It’s that time of year again: Wing Wednesdays are back at Yard and Coop and we’re about to spend a rather ridiculous amount of our midweeks here.
We’re sure plenty of you are more than familiar with this Northern Quarter institution but for those of you who might be new to Manchester — yes, freshers, we’re talking about you — Yard and Coop‘s isn’t just one of the best chicken spots you’ll find anywhere in town, they also happen to great deals all year.
As well as their famous ‘Eat for a Tenner’ menu where you can get a main and a drink for, well, a tenner, and the kids’ menu where they can enjoy their tea and a dessert for a fiver or even totally FREE at certain times of year, the Manc favourite also does a hugely popular promotion called Wing Wednesdays.
Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, the jist of it is that for as long as the offer goes on, you can rock up every Wednesday and grab yourself free wings with every main, meaning that you turn every meal you sit down for into more of a feast.
To enjoy the deal, all you need to do is present a student card upon ordering or one of the restaurant’s ‘Yard Cards‘ which are available to everyone and help you get the best offers and discounts all year round, such as free wings like these.
And don’t worry, you don’t have to pay for it or anything — it’s also absolutely free and you can download it on your phone HERE.
The best part of all is that you aren’t just limited to Y&C’s usual flavours: their ever-inventive team of chefs are always cooking up specials in the kitchen and you can try a brand new flavour every week. For instance, have you ever tried a salted toffee popcorn wing? No, you haven’t, but you’re about to.
You best believe we’re gonna scranning several plates of these.
With the cost of living crisis affecting us all, it’s good to see places like these still doing their best to help Mancs and the likes of students moving into 0161 enjoy eating out without breaking the bank.
Look forward to bumping elbows with you next Wednesday.
Yard and Coop is by no means the only place you can get some seriously good value-for-money wings in the city centre either.
Featured Image — Yard & Coop (via Instagram)/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.
Danny Jones -
15th September 2023 
