The team behind Manchester’s most legendary burger bar, Almost Famous, will open the doors to a brand new burger concept this week.
Super Awesome Deluxe is taking over the old Lono Cove site on Thomas Street, serving up a short menu of smash burgers with a daytime soundtrack of 80s hits and a nighttime playlist of drum n bass.
If you don’t like beef burgers, look away now, but if you do, you’re going to like this one.
Super Awesome Deluxe will operate as a grab-and-go takeaway with just three core smash burgers on the menu – the Super (with deluxe sauce and pickles); the Awesome (shaved onion, deluxe sauce, ketchup, mustard and pickles); and the Deluxe (deluxe sauce, spicy ketchup, lettuce, tomato and pickles).
There’ll also be the Special, which will change every two months.
And alongside those tender smashed beef burgers, topped with melty cheese, will be golden hand-cut fries which are taken ‘very seriously’ to bring maximum nostalgia to your takeaway.
The Super Awesome Deluxe fries are made with Cheshire spuds, cooked to crispy, salty perfection.
Burgers will be made with meat sourced super locally from W.H Frost with a house blend of chuck, brisket, and aged marrow for a rich buttery flavour, ground for a steak-like texture and smashed hot into caramelised patties.
They’ll be limited daily until they’re sold out to ensure the highest quality and freshest buns.
Smash burgers at Super Awesome Deluxe Manchester. Credit: The Manc GroupThe core menu at Super Awesome Deluxe is only three burgers, plus fries and homemade cherry lemo. Credit: The Manc Group
There’ll also be house-made cherry lemonade made daily, plus a special Super Awesome Deluxe lager made in collaboration with Tiny Rebel.
Beau Myers, co-founder at Super Awesome Deluxe said: “Why is super awesome so super awesome? We’re doing more than just smashing burgers – we’re creating a whole vibe.
“We’ve created something completely fresh that hits in a new way and gives people what they need. It’s all about quality, energy, and keeping it real.
“Our menu is tight, the flavours are bold, and the beats are loud.
“We want people to walk out with a grin on their face, knowing they’ve just had the best damn burger ever. This isn’t just about food, it’s about the culture we’re building around it and the good times we’re bringing.”
Super Awesome Deluxe will open in the Northern Quarter on Wednesday 9 October, with 200 free burgers up for grabs on opening day (100 from midday, and another 100 from 5pm).
Super Awesome Deluxe is open for takeaway from 12pm-3pm and again from 5pm-10pm, Wednesday to Sunday. There’ll be late night hours until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.
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 -
2nd October 2024 
