The Kampus neighbourhood in Manchester city centre is set to welcome a new bakery, florist and bagel shop hybrid as Bread Flower take charge of the Bungalow.
The business, founded by baker Maya Black and florist Scarlett Jamieson, will occupy the landmark building – formerly a security cabin and built on stilts – in the run-up to Christmas and beyond.
Visitors will be able to grab open bagel sandwiches to eat in or take away from the Kampus bakery, with menu items including salt beef and a bagel French toast.
Bags of Bread Flower’s handmade sourdough bagels will be on sale by the dozen or half-dozen.
The Bungalow at Kampus, which used to be a security cabin / Credit: Kampus
On the floristry side of things, Scarlett will be creating bouquets, wreaths and table centre-pieces to order, as well as selling smaller bunches in store.
The Bread Flower bundles – featuring freshly-baked bagels, schmears (flavoured cream cheese), Manchester Smokehouse salmon (or a vegan carrot alternative) and hand-tied flowers – will make a return too.
New Christmas morning hampers will include added festive extras, like sparkling wine from Le Social, Blossom Coffee, and sticky buns. These can be pre-ordered and collected on either December 23 or 24.
Open topped bagel sandwiches will be on offer in the Bread Flower bakery and cafe / Credit: Bread Flower
There’ll be an Indie Winter Market too, offering trading pitches to local businesses like Beaches & Cream, Shy Seagull and Prestwich Gin.
Maya said: “We’re really looking forward to opening the Bread Flower cafe in the Bungalow.
You can order table centre-pieces and wreaths – or learn to make your own in a workshop / Credit: Bread Flower
“Kampus has been a home for us for a few months now, hosting various events like our supper clubs and yoga brunch, and of course delivering our bundles, but this four-week residency will be bigger and better than anything we’ve done before.
“We’ve got lots of lovely festive events lined up, like our Hanukkah supper club, Indie Winter Markets with wonderful local traders and weekly floral workshops too; offering what we hope is a genuine independent alternative for shoppers with delicious produce and unique gifts.”
The Bread Flower cafe at The Bungalow will be open from Friday 26 November until the end of January.
Its opening hours will be 8am to 2pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and 10am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Featured Image – Bread Flower
Food & Drink
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Daisy Jackson -
16th November 2021 
