A new cocktail bar is opening in Manchester this week, with Stray taking over a corner unit in the Northern Quarter that lends itself to the best people-watching in the city.
Stray has moved into the old Atkinsons Coffee unit on the corner of the beautiful Mackie Mayor.
And while a lot of cocktail bars open with a concept so convoluted you need a thesaurus to understand the menu, Stray is stripping it back to basics.
What’s it all about? Great drinks, great service, and a great atmosphere. Perfect.
The L-shaped bar bar comes with huge windows that look out across Eagle Street, with a row of window seats to perch on.
There are cosy couches and little nooks to tuck yourself into as you work through Stray’s signature cocktails, a collection titled ‘Led Astray’.
These drinks are all made, wherever possible, with top-quality local ingredients, with the team infusing their own spirits and making their own cordials in-house.
A Buckfast negroni at Stray in the Northern QuarterInside Stray, a new Manchester cocktail bar at Mackie Mayor in the Northern QuarterCocktails at Stray
You can expect an incredible margarita made with tomato vine tequila, a fig leaf pisco, and a rhubarb and pine gimlet, as well as all your usual classics made just how you like them.
Oh, did we mention you can find a Buckfast negroni in here? Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it…
The team have spent just as much time working on their non- and low-alcoholic cocktails too, so if you’re shunning the strong stuff you can still guarantee yourself a decent drink, whether it’s a booze-free marg or a mocktail reminiscent of a glass of pet-nat.
The decor inside the bar itself is looped around that huge marble bar, with walls painted half and half dark green and painted brick and concrete.
So pull up a pew in the window, order yourself one of the city’s best cocktails, and watch the weird and wonderful world of Manchester go by.
Stray opens at Mackie Mayor on 3 November, and will be open 12pm-10pm Tuesday to Friday; 10am-10pm on Saturdays, and 12pm-6pm on Sunday.
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 -
3rd November 2023 
