A cocktail experience inspired by the fantastical world of Alice in Wonderland is heading to Greater Manchester this summer.
The Alice Cocktail Experience will invite people into a colourful, spellbinding tea party setting, complete with The Mad Hatter orchestrating the whole thing.
Guests will create their own cocktails which will get ‘curiouser and curiouser’, the organisers say, while enjoying a 90 minute live show.
Themed cakes and a venue decorated with bright flowers, teapots and neon signs will add to the illusion that you’ve taken a trip to Wonderland.
The Alice Cocktail Experiences comes from Once Upon A Bar, who have run similar events at venues across the globe already.
And for their trip to Manchester, they’ll be creating a fully themed bar at Broadway, the diner where staff serenade you with musical hits.
You’ll dive down the rabbit hole (… The Trafford Centre) to experience the magic of Wonderland, with the experience including themed activities like painting and eating ‘Eat Me’ sweet treats.
An Alice in Wonderland-inspired cocktail tea party is coming to the Trafford Centre. Credit: Publicity picture
There’ll be a carefully created menu of cocktails and mocktails, with an element of magic to all of them.
Each ticket includes one free drink, with plenty more to choose from throughout the 90 minutes.
Organisers say: “Indulge in an interactive tea party like no other, designed for those who possess an insatiable thirst for wonder.
“The Alice Cocktail Experience guarantees to be the ultimate tea party, leaving you mesmerised and spellbound. This experience has been a global hit and each city’s venue is uniquely decorated.
“Create your own liquid concoctions under the watchful eye of The Mad Hatter and expect things to get curiouser and curiouser. Dive down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world where you will experience firsthand the magic of Wonderland, paint the roses red and devour an ‘Eat Me’ sweet treat!
“Come and explore the magic in the heart of Manchester and join the tea party to end all tea parties.”
The Alice Cocktail Experience will take place on Mondays and Tuesdays between 20 May and 20 August at Broadway at the Trafford Centre.
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 -
7th April 2024 
