We already take brunch very seriously here in Manchester, but now one of the city’s most popular restaurants is taking it to a whole new level.
The Botanist has always been known for its imaginative food and drink creations, but now, the restaurant chain has unveiled a huge new brunch menu at the beginning of this month, and it’s giving diners the chance to build their own brunch board – with endless options and combinations to choose from.
The brand-new concept from the restaurant chain – which has a number of sites in Greater Manchester and across the North West – lets you select five small plates from a choice of 28 different options.
Your chosen five dishes come served on a “very Instagrammable” wooden board, and it’s priced at £15.95 per person.
If you’re really hungry though, extra dishes can be added for an additional £3 each.
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The Botanist has launched a new ‘build your own brunch’ board concept / Credit: The Botanist
So, how does the build your own brunch board actually work then?
Well, it’s split into five categories – bakery, protein punch, hearty, on the side, and sweet treat – to give you a wide range of mouthwatering options, with some of the dishes including Ham Hock Egg Benedict, Croque Monsieur, Smoked Trout and Salmon Pate, Acai Berry Protein Smoothie, and Nutella and Biscoff French Toast.
There’s plenty of options suitable for vegans and those following a plant based diet too, with dishes including Scrambled Tofu with sundried tomato oil and toasted seeds, Plant Based Cumberland Sausage, Mini Hash Browns, and Passion Fruit and Chia Yoghurt.
There’s over 98,280 different combinations to choose from / Credit: The Botanist
Diners can either choose one dish from each section to create a balanced board of options, or choose any five dishes they like from the full list.
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This means there’s a total of a whopping 98,280 different combinations to create.
That’s not all either as there’s a drinks package upgrade too, with new brunch cocktails that have expertly-crafted by The Botanist’s in-house “cocktail wizards”, including Smoked Rose-Mary, Campari G&T, and Watermelon Garibaldi, as well as a range of nourishing and freshly-prepared Juice Boosts.
The Botanist Brunch is now available from 9am at participating sites, although specific service days and times vary depending on individual venues, and you can find out more information here.
Featured Image – The Botanist
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Paddy McGuinness teases potential return of Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere
Danny Jones
Right, we don’t mean to alarm you all, but Max and Paddy might finally be coming back after nearly 20 years.In other entirely unrelated news, there is a god.
We only ever got one solitary season of Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere, but it only took six episodes for it to leave us with lasting memories of rolling on the floor laughing and quoting lines all these years later.
The Phoenix Nights spin-off went on to be not just a cult favourite but an iconic British sitcom that rivalled the show that spawned it, cementing both Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness as even greater household names than they already were.
Cut to nearly two nearly full decades later and Paddy himself has teased that the hit Northern comedy might not be done after all. Battle stations, people — we’re on the campaign trail now.
Speaking to Capital Breakfast this week, McGuinness came on to the subject of Max and Paddy return, saying that “the interesting thing about Max and Paddy, and Phoenix Nights is now, we are kind of all of an age of the people we played back then.”
He admitted that while they “do talk about it and what have you” and would love to see the full cast return someday, he just “can’t see it at the minute”.
However, he did go on to insist “never say never” and, more promisingly, that the comedy duo’s comeback, specifically, could very well be on the cards.
“Like Max and Paddy, for instance, we wrote a couple of Christmas specials, and we’ve still got them”, says McGuinness. “We never got around to doing one for whatever reason back in the day. But we’ve actually got them.”
The 49-year-old went on to clarify that more than one script has already been written for some time, but they’ve just been kept on the backburner given that he is admittedly “inherently lazy” and likes “doing as little as possible”, it just never came to fruition.
“If you’re doing a scripted comedy show, it does take a long time. So to do something like [this], you have literally got to blank out 12 months of your life.
“He [Kay] is on tour. I’ve got all kinds of stuff going on, and it’s just sort of going ‘right, let’s get together. Let’s get our diaries together. And let’s blank out for that time'”. We don’t know a single person that wouldn’t want to see a Max and Paddy return in some form.
While hosts Roman Kemp and Siân Welby urged people to get flooding them with texts and posting all over social media, the former Take Me Out presenter joked it “won’t make a blind bit of difference.” Come on, Paddy, don’t let us down now.
Lidl’s iconic trainers have been spotted back in Manchester stores
Georgina Pellant
Lidl’s sell-out trainers are once again back in its Manchester stores – and streetwear enthusiasts are already filing in in their droves to stock up.
The shoes, which usually sell out within days of going live, have hit shelves once again – and are already re-selling for hundreds online.
The iconic £14.99 trainers, which come in the budget supermarket chain’s signature red, blue and yellow colourway, have previously been amongst the Lidl’ clothing range’s most popular items.
When they first launched in 2021, the trainers were priced at just £12.99 but ended up selling online for upwards of £1,000 as sneakerheads outbid each other on Ebay and Depop for the last few pairs.
Now they’re back in a new look – and it’s fair to say that lidl shoppers are just as excited the second time around.
Image: The Manc Group
Donning the retailer’s logo on the tongue and heel, the new-look trainer design focuses on a white shoe with brightly-colored insets and seaming.
Items from the range are already on eBay for £150 – so you’ll need to be quick if you want to cop anything for yourself.
Previously released as a one-off, the trainers are being sold in both women’s and men’s sizes, with women’s ranging from sizes 4 to 7, and in men’s sizes 7 to 11 and a half.
As well as the trainers, Lidl’s in-demand clothing line has previously featured sports socks (from 99p), men’s swimming shorts and a foldable shopping bag.
Emily Sergeant -
8th June 2022 
