Don Giovanni invites closed local bars to takeover the venue and offer their own menus
“We would like to offer some support to bartending brothers and sisters who are looking at being forced to close from Friday. It could be us next. We need to stick together.”
Don Giovanni is offering a helping hand to any neighbours forced to close due to COVID restrictions – inviting bars to take over the venue and provide their own menus.
Manchester’s oldest independently-owned Italian restaurant has been a fixture of the city for 36 years – and now owners are looking to support nearby pubs by offering up their Oxford Street space for themed evenings.
Tier 3 regulations, which come into effect for all ten Greater Manchester boroughs on Friday at 00.01 BST, require any hospitality venues that do not serve ‘substantial meals’ to shut their doors until further notice.
Data compiled by real estate advisor Altus Group suggests that more 1,800 across the region will need to mothball as a result.
Some are likely to close permanently.
But Don Giovanni‘s generous invitation will allow local bars to bring their own drinks menus into the restaurant – with chefs creating specials to complement the signatures.
By hosting collaborations, the restaurant is hoping to ‘give customers from both sides a brand new experience’, enabling bars to keep going during challenging times.
A Don Giovanni spokesperson stated: “Hospitality is getting hit hard, now more than ever we need to be doing what we can to help prop each other up.
“We would like to offer some support to bartending brothers and sisters who are looking at being forced to close from Friday.
“It could be us next. We need to stick together.”
Don Giovanni has also extended its offer to local breweries – which have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 regulations.
“We’ve always been keen on working more with local breweries, and now more than ever is the time to support those close to home,” the restaurant’s spokesperson added.
“Manchester is a city that pulls together in tough times – this isn’t any different.
“Collaboration is definitely the way forward.”
If you are a bar or pub owner and would like to collaborate with Don Giovanni on a bar takeover, please contact them through their social media pages or by emailing marketing@dongiovanni.uk.com
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.
The Manc -
22nd October 2020 
