We’ve officially entered ‘fool’s spring’, that time of year when even the briefest glint of sunshine has us optimistic that brighter days are coming.
Admittedly, of late the Manchester weather has been pretty mardy – but there’s plenty of cheery sunshine to be found on the plates at some of these new restaurant and bar openings.
From a globally-inspired seafood pop-up to foraged small plates, chip-stuffed souvlaki and saucy sandwiches taken from the streets of Naples, Manchester’s operators have been busy.
As a result, we’ve got some cracking new openings to shout about this March.
We’ve rounded up some of the best new restaurants to check out this month. Keep reading to discover where to put on your list next.
Pesky
A new pop-up at Deansgate Square, cocktails and fishy small plates are the order of the day at Pesky.
Think seaweed martinis, prawn and cabbage Japanese okonomiyaki pancakes drizzled in Kewpie mayo, and BBQ squid in fragrant north African Chermoula butter.
Elsewhere, you’ll find ‘drunken oysters’ served with paired shots and a ‘from land’ section mostly comprised of fresh, plant-based dishes that both cut through the greasiness on the fish side and cater to vegans.
Only here for a month, find it opposite the General Store until 27 March.
Owen St, Manchester M15 4YB
Mira (Ancoats General Store)
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Mira’s saucy Neapolitan-inspired street food sandwiches have moved down the road, leaving The Crown and Kettle for Ancoats General Store.
The saucy ‘Cuzzetiello’ sandwiches first became a hit with Mancs during lockdown – stuffed with the likes of giant meatballs, slow-cooked beef brisket stew, or juicy aubergine parmigiana.
The team has added some new breakfast sandwiches to the menu for the move.
Made using homemade vegan brioche (a first for them), opt for a Lincolnshire sausage butty with tomato jam or a ‘vegan bacon hashy’ with added cheese sauce.
Read more: Mira’s saucy Neapolitan sandwiches are coming to Ancoats General Store
57 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester M4 5AB
Pong & Puck
Image: Pong and Puck
A new beer pong and shuffleboard bar, Pong & Puck is opening inside the Great Northern Warehouse this month.
Specialising in beer pong, table tennis and shuffleboard, it comes from the team behind Bar Hutte, which brings Alpine-inspired karaoke huts to the city every Christmas.
Filled with neon signs, graffiti and murals, it will be soundtracked by music from the 80s, 90s and 00s.
From the same company that owns Franca Manca, The Real Greek is incredibly popular down south – now it’s making moves on Manchester.
This is the second site to open up here in as many months, meaning shoppers at The Trafford Centre can now get their hands on its trademark chip-stuffed souvlaki wraps and halloumi popcorn.
Elsewhere, diners will find a good selection of Greek wines, hot and cold mezze, homemade baklava and Greek filo custard pies.
Unit R8B, The Orient, Trafford Centre, Manchester M17 8EQ
The Post Box Cafe and Shawarma (Chorlton)
Image: Google Maps
Attached to the Post Office on Wilbraham Road in Chorlton, this new shawarma spot has only been open a week but it’s already got tongues wagging.
Served in super fresh samoons, a type of yeast bread popular in Iraw, shawarma filling choices include chicken, lamb or doner – all roasted on huge spits inside.
Meat is marinated long in advance to a secret recipe, then served shredded from the spit with salad, hummus, tzatziki, cabbage and mixed olives (if you so desire).
You can also get all the usual takeaway fare here: burgers, chips, onion rings and pizzas also feature on the menu, but we get the feeling it’s all about the shawarmas, really.
543 Wilbraham Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9PP
O’Sheas Irish Beer Garden
Image: Supplied
It was one of the biggest openings of 2021 – and now O’Sheas giant Irish beer garden will return this month, this time with an indoor venue.
Still within staggering distance of Piccadilly station, punters can expect ice-cold Guinness, pornstar and espresso martinis on tap, plus bagels and loaded fries courtesy of Eat New York.
Re-designed and draped in the colours of Ireland, a clear roof above rows of tables will keep revellers dry no matter what the weather.
Another promising new addition to what might just be Manchester’s most overlooked foodie street, Another Hand opens on Deansgate Mews from 3 March.
Cheffed by Max Yorke, formerly of Hispi and Edinburgh Castle, the new opening sees him join up with Julian PIzer and Danny Foggo of Three Hands Deli to bring the project to life.
Serving a daily changing menu of seasonal small plates, the focus here is all on the quality of ingredients – with operators taking huge pride in sourcing from the very best local producers.
With room for just 24-covers, it will offer an intimate atmosphere and a mostly vegetarian menu with some sustainably sourced meat and fish dishes.
Food will be served with natural wine, craft beer, seasonal cocktails and coffee.
255 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN
Band on The Wall
Image: Supplied
Band on The Wall reopens from 10 March, following an extensive £3.5 million expansion project that has transformed the 200-year-old venue into a ‘bigger and better’ version of its old self.
Expect a larger ground floor venue space, a new ‘grand and ambient’ bar area and a second newly created bar and restaurant space, which will serve a menu of hot and cold food throughout the day.
The second bar space also includes a stage, perfect for smaller gigs. Elsewhere, a whole floor is now dedicated to BOTW’s learning programme with breakout rooms, a state-of-the-art AV suite and a large group space.
A new Polish bakery that’s just opened up inside Stockport’s market this week, selling locally-made breads, sweets and more.
Sweet tooths will find a large variety of breakfast pastries, all made from scratch every morning.
Everything comes hot out of the oven at 7am, with bread choices ranging from sweet Challa to crusty Italian/
There is also an extensive selection of high-end desserts to discover, so make sure to go hungry.
Market Pl, Stockport SK1 1UN
Black Milk NQ
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Manchester’s favourite naughty dessert cafe has reopened following a two-month closure with a new look and a new pancake menu.
Not content with celebrating on just one day, the team is stretching Shrove Tuesday out into the whole week, serving up delightful late-night pancake stacks loaded with the likes of blueberry crumble, maple syrup, Kinderella cream and hot fudge from 12-8pm all weekend.
After that, they’ll be launching a new birthday-themed menu from 7 March to celebrate the cafe’s 7th anniversary with plans to introduce more cakes, cookies, gelato and brownies as the weeks go on.
Three Greater Manchester boroughs named in UK’s top 10 fly-tipping hotspots
Emily Sergeant
Three Greater Manchester boroughs have unfortunately claimed place in the list of the UK’s top 10 fly-tipping hotspots.
There’s absolutely no denying that fly-tipping has becoming an increasing issue in recent years, with the UK’s rubbish problem piling up… literally. And now new analysis of Government data has revealed that councils in England dealt with more than 2.7 million fly-tipping incidents in the past year.
In theory, this is the equivalent of more than 7,397 illegal dumps every single day.
The research, which has been conducted by garage clearance company, Rainbow Rubbish Removals, ranked local authorities on the scale of their littering crisis, looking at the number of waste and land incidents, as well as the total amount of fines issued.
This was all in a bid to find out who has earned the unwelcome title of Britain’s fly-tipping capital – and it’s not pleasant news for Greater Manchester.
Three Greater Manchester boroughs have been named in the UK’s top 10 fly-tipping hotspots / Credit: Alan Stanton (via Flickr)
Thankfully though, while three boroughs in our region have found themselves on the top 10 list, they’re not right near the top and actually claim the last three places – with Oldham at number eight, Manchester at number nine, and Bolton in the tenth spot.
Oldham recorded 479.28 fly-tipping incidents per 10,000 residents, Manchester recorded 348.36, and Bolton had 503.36.
While Bolton recorded the most incidents out of the three local regions, it actually dished out the least amount of fines for the incidents, hence why it falls below below Oldham and Manchester.
Claiming the non-so-favourable title of the UK’s fly-tipping capital is Lewisham.
Top 10 Fly-tipping Hotspots in the UK
Lewisham
Newcastle
Westminster
Peterborough
Newham
Hammersmith and Fulham
Brent
Oldham
Manchester
Bolton
Several other boroughs in London also found themselves in the top 10, with Westminster, Newham, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Brent all featuring.
“Fly-tipping isn’t just an ugly blot on the landscape, it’s a stubborn public health risk and an environmental time bomb,” commented Miroslav Radov, who is a waste expert at Rainbow Rubbish Removals.
“Our findings reveal a worrying pattern in big cities, especially London [and Greater Manchester].
“If action isn’t stepped up, these areas could become permanent dumping grounds, with taxpayers footing the clean-up bill year after year.
“Solving this crisis means more than just sweeping up the mess – it calls for tougher penalties that bite, more accessible waste disposal options, and a cultural shift where people take real responsibility for the rubbish they create.”
Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons
News
A local carpet company has ranked the top 10 Wetherspoons pub carpets in Manchester
Thomas Melia
One carpet company has compiled a list which ranks all of the Greater Manchester Wetherspoons’ locations based solely on their carpets.
Might they have too much time on their hands? Maybe? Do we care? Not one bit.
If you didn’t know already, this pub chain is famed for its reasonably priced drinks, both cheap small and big plates (usually decorated with some kind of garish pattern), and the ability to convert old cinemas, halls, churches and pretty much anything into a boozer.
But there’s also one key ingredient that makes each ‘Spoons’ special that goes over most people’s heads, or rather right under their fight: it’s the funky, unique and individually-designed carpets.
This attention to detail caught the eye of writer and publisher, Kit Caless, who launched a blog and social media account dedicated entirely to archiving these fascinating floor coverings, quite simply titled ‘Wetherspoons Carpets’.
Local carpet shop, Urmston Carpets, understands the importance of these fluffy floor patterns too and recently released a list ranking all Manchester’s Wetherspoons locations based on how many likes they received – again, the classification being driven by the carpeting.
There’s 35 pub chain sites throughout the Greater Manchester region, and nine of these can be found in Manchester city centre, although none of these pubs nabbed the top spot or even the top 10.
In fact, the borough which finds itself having some of the most liked Wetherspoons’ carpets according to the Instagram pages likes is Trafford, with three venues, closely followed by Rochdale with two.
Eccles Cross landed the number 10 spot, a pub which has a carpet full of alternating blue-and-gold-toned intertwining squares, receiving a total of 65 likes.
Next is The Unicorn, with its deep-red floral printed flooring, amassing 70 likes and a post with quietly one of the best hashtags ever invented: “#altrinchtothat”, paying homage to the area where this pub resides, Altrincham. Top notch.
Castle in the Air, attached to indoor slope attraction Chill Factore over in Trafford, has 75 likes, and although the carpet design is very fitting with its mountain-inspired landscape, the comment section isn’t too impressed…
Yes, people take this random passion project just as seriously as its creator.
Right in the heart of Oldham town centre is The Up Steps Inn, which finishes as the seventh most-liked Wetherspoons carpet in all of Greater Manchester, with 82 people giving this beige vine-covered floor a double tap or two.
Just missing out on the top five is Ashton’s local Wetherspoons, aptly named The Ash Tree, with a bonfire-esque design with a variation of bright orange, grey and black tones, which amassed 86 likes.
Off to Chorlton-cum-Hardy next, where the top five kicks off with a combined 87 likes for The Sedge Lynn – famously beloved for its striking tiled exterior – thanks to its peach and red floral artwork adorning a blank black canvas, one fan describes it as “Very strong. Royal even”.
In fourth place is one of Stretford’s go-to Man United pubs: The Bishop Blaize. It collected 88 likes across two posts, and we can definitely see why with its funky and very swirly carpet, which probably would’ve been a dress pattern in the 60s.
Grabbing the bronze podium position is The Mardi Gras, Trafford’s third contribution to the top 10, with its New Orleans-cum-Trafford Centre Wetherspoons, boasting 92 likes.
Scoring the silver medal is the Greater Manchester borough of Rochdale and its trusty ‘Spoons location, The Regal Moon, which has been liked 99 times; the carpet may be dashing, but it’s the piano man above the bar who steals the show.
Now, are you ready to see who took home the gold?
Reigning victorious with a whopping 104 likes is the mighty Middleton Wetherspoons, The Harbord Harbord, with its wave-inspired warm-toned carpet; a massive pat on the back for this boozer from everyone on the internet – well, at least those in this particular corner, anyway.
The top 10 most liked Wetherspoons carpets in Manchester
The Harbord Harbord – Middleton, 104 likes
The Regal Moon – Rochdale, 99 likes
The Mardi Gras – Trafford Centre, 92 likes
The Bishop Blaize – Stretford, 88 likes
The Sedge Lynn – Chorlton-cum-Hardy, 87 likes
The Ash Tree – Ashton-under-Lyne, 86 likes
The Up Steps Inn – Oldham, 82 likes
Castle in the Air – Trafford, Chill Factore, 75 likes
The Unicorn – Altrincham, 70 likes
Eccles Cross – Eccles, 65 likes
If you’re questioning the accuracy of this ranking, don’t worry, you’re in safe hands as this flooring store is only a one-minute radius away from The Tim Bobbin on Flixton Road, so they definitely know their way around a good ‘Spoons.
Adrian Brown ofUrmston Carpetsprovided the following advice for homeowners looking to recreate: “While Wetherspoons carpets have become something of a design icon, it’s important to remember that pub carpets are made very differently than what you’d typically find in a home.
“Commercial carpets are designed to handle thousands of footsteps a day, resist spills, and stand up to regular deep cleaning. They’re built for durability first.
“If you’re trying to recreate the look at home, choosing a patterned carpet, you’ll need to find a balance between visual impact and practicality.”
Georgina Pellant -
4th March 2022 
