A double-decker party bus with free cocktails is coming to Manchester this weekend as popular bar chain Be At One celebrates 25 years in business.
The bar’s 90’s style double-decker bus will be visiting Spinningfields’ Hardman Square on Sunday 28 May, popping up from 1 to 6pm with plenty of free cocktails and good vibes.
Here, guests will be invited to hop on board and join in the celebrations with complimentary drinks dished out all day, plus live DJs and more live birthday entertainment.
With over 100 cocktails to choose from, Be At One boasts one of the most extensive cocktail menus in the mainstream nightlife scene.
A longstanding fixture on the high street, it is a challenge for most to walk through the city centre without encountering at least one Be At One bar.
First established in 1998, the cocktail connoisseurs have become one of the UK’s most trusted go-to venues.
Now, this May they are taking guests back to a time when it was impossible to shuffle past a bar or club without VengaBoys – We Like To Party being blasted through the walls.
Through eccentric colours, groovy prints and notes of nostalgia up and down their personalised party bus, the group’s three-day weekender will be a true celebration of what has been an incredible 25-year run of entertaining city-goers across the country.
As well as stopping off in Manchester on Saturday, the party bus will also be popping up in Birmingham’s Bullring Shopping Centre and at London Victoria Station.
Michelle Farrell, Director of Marketing of Stonegate Group commented: “Celebrating a 25th birthday is a remarkable milestone for any business, and we couldn’t think of a better way to mark the occasion than visiting our guests right in their hometowns.
“Not only will the Be At One party bus be touring up and down the country, but all 40 of our cocktail bars will be throwing their own birthday bashes all weekend – it’s a celebration not to be missed!”
The Be At One party bus schedule will be:
May 26 – 1pm – 6pm – London Victoria Station
May 27 – 1.30pm – 6pm – Birmingham Bullring Shopping Centre
May 28 – 1pm – 6pm – Manchester Spinningfields
Featured image – Supplied
Food & Drink
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 -
23rd May 2023 
