Flat Iron, the steak house that is renowned for its affordable prices, has confirmed new details of its very first Manchester restaurant.
The restaurant brand, which has sites across London as well as in Leeds and Cambridge, is taking over the old Blacks outdoor clothing shop on Deansgate.
Landing slap bang in the heart of Manchester – and just a few doors down from arguably the city’s best steak house, Hawksmoor – Flat Iron has confirmed it will be open for business early this summer.
The menu is simple, and led by their signature Flat Iron steak priced at just £14, which sees the underrated featherblade cut of beef cooked and butchered with skill.
There are sides including beef dripping chips, creamed spinach, truffled macaroni cheese, and crispy bone marrow garlic mash.
There’ll be a selection of wines including their very own Malbec, blended in the south of France, alongside draft beers and signature cocktails.
When it opens, Flat Iron will have 150 covers in the two-storey restaurant on 200-204 Deansgate.
The Grade II-listed building was first opened in 1908 as the Royal London Friendly Society, and its interiors have now been remodelled by architects Macaulay Sinclair, who will be displaying as many of the original features as possible.
Original timber flooring, glazed brick walls, riveted steel columns and original parquet floors have been revealed and restored.
Flat Iron is opening a restaurant in Manchester (this is the Leeds site). Credit: The Hoot LeedsFlat Iron sides include mac and cheese. Credit: The Hoot Leeds
Speaking of the opening, Flat Iron’s Founder, Charlie Carroll says: “Opening a restaurant in my home town of Manchester is a big deal to me and a long time coming.
“The food and drink scene is so exciting at the moment and just keeps getting better. I can’t wait to be a tiny part of it.
“I fell in love with a beautiful historic building on Deansgate in 2018 and six years on we are finally opening this summer.
“Flat Iron is about unpretentious, top quality steak, available to all.
“I am passionate about delicious beef and proud to bring Flat Iron to the city where I grew up and where so many of my friends and family live.”
Flat Iron will open on Deansgate in Manchester in Summer 2024.
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 -
6th March 2024 
