Flight Club is back in town next weekend and Mancunians are invited to “schedule some much-needed ridiculous joy back into their lives”.
As staff prepare to reopen doors to the King Street bar on Saturday 1st August, the ever-popular social darts hangout has offered Mancunians an insight into what they can expect their first night to look like post-lockdown.
Bookings for the Manchester city centre location have officially gone live, and given the venue’s enormous popularity pre-COVID, the team are already anticipating high demand for early slots.
Flight Club is excited to show the public what “delights we’ve got on offer”, but what can we expect once we dart back into action?
In an email sent around to fans today, Flight Club explained a little more.
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Private Playing Booths
If you’re ready to step up to the throw line, then your own “semi-private space” awaits.
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You’ll be able to play all of the best games that Flight Club has to offer, whilst ensuring you are socially distanced from other groups, and all without missing out on the amazing atmosphere.
Flight Club MCR
Table Bookings
Flight Club Manchester is the “perfect setting to soak up the atmosphere whilst catching up with friends”, but if you fancy popping down for a drink or two, a bite to eat, or you want to celebrate your victory after topping the darts leaderboard, you’ll now need to book your table.
All bookings can be done via the Flight Club Manchester website here.
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Pre-Order Food & Drink
In order to “minimise contact and ensure the best service possible”, you now have the opportunity to pre-order your food and drinks, which will be ready and waiting for you upon your arrival.
You can add on any top-ups using the Flight Club app in venue, or signal your server with the ‘push for service’ buttons.
?As of 1st August our doors in Birmingham, London & Manchester will officially be open. We’ve been working incredibly hard behind the scenes to make sure we can keep everyone safe, and we wanted to remind you of the delights we'll have on offer.?
— Flight Club Darts (@flightclubdarts) June 26, 2020
Speaking ahead of reopening next week, Flight Club Manchester said: “We’re so excited to open our doors again,”
“We’ve been working behind the scenes to ensure that we can still give you the best experience possible”.
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Steve Moore, co-founder of Flight Club, added: “We were founded on the idea of bringing joy to as many people as possible, which we all need now more than ever, so we are so excited to be opening our doors again and show you what we have on offer.”
“We want to help people make up for those missed moments… and can’t wait to delight and surprise every customer that joins us from August”.
If you’re ready to plan your next night out in the city, then you can book a booth at Flight Club Manchester online here.
For more information, visit the Flight Club website here.
Eats
An alternative Christmas market with flaming mulled wine and independent food traders is coming to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
There’s a new Christmas destination worth your time in Manchester this winter – and it’s a very different offering to the traditional Manchester Christmas Markets.
This brand-new winter venue will include a 200-capacity heated tent, bars serving flaming mulled wines, and will have a food and drink offering that features some of our city’s top independent businesses.
Christmas at St John’s will be operated by GRUB – and if you love to spend your spare time in a market setting, you’ll already know you couldn’t be in more trustworthy hands than this.
The GRUB team, champions of independent food and drink in Manchester, will be teaming up with St John’s on this lively winter hideaway.
At the centre of everything will be a Feuerzangenbowle bar, serving flaming mulled wines, with pop-ups from resident favourites like Trading Route and Stables Tavern as well as Good Wines and Verdant brewery.
Expect a revolving door of the region’s most exciting chefs and traders, serving unique festive dishes you won’t find anywhere else.
There’ll be eight rotating street food traders across the month-long event. Some of the names taking part include Soots (the Altrincham Market plant-based pasta kitchen that recently opened its first restaurant in the Northern Quarter); BAB with gormet kebabs; and Akin Club serving Middle Eastern small plates.
Soots. Credit: The Manc GroupKnight’s BBQ. Credit: SuppliedJim’s Table. Credit: SuppliedSome of the traders taking part in Christmas at St John’s, an alternative Christmas Market in Manchester
There’ll also be a Jims Table x Good Wines small plates and wine pairing collab, plus Knights BBQ with Jamaican flavours, and Yorkshire legends Spud & Bros with poutine too.
This alternative Christmas Market will have you tucking into open-fire cooking, hand-rolled pasta, tandoor dishes, nostalgic Christmas comfort food, and GRUB’s take on classic bratwursts.
Christmas at St John’s is promising to be a ‘celebration of creativity, quality and culture that brings together everything Manchester does best: independent food, crafted drinks and a sense of community you won’t find anywhere else’.
You’ll even be able to reserve and collect your Christmas tree from here, right in the centre of town.
There’ll be live entertainment all season, like Matty White’s festive food quiz, comedy nights, alternative choirs, and more.
How Christmas at St John’s could look. Credit: Supplied
It will all take place with a cosy 200-capacity heated tent and 60-metre custom-built event space.
Bailey, GRUB’s Director, says: “We’ve pulled out all the stops for this one. Calling on our trusted partners from years of delivering street food events across Manchester, we’re creating something truly unique this Christmas.
“You won’t find these offerings anywhere else. Christmas at St. John’s is all about good food, proper drinks and creating special Christmas memories.
“It’s also a taste of what’s to come as we work with Allied London to bring GRUB’s flagship home to life at Grape Street next year.”
Christmas at St John’s will run from Thursday 20 November until Sunday 21 December and will be open from Wednesday to Sunday every week.
‘Craic Den?’ – New Irish bar to open on Albert Square this week
Daisy Jackson
A new Irish bar is set to open in Manchester this week (yessir, another one), and its owners have been on the hunt for its new name.
Tokyo Industries has announced plans to reopen the Red’s True BBQ site, right off Albert Square, as a new Irish bar.
They’re promising it will have an ‘Irish American feel’ and will be serving food like all-day Ulster breakfasts as well as roast dinners with Guinness gravy.
Aaron Mellor, CEO of Tokyo Industries, has shared a call-out for name suggestions for the new bar, with the shortlist so far including names like ‘The Craic Den’ and ‘House of Guinness’.
Red’s True BBQ was famed for its slow-cooked meat, and outrageous specials like its doughnut burger, but shut down in Manchester in 2023.
It had previously been rescued by Tokyo Industries, which also operates other venues in town like Gorilla and Deaf Institute, Impossible, and Factory 251.
The site itself is in a magnificent Grade II-listed building on the corner of Albert Square, facing out onto the Town Hall (and soon, the Manchester Christmas Markets).
A new Instagram account shows the space slowly being transformed into an Irish bar, with green leather and Guinness logos slowly taking over the space.
It also suggests that, sadly, The Craic Den hasn’t made the cut as the new name – instead it’s set to open as Dirty O’Sullivan MCR.
Aaron Mellor shared last week: “Deciding on names for venues is always so hard – we’ve come up with about 300 names & suffering choice fatigue…
“It’s a new Irish bar with an Irish American feel set in the Reds True Barbecue site on Albert Square, Manchester.
“Amazing food – Great live entertainment – The finest Guinness – The coolest cocktails – All day Ulster Breakfasts – Guinness Gravey Sunday Roasts Mmm.
“Favorites So: Dirty O’Sullivans, Reds True Irish, Luck of the Irish, The Dublin Docker, The Hare & Harp, The Craic Den, The Perfect Pint, The StoreHouse, House Of Guinness, Murphy’s Law, Oscar Wildes.”
Dirty O’Sullivan is set to open on Lloyd Street at Albert Square this week.
Emily Sergeant -
22nd July 2020 
