Eats

Greater Manchester’s quaint canal boat cafe with floating flat whites and unbelievable bakes

Make that quaint, clever and immensely cute.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 4th October 2024

There are a lot of good cafes in and around Greater Manchester but you won’t find many that serve up straight out of a canal boat.

Meet Libby and the ‘Cast No Shadow’ canal boat that is now the foremost river-based coffee and cake shop in our region, and with so many waterways around the 10 boroughs and beyond, you’ve got plenty of opportunity to meet both.

Currently moored up over on a picturesque corner of the Bridgewater Canal in Castlefield, just between the distinct white suspension bridge and The Wharf, this narrowboat cafe has only been up and running since May but has already earned queues of regulars who line up every weekend.

It also just might be one of the most wholesome things we’ve stumbled across in a long time.

Local legend Libby has had this pretty little vessel for three years and the cafe life is still pretty new to her as well, but she’s already nailed a really lovely niche.

You’ll find her serving up coffees freshly roasted right here in Manchester, snacks and soft drinks for the hotter days, as well as plenty of specials depending on the season or stuff going on around her.

Back when Sound of the City 2024 was still going on, we even saw her serving up handy little pots of mac and cheese to gig-goers on the way to Castlefield Bowl to fuel up before a long night of dancing and drinking.

Now that’s just legendary behaviour, if you ask us.

But aside from stunning pistachio lattes, colourful iced coffees and pure cosy vibes being served up right out of her small hatch, you can’t order from this canal boat cafe without grabbing one of the many delicious homemade loafs, cupcakes, cookies and more straight from fellow native The Vakery MCR.

With an ever-rotasting selection of sweat treats and regular favourites that sell-out almost immediately, almost everything baked is vegan, flawless and genuinely so good we couldn’t even tell the difference.

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Complete with her little sausage-shaped companion and sea-furring captain/very laid-back guard dog Bob, and a small terminal so you can still pay buy card like any other shop, we love everything about this little slice of canal and coffee-fuelled life.

She’s previously been spotted in other spots like Altrincham, Macclesfield and various other spots around Greater Manchester and Cheshire, and may very well be moving on to the likes of Ancoats soon, but at the minute she’s found a perfect home and regular customer base in Castlefield.

To sum it all up, Libby is one of the friendlist people you’ll ever meet, the boat is a solar-powered little stunner that’s a welcome addition to the city, everything is reasonably priced and we love that she’s also helping support other local indie businesses like The Vakery.

So, if you’re in the area or are looking for the perfect stop-off on your next Sunday stroll, make sure to swing by to say hello and enjoy the cutest canal boat cafe in the country – we don’t care if there are others, this one’s ours.

The definition of service with a smile.
The real star of the show (sorry, Lib x)
Credit: Canal Life UK (via Instagram)/The Manc Group

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Featured Images — The Manc Group/Canal Life UK

Eats

Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time

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.

In the last year alone we’ve had Mother Mary’s, the Salmon of Knowledge, and O’Connell’s open in the city centre, plus that huge expansion for the legendary Mulligans.

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’.

@nancyspains

Live music all day Shoreditch Saturdays are amazing, but can you imagine then once we get Manchester going? #murphys #nancys #irishpub #fyp

♬ original sound – Nancy Spains

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.

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Featured image: Supplied

Eats

Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Lucky Mama's in Chorlton

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's
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’s
Traditional Roman pizzas
Traditional Roman pizzas
Lucky Mama's pink restaurant in Chorlton
Lucky 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.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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