A bottomless brunch with over 200 board games is coming to Manchester this month as street food and beer favourite Grub unveils its New Year’s Eve plans.
The venue has revealed it will be teaming up with Dungeons & Flagons to see out the last afternoon of the year with 90 minutes of endless booze and board games.
With non-stop glasses of fizz, mimosas, house pints and house wine, plus all your board game favourites from Monopoly to Scrabble, to Cluedo and Cards Against Humanity, it’s set to be a raucous and fun-filled affair.
That’s not all on the games front, either, as organisers have said there’ll be extra party games taking place too to help brunchers see 2022 out in style.
Image: Dungeons & Flagons
Image: GRUB
Food wise, brunchers can expect to dig into an array of different street food from Grub’s regularly-changing roster of brilliant vendors
Taking place on 31 December from 1pm to 5pm, it’s being billed as Manchester’s first-ever bottomless board game brunch.
However, the event is accessible to everyone and its organisers state that guests can come alone or with a group of pals.
Bottomless board game brunch tickets are priced at £22.50 each and include entry, access to the board games for 4 hours, and 90 minutes of bottomless drinks. Guests can choose to start their bottomless at either 1.30pm or 3.30pm.
Alternatively, those who are keen for board games but don’t want to go bottomless can also get involved by purchasing a standard ticket for £2.50, which includes entry and access to the board games for four hours.
Image: Dungeons & Flagons
Image: Dungeons & Flagons
Dungeons & Flagons are an independent tabletop gaming events company who are passionate about introducing board gaming to as many people as possible at their fun, friendly and interactive events.
Hosts will be on hand to help with games, so whatever your level of experience is you don’t need to let a lack of understanding of the rules get in the way of a good time.
Speaking on the upcoming event, Jules Bailey, Director and Owner of GRUB, said: “We’ve loved working with Dungeons & Flagons to bring Manchester’s most friendly board game meet-up to GRUB this year.We’re so excited to give everyone a fun way to see out the last afternoon of 2022.”
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.
Georgina Pellant -
19th December 2022 
