A new street food offering has opened in Manchester, serving some of the city’s most outrageous loaded fries and hot dogs.
Diamond Dogs is hidden away in the courtyard of Green Arches – itself a hidden taproom – situated inside a graffiti-covered van.
There’s a surprisingly lengthy menu for a business who have carved a niche out of the humble hot dog, with various toppings, sides and fries on offer.
One of the biggest selling points is that every hot dog on the menu can be made totally vegan, from the classic Porky New Yorky to the fancier offerings.
So what exactly can you expect from Diamond Dogs?
How do deep-fried black pudding bits, drizzled in curry ketchup and a dusting of curry powder, sound?
Das Deutsch – venison and pork bratwurst, sauerkraut, sweet German mustard and pretzels. Credit: The Manc GroupCurried black pudding bites. Credit: The Manc GroupCurrywurst from Diamond Dogs. Credit: The Manc Group
What about piping hot fries glued together with a double cheese blend, topped with crispy onions, blitzed beans, salsa, and chilli hot sauce?
Or you could take it full Berlin street food-style, with proper currywurst and sauerkraut piled on top of skin-on fries.
Diamond Dogs have gone to the effort of making almost all the sauces on the menu from scratch, leading to one of the best dip-and-drizzle experiences in the city.
There’s the Pineapple Power hot sauce, which is slathered on the Shaka Aloha hot dog – a particular sandwich so messy, they have to serve it tightly-wrapped in foil to stop cheese running down your arms. Fans of a Hawaiian pizza will want to order this one.
Fire fries at Diamond Dogs. Credit: The Manc GroupInside Green Arches. Credit: The Manc GroupThe Diamond Dogs van. Credit: The Manc Group
Another house sauce star is the House Kebabby Tomatah sauce, usually found drizzled over a lamb and beef kofta hot dog with fresh salsa.
On the side of every hot dog you’ll find a little pot of accessories, from salted pretzels to pork scratchings to pickles.
Diamond Dogs has parked itself proudly behind Green Arches, a relatively new addition to the city’s brilliant craft brewery and taproom scene.
The brewery taproom itself is nearly placed beneath one of the railway arches of the Green Quarter, and takes its green credentials seriously – the bar is almost entirely decorated in white and wood, but is covered in plants.
There are potted plants that are taller than most people and vines crawling up the curved walls.
The green-tiled bar serves a brilliant range of flagship ales.
Diamond Dogs is open from 5.30pm to 9pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and until 10pm on Fridays. On the weekends it opens at 10.30am, closing at 10pm on Saturdays and 6pm on Sundays.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Eats
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 -
17th February 2023 
