Stockport is set to get its first retro gaming bar this winter as the former Mama Sanctuary spa on Princess Street is transformed into an arcade haven.
Spreading across two floors, it comes from partners Joseph Patten and Amy Fletcher and will.
Already established in the local hospitality scene. Joseph has already made a name for himself in Stockport with venues including Cracked Actor, The Glass Spider and Dr Feelgood.
Now, he and Amy are workig together on a new venture that will celebrate some iconic arcade games from their childhoo,d including Super Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong – all playable using tokens that can be collected from the bar.
Called Glitch, in an interview with the Manchester Evening Newsthe pair described the new gaming bar as an “interactive museum for vintage arcade lovers”.
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However, they also revealed that it won’t just be about retro games here.
The modern crowd of gamers will be equally well catered to, with 11 different high-tech gaming booths – all bookable by the hour – kitted out with 40 inch screens, Xbox, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, SEGA Mega, and Nintendo 64.
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Elsewhere, the team is working on creating an experiential Star Wars ‘duelling room’ with light sabers available to rent. Although it doesn’t sound like this will be ready before its pre-Christmas opening, it’s something we’re happy to wait for.
Drinks-wise, gamers can expect to find a wide array of themed cocktails that nod to Glitch’s playful theme alongside a selection of local beers from Siren Brewery.
The pair also said that they hope the bar will “change the lay of the land massively for more bars of this type to invest in Stockport Town centre.
They continued: “It’s certainly the first of its kind in Stockport but it’s where the bar world is heading.
“We believe it’s the next big push needed to bring immersive interactive bars to Stockport, in the same way they do in the cities. It’s a chance to provide more than just a sit down with a beer, people want more of an experience when they hit the town now. GLITCH provides that.
“It’s a hit of nostalgia like a interactive museum for vintage arcade lovers, whilst also offering the look into the future with all the latest consoles for groups to book out. I think it’s the perfect time of year to be opening with Christmas around the corner.”
Feature image – Google maps / Slackers
Food & Drink
A fancy new pizzeria has opened in Manchester serving posh pizzas and seasonal sharing plates
Clementine Hall
If you’ve ever wanted a pizza with smoked eel on, then you’re in luck.
Introducing Proloco, the brand spanking new restaurant from chef Richard Carver, founder of Honest Crust Sourdough Pizza, and Dan Hope, co-founder of Manchester club Rainy Heart.
Located in One Port Street over in Ancoats, this isn’t your bog standard pizzeria – this is lavish.
Here you’ll find a weekly rotating selection of 18-inch pizzas and sharing plates all made with the very best local produce imaginable.
Forget your bog standard pepperoni slice, on the menu here you’ll find a porchetta pizza with shishito peppers and Cornish kern, a charred greens pizza with sugar snap peas and anchovies, and our personal favourite – a smoked eel pie with lemon basil and pine nuts.
There’s also a tomato butter pie, which features slithers of butter in place of your usual mozzarella.
And if you just can’t decide, you can have your pizza as a half-and-half of flavours.
Sharing plates include tomatoes with lardo, roasted beetroot and a crispy egg with mortadella and fennel.
A half-and-half pizzaBeautiful interiors of ProlocoThe butter pie pizzaSmall plates, wine, and £7 negroniProloco opens on Great Ancoats Street in AugustScoops of homemade gelatoProloco’s open kitchenThe eel pizza at Proloco
A real selling point, though, is the £7 negroni alongside a selection of honest wine and carefully chosen beer from local suppliers as well as an aperitivo list.
The interior is simple, but beautiful – a colour palette of butter yellow, blue, and huge burgundy speakers to match the chairs that invite you to sit at long banquet-worthy tables or in front of the many windows.
Richard will be calling on his longstanding relationships with producers across the North West (and beyond) for his ingredients, from flour grown and milled in the Lake District, vegetables from Cinderwood Market Garden and Organic North, artisanal charcuterie and cheeses from Somerset, and the best tomatoes and oil from Italy.
He said: “Proloco is about cooking food I genuinely love with the best people and produce around me.
“I want it to feel effortless – warm, a little bit fun, and always worth coming back to.”
Proloco will officially open its doors on Great Ancoats Street on Wednesday 26 August.
Team behind award-winning cocktail bar Stray to open second Manchester bar
Daisy Jackson
The team behind Manchester’s award-winning cocktail bar Stray have announced a second bar is on the way.
Bar Dos will be an all-new neighbourhood bar, promising to be the ‘tearaway younger sibling’ of Stray.
You can expect everything from pints of Stella to refined cocktails, plus DJs all weekend long.
Set to open very soon, with a September launch pencilled into our diaries already, Bar Dos will be joining a couple of other big names in a new building on Great Ancoats Street.
They’ll count Proloco and Osma as neighbours once all three ventures are up and running this year.
Stray first opened at Mackie Mayor back in 2023, and shot into the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars just over a year later.
Bar Dos will open in Manchester in SeptemberBar Dos is the second site for Stray
There, it occupies a beautiful corner unit with huge windows, and an outside terrace, perfect for sipping on their best-selling cocktails like their tomato vine margarita and their Fanta Limon (a boozy version of everyone’s favourite balcony tipple).
Now ready to launch a second site, the team will soon open Bar Dos, which will be a late-night, music-focused neighbourhood bar.
DJs already announced, along with renowned artists who have curated playlists, include Space Afrika, Chunky, Private Joy, Konnie Kon of Children of Zeus, and Stray residents Rhod Parry and Stu Richards.
Bar Dos will open on Great Ancoats Street this September.
Georgina Pellant -
4th October 2022 
