We know the new year has just landed, but already we’ve plenty of new restaurant and bar openings to look forward to in Manchester.
Following on from the opening of a new Jane Eyre restaurant and bar in Chorlton in December, this January we see a few more additions in the suburb – including a cosy new neighbourhood cocktail bar from the Tariff & Dale team and the arrival of delicious vegan dumplings at 99 Reasons.
Elsewhere there are several new taprooms to look forward to, a new bar and kitchen in the Northern Quarter, stuffed bao at Circle Square, plus the promise of more new openings around the corner in the form of Higher Ground, Treehouse Hotel and more in early 2023.
Keep reading to see where to put on your list this month.
97, Chorlton
Image: 97
Image: 97
A cosy new neighbourhood cocktail bar from the team behind The Lead Station and Tariff & Dale, 97 is expected to open on Chorlton’s Beech Road at the end of January.
With room for just 35 covers, drinks will combine innovation and progressive mixology with legendary classics, offering signature serves alongside timeless classics with a twist.
TBC
Desert Island Dumplings, Chorlton
Having just completed a residency at Ancoats General Store, vegan eatery Desert Island Dumplings has revealed plans to take over the kitchen at 99 Reasons Chorlton this January.
With a tempting salt and pepper margarita dumpling sharer on the cards, for those thinking they might do dry January this is enough to make you cancel your vow (or so we hear).
Open now
Disorder, Northern Quarter
Image: Disorder
The burger is made with beef and black pudding, the team call it ‘the Manc-hi topped with Japanese mustard mayo and apple Sause’ / Image: Disorder
Opened by Stockport friends Sam and James inside the old Walrus venue (more recently Man With The Fish), Disorder is tipped to open at 78 – 88 High Street at the end of January.
Its ground floor will host an eatery with Asian-inspired street food alongside lagers and sour beers from around the world, whilst below ground the bar will offer more of a speakeasy, dive bar feel with live music from bands, DJs and rap artists.
On the menu, Japanese sandos will be given a twist with the addition of black pudding whilst cocktails include an Asian-inspired Japanese slipper.
When popular taproom Beer Nouveau announced its closure in 2022 drinkers were sad to see it go indeed, so we expect many will be delighted to hear the space is being brought back to life under new ownership.
Now set to be known as Temperance Street Brewery & Tap, owner Katie Sutton – who also works full time in the NHS but fell in love with beer thanks to encouragement from her CAMRA stalwart father Dave Hannan – will initially open the bar on Fridays and Saturdays with support from Matt Gibson of Temperance Street Cider.
Open now
North Taproom
Image: North Taproom
Image: Little Bao Boy
With eighteen different keg lines, one cask, plus cocktails on tap and stuffed bao from Leeds favourite Little Bao Boy, we’re very excited for the arrival of North Taproom in Manchester.
Opening at Circle Square this month, North Taproom will see popular beers from its core line poured alongside an ever-changing line-up of beers, wines, cocktails, ciders, and spirits.
North Taproom will feature 24 draught lines, including eighteen lines of keg beer and one cask, all pouring North’s ever-evolving range of classic beers, specials and collabs with seating for 100 inside and 30 outside.
TBC
Feature image – North Taproom
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.
Georgina Pellant -
2nd January 2023 
