It’s not very often these days that a place opens in Manchester with very little fanfare (you’ll usually find a dozen influencers at the opening of a new ATM).
It’s even rarer to find somewhere that has opened very quietly, and ended up properly busy – yep, even on a Monday afternoon.
That such place is North Westward Ho, and it’s a testament to the brewery behind it that it’s already drawing in a crowd with barely a single social media post or press release in sight.
Pomona Island has taken on a chunk of the former Chaophraya restaurant, just tucked away off Market Street and Cross Street, and the grand arch-windowed red-brick building is now a home for all of Pomona Island’s excellent craft beers – from the easy-drinking Factotum, to the excellent Phaedra pale ale.
In the fridges are rows of their familiar cans – a pastel background, a doodle, and a name like ‘KICK OFF YOUR SHOES AND RELAX YOUR SOCKS’, ‘TAKE THIS CHIPS WITH CHEESE’, and ‘CURDLE SCRECH’.
At any time there are 18 lines of world-class craft beer, five cask lines and four lines of natural wine and cider.
North Westward Ho’s traditional interior. The foundation stone at North Westward HoInside Pomona Island’s new pub, North Westward Ho
They’ve shunned the usual identikit craft beer bar starter pack too. There’s no plywood, no plants, no wall of merch.
Instead, North Westward Ho feels like a proper Manchester pub that has been styled with dark wooden details, ornate tiling, wall sconces, oil paintings.
There’s a curved mahogany bar that wouldn’t look out of place in a five-star London hotel, dark green ceramic brick tiles on the wall, and a foundation stone set into the entryway that makes it feel like this pub has been here for decades (even though the date on the plaque states 2023).
The bobbing nightclub at Pomona Docks lasted several years before closing in the early eighties.
But if its namesake stays on the same trajectory that it’s started with this month, this is a pub that’ll stand the test of time.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
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.
Daisy Jackson -
20th October 2023 
