A new ethical whole-foods store specialising in loose, weigh-your-own items has opened up in Didsbury.
Weigh 2 Bee, situated on Wilmslow Road, sells a wide variety of products including many organic, vegan and gluten-free items.
The shop’s ethos is for customers to only buy what they need – inviting people to bring their own containers or use the fully biodegradable and compostable bags provided.
As well as stocking health foods, beans, pulses, pasta and rice, Weigh 2 Bee also sells a large selection of pick and mix, and American sweets for those with a sweet tooth.
The store is also happy to take requests if there is anything specific customers would like to see in stock.
Take your pick at Weigh 2 Bee / Image: FacebookWeigh 2 Bee lets customers ‘weigh as they go’ / Image: FacebookThe ethos of the store is sustainability / Image: Facebook
The shop’s owner, Dean Evans, 38 has wanted to open a ‘weigh as you go’ shop for many years due to his dislike of having to buy things in such large amounts at supermarkets, which he feels is wasteful and un-environmentally friendly.
“I’ve been waiting for the right place to open up and I think our spot in Didsbury fits in perfectly with the community and the array of individual stores,” said Dean.
Dean’s inspiration is his mum Lynne, who for several years has run a similar shop called The Weigh Out in Barmouth, Wales.
The Weigh Out has been hugely successful and was even voted one of the top 100 shops in the world by Retail Week Magazine along with the likes of New York’s Bloomingdales, and the famous ‘La Boqueria’ Market in Barcelona.
Dean is keen to follow in his mother’s footsteps.
“I was inspired by how well loved my mum’s shop was and wanted to expand the family business to Manchester, and bring this brilliant offering to the people of Didsbury, and surrounding areas.”
For a taster of some of Weigh 2 Bee’s products, check out their Instagram.
Featured image: Weigh 2 Bee
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.
Olivia Stringer -
7th May 2021 
