The teams behind Mackie Mayor, Altrincham Marketand Tender Cow have revealed plans to expand into the world of pubs, letting slip that they’ve just bought a boozer in Cheshire.
Sharing the news on Tuesday morning, the team ecstatically told their followers: “We’ve finally gone and done it. We’ve bought a pub and a rather spectacular one at that.”
They’ll be taking over the Nags Head, they revealed, a stunning, characterful Tudor-style pub in the pretty Cheshire hamlet of Houghton Moss, just outside of Tarporley.
Image: Facebook
Bosses will be joining forces with chefs behind fellow experienced market eateries including Honest Crust pizza, Picos Tacos and Altrincham’s Little Window to help put together this ‘proper, British pub’.
As part of the move, The Nag’s Head team will be rearing their own animals, creating their own charcuterie and moving closer to offering nose-to-tail dining by incorporating whole animal butchery on site.
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It’s one step beyond what the Tender Cow team already does to highlight lesser-known cuts of beef from some of the best producers and farms in Britain at both its Altrincham and Mackie Mayor’s food halls.
Tender Cow is a popular market stall in both the Altrincham and Manchester site dedicated to serving lesser-known cuts of beef from some of the best producers and farms in Britain. / Image: Tender Cow
Grilled leeks and new season asparagus vinaigrette topped with Red Bank organic eggs, crispy capers and Cambridge sauce. / Image: Little Window
Altrincham’s Little Window team – Beth, Ashley, Kate and E – pictured at their stall at the Altrincham Market House for International Women’s Day. / Image: Little Window
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As for local produce, they’ll be working with some of the area’s very best farmers and butchers – including Cinderwood Market Garden, Jane’s Farm Shop, Littlewoods Butchers, Swaledale Butchers, Wholly Cow Beef and Red House Farm.
There’s a strong focus on sustainability, and teams have said it will be ‘a proper British pub tying together everything we’ve been learning and building towards over the last few years.’
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The news of the purchase of the historic boozer follows a two-year appeal led by Cheshire locals to save their historic pub from demolition, after various planning applications were submitted to convert the site into residential dwellings.
Image: Tender Cow
The Grade-II listed building has already survived two world wars and innumerable economic crashes, and now – thanks to the Mackie Mayor and Tender Cow teams – it will hopefully continue to operate as a local community pub for many more years to come.
The new opening will be headed up by Head Chef Alex Coppenhall, who’s been running the Tender Cow kitchen in Macclesfield and is described as being ‘at the forefront of moving us along as a business.’
With an opening date currently set for 9 June 2022, the team is now on a tight recruitment drive to find new team members to help them build their vision of a ‘local, sustainable and honest’ pub.
If you would like to apply for a position, email [email protected] with your CV and cover letter.
Feature image – The Nag’s Head Facebook
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
19th April 2022 
