct in Public Office.
After pleading guilty, the former officer has now been jailed for nine years, and has also been ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Deputy Chief Constable, Terry Woods, said Dempster “represents the very worst of society”.
“He is not a police officer, he is a child sex offender, a criminal, and he has no right to be near police uniform or serve the public,” DCC added. “Dempster was rightfully arrested and charged before he could ever work in our communities again.”
Georgina Pellant -
5th July 2022 
