“You’ll have to forgive him. He’s from Bolton,” is a line we expect you’ll hear this August Bank Holiday weekend if you’re planning to attend the town’s food and drink festival.
Organisers are bringing the festival’s popular Fawlty Towers dining experience back for 2023, meaning that Basil, Sybil, and Manuel will all be tipping up to the North’s biggest foodie event once again with their signature mix of mayhem and hilarity.
Serving up a 70s-inspired three-course meal to diners with a large helping of laughter on the side, ticket holders should expect the appearance of retro dishes like rich tomato and basil soup, roast chicken with seasonal vegetables, and indulgent chocolate mousse cake.
Created in homage to the original much-loved British sitcom written by comedy legends John Cleese and Connie Booth, actors will give Fawlty Towers fans the chance to peek behind the curtain of the infamous sitcom as they tuck into a sit-down dinner.
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
As part of the UK’s leading tribute to the BBC series, fans will get to experience the hilarity of the show from the inside as impersonators of the series’ infamous trio deliver an interactive two-hour comedy spectacular.
Promising to have you in stitches, anything can happen – with over 70 percent of the event set to be improvised by actors on the spot.
Hugely popular in London, the immersive 70’s experience made its northern debut at Bolton Food and Drink Festival last year and returns for a sold-out 2023 show on Saturday 26 August.
Doors will open at 6.30pm for the show to start at 7pm, and will be held at the iconic Bolton Albert Halls.
The event at Bolton Food and Drink Festival has no affiliation to the BBC, John Cleese, Connie Booth, or their TV scripts. The performers delivering the event are all impersonators.
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.
Georgina Pellant -
7th August 2023 
