From pickles to pasta, The Creameries menu is taking a turn in a new direction as owner Mary Ellen McTague hands over the reigns to her Head Chef, Mike Thomas.
As of this week, he’ll be completely changing the restaurant’s existing menus and format – moving away from the fixed-price, fine-dining style taster menus for which the Chorlton restaurant has become known.
In their place, Mike will introduce a more straightforward, simple pay-by-the-plate approach – cooking up a range of fresh pasta dishes alongside freshly-made focaccia and bar snacks, created in-house daily.
Image: The Creameries
Embracing the flavours of Southern Eurp[e with a focus on Italy in particular, his new Campagna project will introduce dishes like beef shin ragu and parloude clams with chickpeas, pastis and rouille (a similar creation is currently doing very well on the specials menu at Ancoats pasta kitchen Sugo).
Elsewhere, foodies can sink their teeth into the likes of cuttlefish stew with braised fennel and confit duck leg with puy lentils.
Diners can expect to find a new selection of starters, salads and desserts, including hazelnut torte with zabaglione cream, with prices ranging between just £7 and £14.
Hazelnut torte with zabaglione cream / Image: The Creameries
After stints at Where the Light Gets In, Bright, Rochelle Canteen & Leroy, and a couple of years at Honest Crust, Mike joined the Creameries as a Chef de Partie in 2019, quickly progressing to Head Chef in September 2020.
He’s pretty much been running the restaurant ever since, with chef-owner Mary Ellen taking a step back to focus on her restaurant-backed charity project Eat Well MCR.
On Sundays, three courses will be available for £30 as the menu turns ‘Al Forno’ (roughly translating to ‘baked’), with lasagne a comforting favourite.
Rabbit ragu. / image: The Creameries
Raddicio salad. / Image: The Creameries
Think bubbling lasagne alla ragu bolognese or king oyster mushroom vincisgrassi (a style of vegetarian lasagne), accompanied by a crisp green salad, followed by a beautiful, classic tiramisu or a Courtyard Dairy cheese plate.
Working with owner Mary-Ellen McTague at the Creameries he has been able to hone his craft and has developed a commitment to excellence and a passion for great ingredients.
On taking over The Creameries with his Campagna concept, Chef Mike Thomas is straightforward.
“It sounds pretty simple but I’m most excited about making people delicious food,” he said.
Mike has spent the last 4 years hosting his Umbra Foods supper clubs around Manchester and it’s finally time for his hearty yet refined, ingredient-led cooking to have a home of its own.
Dishes will change seasonally, in close collaboration with suppliers such as Cinderwood Market Garden, who will be growing specialist ingredients for Campagna, and Littlewoods butchers.
The wine, as ever, remains a key, carefully curated part of the offer, with a focus on delicious, low-intervention Italian wines that are perfect with pasta.
A new children’s menu will also be available to make the new concept accessible to all.
Creameries owner Mary-Ellen McTague said: “It’s been a pleasure working with Mike this last couple of years, and to see his skills and confidence grow. I’m so excited to see Campagna come to fruition.
“Chorlton is in for a treat!”
Feature image – The Creameries
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Kalvin Phillips is reportedly set to be reintegrated into the Manchester City squad
Danny Jones
Long-exiled Manchester City player Kalvin Phillips is reportedly on the verge of being reintegrated into Pep Guardiola’s squad this season.
The ex-Leeds United star, who signed for the Blues back in 2022, has still only made just 16 appearances for the club, but could now be eyeing up a potential renaissance.
Man City have made plenty of signings this year, but with a number of outgoings and several injuries in key positions, it looks like there could be an avenue for the one-time England international to fight his way back into the team.
As per Telegraph Sport‘s Mike McGrath, Kalvin Phillips is set to be reintroduced to City’s 25-man Premier League selection; the question is, can he make it into a first-team XI?
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Kalvin Phillips has chance to resurrect career at the Etihad Stadium after failed loan spells with Ipswich and West Ham
According to McGrath, Phillips will be “given a chance to resurrect his career at the Etihad Stadium” with the meat and potatoes of the 2025/26 campaign still yet to get properly underway.
Now 29, the Yorkshireman is well and truly within the crucial ‘prime’ years as an athlete, and after such an extended period on the sidelines, he’ll be more motivated than anyone to get his career back on track.
The central defensive midfielder – who was formerly considered a key cog in the middle of the park for Leeds – has spent two loan spells away from the Etihad, but neither really worked out for the undeniably talented footballer.
Having joined West Ham for the latter portion of the 23/24 term and spending the last 12 months on loan at struggling Ipswich Town, his time at both clubs was pretty forgettable, punctuated by little more than a couple of unfortunate red cards and more time on the bench.
Speaking to Sky Sports fairly recently, he confessed that the last couple of years have been very difficult and was visibly emotional discussing his struggles since moving to Man City.
It’s also worth noting that Guardiola himself has admitted to feeling “so bad” for Kalvin Phillips’ situation – perhaps why he now looks like he could be given a second chance.
CDM-wise, Rodri and Nico González are considered the go-to options, but Stockport-born Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovačić have also been used in the role.
Once again, although Man City face somewhat of an injury crisis ahead of the Manchester derby this weekend, any prolonged absences could at least see an opportunity arise for the forgotten man.
What do you make of Kalvin Phillips’ chances of being restored to the Manchester City squad and maybe even putting himself back into national team contention ahead of the World Cup?
Featured Images — Sky Sports (screenshot via YouTube)/pantkiewicz (via Flickr)
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Brand new venue confirmed as the host of The Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness
Danny Jones
The magnificent Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness is back this year, and with the 2025 event fast approaching, they have announced arguably their biggest host venue yet, setting up in camp in a brand new food and drink hall.
Having housed the incredible charity gathering from Freight Island last year, it was always going to take some beating this time around, but somehow they’ve managed to.
The annual relay run in aid of Greater Manchester’s homeless community will be taking place at none other than the city centre’s recently unveiled House of Social, with the building’s wider student living quarters serving as the perfect fit for the initiative first thought up by university friends back in 2018.
Announced this week, House of Social will be teaming up with the wider First Street neighbourhood to look after the hordes of incredible runners this year.
Jamie Hills, Development Director at Ask Real Estate – who operate the ever-growing First St complex – said of volunteering as this year’s hosts: “First Street is thrilled to welcome and fuel the incredible runners of The Manchester 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness.
“As the city’s hotspot for community events and culture, we’re proud to be a place where community thrives, so we’re incredibly excited to support this important initiative. With our fantastic on-site amenities like House of Social, we’re ready to keep those participating powered up and going strong!”
As for co-founder Tom Lewis, speaking to The Manc, he said: “We’re excited to return for our 7th edition, with Manchester being our flagship event.
“Through being hosted at House of Social in First Street, we’re hoping to make this year’s edition the best and biggest yet, aiming to raise £50,000 for the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity Scheme, ‘A Bed Every Night’.
“We’d love to see you all at the event, plus bring your friends and workplace to. There are paces for everyone, including walking laps.”
In November 2024, not only did the fundraising phenomenon mark its first-ever expansion with an inaugural event in Birmingham, but it also surpassed £50,000 here in Manchester alone, and is now set to make debuts in a trio of new cities.
Tom went on to add: “I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve managed to accomplish as a team with starting up three more events across the country this year and expanding Manchester to a scale we couldn’t have dreamed of when we started out seven years ago.”
We here at The Manc Group have been helping The MCR 24 Run Against Homelessness for several years now, and have put in plenty of those 5k laps between ourselves, so you can bank on us being there to put in some more hard yards this November.
Even better still, we’ve already roped in our friends over at The Hoot to help out with the maiden 24 Hour Run Against Homelessness in Leeds, and we hope to see lots more of you chipping in across the North and beyond.
Here’s to helping rough sleepers find beds and get back on their feet all over the country.
The @mcr24hourrun is expanding in 2025 and is heading to Leeds for the first time. 🏃♂️
And they're not the only city making their debut this year either… 👊
Georgina Pellant -
1st February 2022 
