A new gourmet pizza and cocktail bar to open at Manchester Arndale’s Halle Place in just a couple of weeks time.
PizzaLuxe has decided to create “a new home in the North” after being an anchor tenant at the award-winning Leeds Trinity Kitchen since 2013, and has confirmed that it will be opening its flagship restaurant in the new £11 million food quarter of Manchester’s central shopping mall.
The ever-popular pizza operator aims to lead the way in day-to-night dining by serving up gourmet thin-crust pizza, aperitivo, and fresh salads alongside its made-to-order cocktail menu.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQvZQsOoJ49/
Foodies familiar with PizzaLuxe will know that the brand doesn’t stick to the rules of conventional Neopolitan pizza and instead creates unique Roman-style recipes using a combination of both British and European premium produce that has been carefully sourced to “ensure consistent quality”.
Some of the pizzas to take your pick from on the menu in Manchester include the Palermo – with mushroom, oven-baked ham hock, parmesan and sage – the Lardo, with bacon, brie and baby spinach, Chorizo, with goats cheese, roasted grapes and honey, and the Pollo – with pesto chicken, black olives, artichoke heart and mushroom.
Vegetarian options include the Verdura, which comes with cherry tomato, asparagus, artichoke heart, red onion and black olive, and the Quattro Formaggi with mozzarella, gorgonzola, feta, halloumi and thyme.
Prices for pizzas will start at just £5.50 – with vegan and gluten free options available.
Credit: PizzaLuxe
If all of those options didn’t sound mouthwatering enough as it is, PizzaLuxe will also be serving Manchester’s first breakfast pizza – which includes toppings of sausage, bacon, egg, and PizzaLuxe’s own breakfast sauce.
The full breakfast menu will be available every weekend, and also includes baked-to-order breakfast rolls and bowls.
PizzaLuxe is aiming to be the first venue in the UK to combine a quick service restaurant element with a full-service bar serving a wide selection of beers on draught, a curated wine list and countless spirits, alongside a new menu of freshly-made cocktails.
Food and drinks at PizzaLuxe Manchester can be ordered through an innovative new procedure which lets you scan a QR code at your table, and then be automatically-notified via SMS once your order pizza is ready to collect from the counter.
On top of that, the new restaurant will also launch its coffee kiosk later this month.
‘Coffee + Cake’ will be open daily for passers-by, with a fixed price of £3 for barista coffee and homemade sweet treats.
Credit: PizzaLuxe
“Our aim has always been simple and still remains at the heart of what we do – affordable luxury, exclusively for all,” said Paul Goodale, founder of PizzaLuxe.
“We offer a contemporary, creative execution of simple, classic pizzas and cocktails in a stylish environment, served with a warmth and generosity of spirit.”
The new Manchester flagship site has been designed by Paul alongside Hudson Rock Design as a bright and airy space that features both counter seating to provide the perfect pit stop for a quick meal on the go, and an in-house bar area which will create the ideal backdrop to punters looking for a casual evening drink.
PizzaLuxe opens in Manchester Arndale’s Halle Centre on Monday 19 July, and you can find more information ahead of launch day here.
Featured Image – PizzaLuxe
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.
Emily Sergeant -
2nd July 2021 
