The team behind the Crown & Kettle pub have taken on a new challenge – the legendary Mother Mac’s pub on Back Piccadilly.
The boozer, which has something of a gruesome past, is being almost completely gutted ready for its transformation into a three-storey pub.
Soon to be reborn as The Rat & Pigeon, the independent watering hole will have seven separate areas across its three floors.
Since The Manc first reported the closure of Mother Mac’s, the team behind Crown & Kettle have been busy stripping the city centre pub back to its bones.
They said in a statement online that the historic building has been left ‘rotting behind a veneer of naff refurbishments’ (the pub changed hands a few years ago).
The Rat & Pigeon has been given vital structural support ready for the next stage – ‘breathing life into this historic boozer’.
They said it’s taken 16 skips, a few electric shocks, and ‘an eight week stint at the chiropractors’, but now pictures inside the pub show that it’s coming on nicely.
The floors on the first and second floor have been restored to their former glory and there are even paint samples on the walls now.
The Rat & Pigeon wrote: “They say you shouldn’t pick at a scab. The thing is, over the years this building has been slowly rotting behind a veneer of naff refurbishments plastered one on top of the other. We haven’t just picked the scab, we’ve peeled entire layers and took it right back to the bone… and then found the bones were buggered n’all.
“In for a penny, in for a pound.
“16 skips, multiple electric shocks and a 8 week stint at the chiropractors later we managed to tear out the crap and provide the old lady with the structural support required to see out the next 150 years.
They later added: “Transforming a tired ground floor only pub into 3-floor behemoth isn’t without its challenges.
“Once the building was structurally secure we turned our attention to the 1st and 2nd. With every layer of plaster removed or board lifted we were uncovering new ‘challenges’. It got to a point where we were scared to take a peek. But peek we did.
“Debris carted down two flights of stairs, full fixed wiring and plumbing throughout, new structures built and plaster applied with floor lovingly restored to its former glory – our vision to breathe new life into this historic boozer is starting to become a reality.
“There’s 7 separate areas over three floors, each with its own purpose and appeal – something for everyone. We genuinely cannot wait to welcome you in.”
The official launch date, and the full transformation of Mother Mac’s into The Rat & Pigeon, will be announced soon.
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 -
8th May 2024 
