News

Manchester’s lasagne restaurant is moving to a new home this month

Lazy Tony's Lasagneria is moving out of the Alvarium kitchen

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 2nd August 2022

After a brief stint at Alvarium, Manchester’s lasagne kitchen is on the move again.

Five-layer slab favourite Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria is leaving its temporary post at the Tib Street kitchen for a new Northern Quarter home later this month.

It will close up shop at Alvarium this Sunday, 7 August before moving across to Northern Monk Refectory Taproom from Wednesday 24.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

When Lazy Tony’s takes over the kitchen at Northern Monk this month, slab fans can expect to find some exciting new dishes waiting for them – including some yet-to-be-confirmed new slab flavours and Italian subs.

Chef-owner Danny will also be serving up the signatures for which his Lasagneria has become known over the past couple of years, including classic and chicken alfredo slabs, giant mozzarella sticks with a truffled honey dip and espresso martini tiramisu.

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He’s also got another trick up his sleeve this month as he prepares to host a one-off supper club with late-night ramen fusion restaurant CBRB on Tuesday 16 August.

Image: THe Manc Eats

For this, he’ll be offering a special menu – teasing the likes of matcha and limoncello tiramisu, lasagne dumplings, porchetta ramen and (possibly) a Nagoya noodle lasagne slab.

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The menu is yet to be confirmed, with full details set to drop this week.

Taking over the kitchen at Alvarium will be tiny tapas bar Abeja, serving homemade tapas from the southern Spanish region of Granada.

Abeja owner Ana Villegas, formerly a biochemist for twenty years, first launched her business at Hatch but was forced to close during the pandemic.

`Abeja has just completed a short kitchen takeover at The Chorlton Green/ / image: Abeja Tapas Bar

She’s since hosted several pop-ups across Manchester, taking over kitchens at Sale and Stretford Food Halls and at The Chorlton Green before agreeing Abeja’s next move.

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Read more: The new restaurants and bars opening in Manchester this month | August 2022

Known for serving up authentic tapas dishes from her home region of Granada, many passed down through generations, tuck into staples like croquetas, tortillas and patatas bravas alongside more unusual Spanish dishes from Wednesday 10 August.

Feature image – The Manc Eats / Lazy Tony’s Lasagneria

News

This Manchester restaurant serves an all-vegan roast with ‘meat’ and all the trimmings

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

A Manchester vegan restaurant is serving an all-vegan roast with mock ‘meat’ and all the trimmings, putting an ethical twist on the British Sunday classic. Keen to see if it’s worth the hype, I took a trip down to try it out for myself – and left feeling pretty impressed.

Not being a vegan personally, I enlisted the help of two friends of the plant-powered persuasion to accompany me to get a real feel for every option.

Suffice it to say, it was a success and, whilst I won’t be converting to veganism any time soon, it’s nice to know that there are options out there for when I feel like being ‘good’.

With three different roast choices on offer, Wholesome Junkies is the first restaurant in the city centre to venture past the usual vegan choices of mushroom Wellington and roasted squash and go all-out with a variety of mock meat options.

Meats have been created in partnership with Liverpool vegan brand CB Sushi, using their mock beef and turkey joints to give vegans the feeling of a ‘proper’ roast.

Glazed ‘turkey’ roast at Wholesome Junkies with Mabel’s vegan Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings. / Image: The Manc Eats
‘Beef’ roast at Wholesome Junkies with onion gravy, Mabel’s vegan Yorkshire puddings and all the good bits. / Image: The Manc Eats

Think glazed ‘turkey’ filled with stuffing, medallions of ‘beef’ and crispy deep-fried oyster mushrooms, all served with lashings of onion gravy, ‘buttered’ seasonal greens, glazed carrots and parsnips, deep-fried stuffing balls, crispy roasties and fluffy Yorkshire puddings created by Mabel’s.

Having tried all three, I have to say that my favourite was the turkey. It’s actually my least favourite meat to eat, so it was something of a surprise to find I enjoyed the vegan version much more than the real thing.

The texture was spot on, and there was none of the dryness you typically associate with the bird. Washed down with a pint of locally-brewed Cloudwater Fuzzy Hazy Pale Ale, it absolutely hit the spot.

The deep-fried oyster mushroom roast at Wholesome Junkies. / Image: The Manc Eats
Cloudwater’s Fuzzy Hazy Pale Ale. / Image: The Manc Eats

Coming in a close second was the deep-fried oyster mushroom roast, which was so packed with flavour that it almost felt like I was eating fried chicken with my Sunday dinner.

As for the beef, it didn’t really do it for me – tasting more of herbs than red meat, but then, I don’t suppose there are many vegans queueing up the block for a bloody meat substitute.

Wholesome Junkies has long been a favourite with Manchester vegans. First shooting to fame in 2018 with an appearance on BBC2’s Million Pound Menu, owner Chelsea appeared on the show to ask for 95,000 to open her own vegan junk food restaurant.

Prior to that, she’d been running her Wholesome Junkies concept as a street food pop-up at sites like Grub and Ancoats General Store.

Whilst her bid to impress the BBC judges was not successful at the time, the TV appearance put her on the map and within a year she had her own Arndale market stall.

Read more: This hidden Manchester pasta and dumplings restaurant has just made the Michelin Guide

Fast forward a few more, and in 2022 she opened her first bricks and mortar restaurant – taking over the former Umezushi site at 4 Mirabel Street.

Since moving in, she’s completely transformed it: decking it out in bright colours and filling every corner with quirky little ornaments and decorations.

Strings of fairy lights, hanging mushrooms and frames filled with pictures from local artists all make the small space feel incredibly warm and welcoming – and our visit the restaurant was absolutely packed.

Read more: Tim Martin is blaming ‘people drinking at home’ for UK Wetherspoons closures

At a time when so many vegan restaurants seem to be closing, it was an absolute joy to see so many bums on seats during our visit.

Veganuary might almost be over, but if you’re a vegan – or simply just trying to cut down on your meat consumption – it’s definitely worth giving this one a go.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

News

Meet the couple who quit their jobs to sell sandwiches from their Northern Quarter flat

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

If you’re a fan of things in bread (and honestly, who isn’t) then there’s a new Italian sandwich dealer in town that you absolutely need to get down your neck.

Serving up some of the best butties we’ve had in a long time, it’s called Ad Maiora and is being run by a couple who are making absolutely everything out of a kitchen in their little Manchester flat.

Collected from a nondescript door on a Norther Quarter back street, we’re talking giant focaccia-style loaves generously stuffed with premium ingredients like ‘nduja, spicy Tuscan sausage, smoked scamorza, mortadella, burrata and red pesto.

The brainchild of Sardinian couple Daniela Steri and Enrico Pinna, all of their sandwiches are made using only top quality Italian ingredients with a total of nine different options to choose from.

From the vegan-friendly La Nonna (Italian hummus, roasted aubergine, olives, sundried tomatoes and rocket) to a huge array of different cheesy and meaty delights, fillings include parma ham, gorgonzola DOP, truffled brie, Milano salami and crumbled pistachios.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Their bread is baked freshly by hand each morning using a tiny domestic oven, and they’re already baking up to 60 loaves of schiacciata (a traditional Tuscan flatbread) a day to keep up with the demand – putting just four in the oven at a time, over and over again.

Read more: This Manchester pub is hosting an all-you-can-eat Valentine’s cheese night

On our visit, the pair tell us that they moved over from Sardinia to the UK six years ago and first tried living in London for a year (they say they hated it) before making the move up to Manchester.

In that time, they say they’ve fallen in love with the city of Manchester and with the Northern Quarter in particular.

Inspired by the brilliant food scene in their area, two months ago they both decided to pack in their jobs and pursue their own business instead – and haven’t looked back since.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Previously, Daniela tells us she’d worked at hotel Dakota in housekeeping for three years whilst her partner, Enrico, had been employed at Ezra and Gil. Despite their hospitality experience, though, neither of them had made bread before.

That doesn’t seem to be holding them back, though, and demand for their sandwiches is rocketing as word spreads about the new homemade Italian butties for sale on a Manchester backstreet.

Read more: Northern Belle in Manchester – one of the world’s most luxurious trains with £440 tickets and seven-course dinners on board

Available to order via Deliveroo for collection or delivery, use the code ADMAIORA5 to get a cheeky five pounds off your order courtesy of The Manc.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

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