Waterloo Road and former Emmerdale star Adam Thomas’ restaurant business has entered administration with debts of nearly £300,000.
Thomas first opened The Spinn in Gatley in 2019 alongside childhood friend Scott Graham, but the restaurant was blighted by a succession of Covid lockdowns.
The turbulent time saw owners poke fun at the government with viral three-tiered ‘Boris’ and ‘Burnham’ burgers accompanied by the slogan ‘What a mess’, whilst the firm Gatley Bar and Grill Ltd was set up to handle the finances for the loss-making business.
The three-tier Boris Burger. / Image: The Spinn
Image: The Spinn
It now has debts of £293,996, including £71,423 owed to HMRC, and has entered voluntary liquidation.
The Gatley site was quietly boarded up last year and its signage removed, leaving locals wondering whether it was being refurbished or it had simply closed.
Thomas later confirmed to the MEN the site had been shuttered, adding that the team would be focusing their efforts on other parts of their hospitality business – which includes the Oh My Glaze sauce collection.
Image: The Spin-Off
Image: The Spin-Off
The duo then launched The Spin-Off, a neighbourhood bar in Stockport’s Underbanks selling craft beer, natural wine, and cocktails, which still appears to be open despite the liquidation of Gatley Bar and Grill Ltd.
Thomas officially stepped down from the Greater Manchester business last year and is now reportedly in talks with Strictly Come Dancing about making an appearance on this year’s show.
He finished third in 2016’s I’m a Celebrity and is currently playing the role of Donte Charles in the newly revived Waterloo Road. He is best known for playing Adam Barton on Emmerdale.
Featured image – The Spinn Gatley
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.
Georgina Pellant -
21st July 2023 
