Manchester’s bars, restaurants and hardworking hospitality staff have been celebrated at the Manchester Bar Awards.
Now in its fifth year, the Manchester Bar Awards took place last night, Tuesday 14 March, in a high spirited ceremony at industry favourite Bunny Jackson’s.
Following on from a jam-packed first day back at the Northern Restaurant and Bar Show, the creme de la creme of Manchester’s bartending scene flocked across to the First Street dive bar for a night full of Hooch, tequila and well-deserved accolades.
Put together by a group of Manchester bartenders and hospitality professionals, the awards were organised by the admins of a local Facebook group and first began in 2018 to champion local people working in the industry.
Winners were decided by a public vote from within the Manchester bar community, which is some 17,000 members strong.
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Every year the awards pick out the very best operators in the city – with 2023’s categories championing the city’s best new bars, speciality venues and restaurants.
Further categories paid homage to professionals within the industry, with awards given to the best bar backs, front-of-house staff, and rising stars.
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Big winners included underground cocktail bar Project Halcyon which took home the award for best new bar, Mulligan’s of Deansgate, which won the speciality venue award for its incredible pints of Guinness, and modern Chinese takeaway Salt & Pepper, taking home the award for best restaurant/food concept.
See the full list of winners from last night’s awards ceremony below.
Manchester Bar Awards 2023 winners
Best New Bar sponsored by Ford’s Gin
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Winner: Project Halcyon
Shortlisted: Blinker, Sterling, Exhibition, New Century, Project Halcyon
Best Restaurant / Food Concept sponsored by Tito’s Vodka
Winner: Salt & Pepper
Shortlisted: Salt & Pepper, Sparrows, Kong’s, Climat, Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria
People’s Choice Bar of the Year sponsored by Jameson Irish Whiskey
Winner: Schofield’s
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Shortlisted: Blinker, Sterling, Exhibition, New Century, Project Halcyon
Bartender of the Year sponsored by Angel’s Envy Bourbon
Winner: Conor Knowles, Schofield’s
Shortlisted: Jonathan Moncur – Speak in Code, Deana Ferguson – Hawksmoor/Redlight, Adam Montanaro-Taylor – Project Halcyon, Dionysios ‘Dio’ Tzorouchof – Cane & Grain, Conor Knowles – Schofield’s
Outstanding Achievement sponsored by Jagermeister Cold Brew
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Winner: The Schofield Brothers
Shortlisted: Abi Dunn – 68 People, The Schofields – Schofields, Sterling, Stock Market Grill, Atomeca, Nathan Larkin – Speak in Code, Dan Berger – Blinker Bar, Paddy & the Team at So Let’s Talk
Front of House Hero sponsored by Cazcabel
Winner: Alex Proudfoot – Wolf at the Door
Shortlisted: Alex Proudfoot – Wolf at the Door, Paola Mariotti – Sterling, Hannah Wingfield – Ramona, Taylor Martin – Tariff & Dale, Oliver Hughes – Ramona
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Manchester’s Rising Star sponsored by Old J
Winner: Reah Owen, Project Halcyon
Shortlisted: Reah Owen – Project Halcyon, Caitlyn Grocott – Blind Tyger, Eddie Smyth – Tariff, Joe Kereszteny-Lewis – 10 Tib Lane, Ben Topham-Taylor – Blind Tyger
Bar Back of the Year sponsored by Belle de Brillet
UK set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn
Emily Sergeant
The UK is being told to brace for a series of storms this autumn when the ‘unprecedented’ El Niño weather event arrives.
It’s already been a summer of extremes for the country, with multiple heatwaves over the past couple of months, but now it appears that autumn and winter are set to have some extremes of their own, as the Met Office is warning that this upcoming El Niño could be one of the most significant in recent memory.
El Niño is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5°C above the long-term average, which therefore impacts global rainfall patterns and average temperatures.
The natural warming of sea temperatures is forecast to reach more than 3°C in the coming months, according to the Met Office, making this year’s weather event have the potential to be ‘the largest since the 19th century’.
The UK is set to be battered by storms as ‘unprecedented’ El Niño arrives this autumn / Credit: Johannes Plenio (via Unsplash)
El Niño will create a heightened risk of drought in the tropics, southern Africa, and north eastern Australia, but over in north western Europe – including the UK – it means we are likely to experience wetter and stormier conditions.
The UK, and of course Greater Manchester, is absolutely no stranger to a storm around this time of year, but forecasters say this could be an entirely different beast.
“We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event,” warned Professor Adam Scaife, who is the Head of Long Range Forecasting at the Met Office.
“I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts.”
Professor Scaife concluded: “A typical El Nino leads to an equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature rise of between one to 2°C, with 2°C being a really big event. This implies that, if the forecast is accurate, and other forecast systems show similar extreme values, then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Niño and its worldwide climate influences.’
Forecasters and officials, however, have warned that it could take months of sustained rainfall before rivers, reservoirs, and groundwaters are ‘completely replenished’ – which is when a drought can officially be declared as over.
It also warned drought conditions could persist into the new year as, despite El Niño, as current forecasts do not suggest this autumn will have the amount of rainfall needed to drive recovery.
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
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Hundreds of staff to strike at four Greater Manchester hospitals next week
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of staff at four of Greater Manchester’s hospitals are set to strike next week.
More than 350 Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust (NCA) employees – including nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers – are walking out for three days next week after union UNISON says an offer to ‘resolve’ a dispute was withdrawn before discussions could take place.
According to the union, the dispute centres on the NCA’s use of an outside agency called NHS Professionals (NHSP) to manage overtime.
When covering staff shortages, workers are entitled to time-and-a-half pay – however in some cases, staff earn less than they would on a normal shift, and some have even been missing out on more than £80 per shift, the union added.
Operating theatre staff were previously on picket lines in June, and although an option to resolve the row was initially tabled by NCA bosses, this has now fallen through.
Hundreds of staff at four of Greater Manchester’s hospitals are set to strike next week / Credit: Stephen Andrews (via Unsplash)
This means that staff at Salford Royal Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary, and Fairfield Hospital in Bury are walking out next week on Monday 24, Wednesday 26, and Friday 28 August.
In particular, staff from all four sites will also gather in Salford on Wednesday (26 August) for a ‘unified’ day of protest.
Understandably, some disruption is expected at each of the hospitals on strike days.
“Those at the top of NCA have shown a lack of leadership and made their disregard for their staff clear,” explained UNISON North West regional organiser, Kevin Dolan.
“A deal was put on the table but taken away before we had chance to talk it over. We are ready to continue negotiations, but it’s obvious NCA has no intention of resolving this.
“This isn’t complicated. Staff are simply asking for what their contract says they’re entitled to. Nothing more.”
Georgina Pellant -
14th March 2023 
