Celebrated chef Tom Barnes is finally ready to open his first Manchester restaurant, Skof, in the city centre.
New photographs have just been released giving a glimpse inside the beautiful space, located just off Sadler’s Yard.
The restaurant has taken over a historic building in the NOMA neighbourhood and will officially open its doors on Wednesday 29 May.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of Skof yet, it’s the first restaurant from chef Tom Barnes, who has worked at L’Enclume (the three-Michelin star Lake District restaurant widely considered one of the best in the world) and falls under Simon Rogan’s UMBEL Restaurants group.
He’ll bring that same farm-to-table ethos that’s made L’Enclume so world-famous to the city centre with his debut restaurant, weaving in new suppliers as well as using daily deliveries of produce grown specifically for him from Simon Rogan’s Our Farm in the Cartmel Valley.
Tom Barnes has also teased what’s to come on his menu, with two different tasting menus available.
The beautiful interiors at Skof restaurant in Manchester. Credit: Cristian Barnett
Skof will have a 12-course tasting menu priced at £120, and a 15-course menu for £165 – plus a £50, four-course lunch offering.
He’ll be using small-scale suppliers such as Cinderwood Market Garden in Nantwich and Lake District Farmers to fill his exciting menu of home-grown dishes.
The first set of menus will include dishes like roasted Sladesdown duck, peach leaf, Ibis celeriac, and wholemeal bread; Berkswell cheese sable biscuit, crushed broad beans, whipped roe, and bronze fennel; and a lightly set custard, served with Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms, truffle, and mushroom dashi.
There’ll be a lot of thought that goes in to the drinks pairings too, working with restaurant manager Sean Oakford and assistant restaurant manager Max Lawrence (both ex-L’Enclume), on a range of drinks options to include alcohol-free or mixed-alcohol pairings, or matching wines to go with the menu.
Roasted Sladesdown duckChef Tom Barnes with his tiramisuCredit: Cristian Barnett
Tom has also collaborated with Manchester brewery, Track to create Sidney, a light and refreshing beer intended as an alternative to kick off the meal.
Tom Barnes said: “It’s been a long time coming, so I’m excited to be able to finally release our reservations. I can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on and to return some of the incredible hospitality I’ve received from the people of Manchester.
“With Skof, my purpose is to create an incredible experience that focuses on great quality ingredients but above all, puts a smile on peoples faces.”
Skof will open in Manchester’s NOMA district on Wednesday 29 May.
Tom Barnes and the Skof team outside the restaurant. Credit: Cristian Barnett.
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 -
24th May 2024 
