A massively-popular travelling street food festival is returning to Wythenshawe next week with a packed lineup of traders.
Award-winning street food champions GRUB is once again teaming up with Manchester City Council to bring its monthly food and drink festival, GRUB Carnival – The Travelling Food Festival, back to Wythenshawe next week – with the first event kicking off on Saturday 22 April.
The monthly event is set to bring together the very best of GRUB’s top street food traders, alongside a series of pop-up brewery bars and take-home produce stalls.
The first GRUB Carnival of 2023 will be pitching-up in its new location in the centre of Wythenshawe Civic Centre.
The huge retail unit will be transformed into a space for indoor seating, bars, and activities.
Next weekend’s opening lineup of street food trader includes the likes of Burger Bros smashed burgers, Dough So Good on pizza duty, Feast Of The East with a wide range of Mediterranean treats, and House Of Wingz serving up wings.
Crepe Castle, Cake Box and Hyacinth Ice Cream will also be in charge of catering for the crowd with a sweet tooth, while Sparrows Garden Market and Cheshire Pie Co are leading the lineup of local independent food and drink producers at the a mini take-home produce market.
Manchester artisan rum producers, Witch Kings, are in charge of the bar, and will be supplying cocktails, craft beers, and soft drinks to be enjoyed in the sun.
Neighbourhood Coop, Bakehouse 32, Jeyda’s Turkish Kitchen, Mangiama Streetfod, Gwafu Vegan, and Big Mama’s Twisted Street Food will then be joining the event later in the year.
GRUB’s massive travelling street food festival is returning to Wythenshawe next week / Credit: GRUB
Aside from all the food and drink, on top of all that, Woodhouse Park Family Centre and Happy Somedays Football will also be joining the Carnival for the first date next weekend to provide some fun activities for the little ones.
GRUB says its monthly ‘Carnival’ will not only be a “fantastic, inclusive, family-friendly event” that’s designed to “bring people together”, but there’s also big ambitions to “become a focal point for the community” by providing new jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, alongside space for local creatives to share their work and talents all throughout the summer.
Speaking ahead of next weekend’s first event, Jason Bailey – Director of GRUB – said: “We had a smashing time trialling the carnival last year, and so many Wythenshawe folk were happy to see us, so it is fantastic we have the chance to come back all summer long.
“Fingers crossed we can carry on building Carnival in to something that makes a difference”.
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.
Emily Sergeant -
12th April 2023 
