When it comes to finding the best takeaways in our area, we don’t mess about – and neither does Deliveroo.
The original restaurant-quality food delivery service is celebrating eight years in Manchester this summer – and after nearly a decade of championing independent eateries, the team has noticed that when it comes to ordering in we Mancs are creatures of habit.
According to new insights published by the food couriers, Manchester locals can’t get enough of Salford’s sell-out smashed burgers, with the Burgerism Meal Deal being the most popular dish in the city.
Other top orders include Egg Fried Rice from Oodles and Margherita pizza from Rudy’s, followed by 8 Boneless Pieces from Wingstop and – last but not least – the OG Kebab from German Doner Kebab (GDK).
However, when it comes to local favourites, biryani, ice cream, and cookies all top the list of the most searched-for dishes in Manchester, with searches for biryani rising by 39% in the last two months.
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Image: Burgerism
Image: Burgerism
Finding also discovered that Friday night at 7pm is the most popular time for Mancs to order on Deliveroo, with more orders being placed in central Manchester, Chorlton and Withington than any other neighbourhood.
Since its launch in Manchester eight years ago, more than 4,000 local restaurants have signed up to the platform.
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Deliveroo has created work for more than 5,900 people in the city and surrounding areas, with the majority of these being the Deliveroo riders who deliver your food which is cooked fresh to order and brought to your door within 30 minutes.
Deliveroo has also remained committed to supporting local businesses in Manchester, with 60% per cent of its restaurant partners being local independent restaurants, creating new revenue streams for homegrown culinary talent.
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Burgerism, Zumuku Sushi, and Proove Pizza are the top three small businesses that have been supported by Deliveroo over the past eight years.
Across these eight years, Deliveroo has become a city staple, with the top neighbourhood for restaurant orders being Central Manchester, whilst in second and third spots are Chorlton and Withington, respectively.
American cuisine has been a consistent favourite for all Manc orderers over recent years, alongside German, Mexican, Greek & Thai.
And that’s not all, Deliveroo data can also reveal Central Manchester is the neighbourhood that orders the most burgers, whilst Hulme is the city’s vegan capital, and residents in Salford can’t get enough of wings.
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Daniel Soile, City Manager for Manchester, said: “Our whole team here at Deliveroo is delighted that our rapid growth in Manchester over the past eight years means that customers have more choice, restaurants are able to increase their revenue, and riders have the opportunity to choose well-paid, flexible work.”
Featured image – GDK
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Eyewear brand IOLLA are offering one-to-one glasses styling sessions at Hatch
Danny Jones
Our favourite eyewear brand IOLLA has just celebrated it’s first anniversary since opening up right here in Manchester and as part of the birthday celebrations, they’ve opened up an exclusive glasses styling pop-up event over at Hatch.
While glasses manufacturers started out in Scotland, Mancs have had the pleasure of their innovative eyewear offerings and expertise from their showroom on St Anns Square for over 12 months now and although you always get a very bespoke and personalised experience from their flagship English store, they’re always looking to branch out further.
So that’s why they’ve decided to set up a one-of-a-kind ‘Style Session’ over Hatch with the hope of spreading the word at the beloved independent trading village before it closes at the end of the month.
Known not only for its food and drinks vendors, student nights and live music but countless indie businesses selling clothes, vintage goods, beauty services and more. Now, for the rest of this week only, you can even sort yourself some glasses or shades to suit your style perfectly.
Credit: The Manc Group/IOLLA
The temporary ‘Style Station’ in Hatch is giving customers an insight into the brand’s ethos by displaying glasses on hangers, grouped together by style and shape to show how you can build your eyewear wardrobe and have different glasses for all looks and occasions.
Whether it’s a regular pair for the office or something more flashy for a night out, customers will get the chance to experience a one-to-one consultation session to find the right frames for the occasion with one of the brand’s experienced stylists.
Just like no two faces are the same, every combination of handmade IOLLA frames and lenses is unique, and choosing the perfect pair relies on the perfect balance of fit and style to suit your face shape.
With a range spanning prescription and non-prescription, as well as glasses and sleek shades in all the same style, IOLLA offers an option for everyone.
The limited-time-only pop-up is running from 12-7pm until Sunday, 24 September exclusively over at Hatch, but don’t worry if you don’t manage to find the time to make it over before the end of the week as you can always head to their St Anns Square showroom to try-on the collection of IOLLA glasses.
The best part is, it doesn’t matter what pair you pick: they all cost just £85 with no added fees and no unnecessary hassle. Did we mention that all their designs are completely unique, made with high-quality materials and handmade? Well, they are and that’s why we love them.
While we have your attention, we’re absolutely gutted to see Hatch as we know it shutting down but when we were last there, we thought we’d put together a fun little guide on how to spend the perfect day there.
Show this place and all of its amazing traders some love whilst you still can.
Featured Image — IOLLA/The Manc Group/Hatch (via Instagram)
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The Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons on upcoming arena tour, forming in Manchester and how the city influenced them
Danny Jones
The Chemical Brothers are back and life is good. They never really went anywhere, per se, but they have a new album and a fast-selling UK arena tour, including a date right here in their musical home.
It always surprises us how many people are still unaware that the legendary electronic duo formed right here in Manchester and just how much of our city’s music influenced their unmistakable sound.
Having just released their new record, For That Beautiful Feeling — the tenth studio album in a career spanning nearly three and a half decades — it’s great to know that no matter how much they evolve, you can always spot their signature and that the Manc music scene an integral part in it.
Soon to embark on a fast-selling UK tour with a glorious homecoming at the AO Arena on 27 October, we had the immense pleasure of sitting down with one-half of The Chemical Brothers, Ed Simons, to chat all things past, present and future for one of Britain and the big beat genre’s biggest exports.
Back with more block rockin’ beats and another massive UK tour
So, how much are you looking forward to being back touring new music?
”It’s good to be going back indoors — it’s a big thing, you know, we play a lot of festivals; most of them are good but you get a much better sound [inside] and everyone’s in the same place and, hopefully, in the zone.
“[Post-Covid] A lot of people have still missed out on their first experiences of big loud music and big raucous crowds. Maybe some people are waiting to let go again and thrust into it.”
As for the album, first since 2019, what can you tell us about the direction you’ve gone in?
“Yep, well with performing live we really want to play the new music and just rest on what we’ve done before, we want to incorporate the two. It’s exciting for us. People have heard some of [the record] at summer festivals but now it’s is out there are lots of people that want to experience it for themselves.
“There’s always a core thing: some kind of secret thing between us about what we like about our music. It’s not so much a secret as it is the effect it has on other people but, hopefully, it’s evolving and the sound is still fresh. We don’t ever want people to say, ‘Oh, it’s just another Chemical Brothers record’, there has to be some quality to it.
“It’s a pretty rousing album and has the sense of people waking up again out of a long period where things still are difficult for a lot of people, but that sense of fragmentation that we went through in the lockdowns and what it’s like to come out of that.
“We made a lot of music in that period, but we’ve kind of concentrated on the stuff that feels the most rousing and has a bit of get up and provocation to feel alive again.”
The Chemical Brothers are bringing the new music to Manchester in just over a month.
Absolutely — the new singles like ‘No Reason’ definitely tap into that energy. What’s the reaction been like so far?
“Yeah, it’s been good. We had bits of and then had a sort of pressure to put it together into something we could play because we were about to DJ at fabric [in London] a few years ago at a charity gig for a friend of ours and the first time we played it at a club, even a really early version of it, you could feel it had an energy and sounded different. Great bassline too.
“It’s been rewarding and it’s been a really big live track for us this summer and we do a kind of live edit of it, which is fun and fresh.
“The track ‘Tell Me I’m Dreaming’ has also been a really big track. The visual that Flat Nose George [real name Adam Smith] and Marcus [Lyall] put together for that is really crazy, and, yeah, that’s been going down really well. I think that could be pretty huge when played indoors.
“We’ve had versions of it for a long time, but I think the first time we played it was actually at The Warehouse Project in 2021, I think? You know, when things were picking up again and it just immediately had that impact with the loops and the vocal.
“I just associate it with that WHP party in Manchester now and a few DJs have been playing it like Erol Alkan now too, so yeah, it’s kind of a big club track — a strange one but it works.”
The kind of light shows Manchester and the AO Arena can expect (Credit: The Chemical Brothers via Instagram)
Foundations in 0161 and how 90s Manchester influenced The Chemical Brothers’ sound
Definitely, and it doesn’t get much bigger than the AO Arena but what other venues have got fond memories of?
“Well, I know there’s a lot of new venues but given that we’ve been playing Manchester since 1990, we’ve done most venues. We even used to DJ at the Old Steam Brewery [later became ScuBar] which I don’t even know if that still exists [it doesn’t] but yeah we’ve played the Arena and both Warehouses over the past few years and we just love them.
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“Victoria Warehouse and WHP are just amazing, you know. Manchester is our second home; we were students there and we’ve still got a lot of friends there.”
“I guess the best memory of the Arena”, Ed chuckled, “was when one of the security guards was walking us back after a said, ‘Corrr, I’ve not seen a crowd like that since Ricky Hatton was here”, adding that it’s a wise-crack that still gets brought up on tour and that all the gig staff here have a “proper good attitude”.
Not too bad a compliment, haha. What about other venues then? Any you’ve still got a soft spot for or have any lasting Manc music memories?
“Well, we were there with all the students and the early ‘Big Barn’ days at Manchester Academy, the indie disco, the house night in a house Thursday; the Wiggly Worm which Justin Robertson ran [went on to become the Millionaire Club] — we were just in and out of all those places and then ended up holding our own club nights.
“We’d hire everything from a swanky bar in town where we’d have to move all our speakers in, to setting up in Pizza Express in Didsbury where we used to go on and party as well.
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Ed and Tom back when they were starting. (Credit: Ed Simons via Instagram)
Amazing. Tell us a little bit about the early days and how you and Tom [Rowland] came to meet at uni.
“Yeah, at the University of Manchester in 1989. We met really early on, pretty much the first week through a mutual friend. We were on this tiny little course on medieval history, so there weren’t many of us, and then I think we were talking about wanting to play the Haçienda, which at that time was the big thing and we’d all heard about it.
“So yeah, we just kind of became friends because we were the only people in this course and we just wanted to go to the Haçienda and I think we ended up going every Friday from September to Christmas. We were just so into the music that Mike Pickering and Graeme Park were playing, and just the whole atmosphere. We also loved buying records together.
“Tom was actually in another band at the time called Ariel, so our thing was just DJing together at first and then after making some more friends about a year into our course we started putting on these nights around town and we got really friendly with a lot of DJs who worked at Eastern Bloc like Robertson and [Richard] ‘Moonboots‘.
It always comes back to Manchester
Ed ended the chat by reiterating that, like many artists who come through here either as natives or otherwise, “there’ll always be a big Manchester connection.”
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Then.Now.No matter how many years go by, the importance of those early Manchester days has never left The Chemical Brothers.
“We used to buy some really brilliant records that Moonboots would put aside for us and then when we came to London, we were suddenly DJing and playing all these cool records that no one else had heard.
“A really big part of our early career was building that bridge between Manchester and London, and, you know, we were around at the same time as The Stone Roses and we absolutely loved them — that first album had a huge influence.
“There was just that sense of if you’ve got an idea, just try and record it and get it out; there was a sort of can-do feeling about everything and we always feel indebted to that time we spent there. I think without being around all these people and artists printing a thousand white labels, we never would have been exposed to the culture and wouldn’t be coming back to the Arena 34 years later…
“Apparently the lecturer who did that medieval history course still starts his years by telling his students that they’re following in mine and Tom’s footsteps…”
The Manc -
7th June 2023 
