Picky Bits: Manchester food and booze news #2
Cheeseburger pizza, beer books, halloween wine and more
I changed my mind. After a growth spurt for my blog, I got all cocky and proclaimed I would do this, that and the other. Then life got in the way. I launched a wine business (I know, wtf?) And that has had its own hurdles. I also agreed to do some other scary things. Worrying about all that pulled the rug out from under my wistful blogging plans.
Doing too much and then having a meltdown is one of my toxic traits. I’m working on it but it’s not going very well. I struggle to say no. Especially to fun stuff. And scary stuff. And then other stuff gets neglected. I’m so glad you can’t see the state of my flat right now.
So this round-up of miscellaneous Manchester food and drink happenings or ‘picky bits’ is now monthly. And my list of other things to write about (it’s long, as I’m sure you can imagine) will be chipped away at this week.
Here are the Manchester food and drink things that have skateboarded onto my radar lately:
Cheeseburger pizza?
One of my current fave Manchester chefs is Shaun Moffat from The Edinburgh Castle in Ancoats. Not only because he is an inventive and delightful cook but because he’s properly one of the good guys. See our chat for Manchester’s Finest.
Manchester has so much pizza. Some say too much pizza. But if we had to only keep a handful from our current pizza pile-on, Honest Crust would be on the safe list.
Honest Crust has always collaborated. From teaming up with Eat Well MCR to help provide meals form those in a position to need them, to cooking up limited edition pizzas with other favourites like Mughli and Erst. This time, the collab is with Shaun and he’s concocted a pizza that nods to the humble cheeseburger via some very 2023 ingredients: Aged Swaledale beef, tarragon beef fat mayo, Montgomery cheddar, Isle of Wight tomato ketchup, white onion, house pickles and a 48-hour sourdough flatbread-style base made from Wildfarmed flour. I’m camped out outside Mackie Mayor as I write this so as to be first in the queue. It’s only on from Tuesday to Sunday this week (23- 29 October).
Manchester Food and Drink Awards nominees announced
The MFDF awards have been a way of championing our local food and drink stars for over 25 years and some changes have happened for 2023, its 26th year. There will be no festival this year and the awards ceremony - normally held in autumn - is now going to happen next January.
As always, nominations being announced come with loads of grumbling at those who have been missed out but imagine how hard it is on a judging panel choosing shortlists of eight from group brainstorms that sometimes run into the 30s and 40s. It’s tough. Still, the list this year has some absolute stars on it. To be nominated is an honour in itself. Now it’s your turn to make the hard decision of who from the shortlists should be crowned winner. You can vote for your MFDF winners here.
House of Fu is open
This week, I got invited to the launch of Leeds success story House of Fu as it opened its new Manchester branch on Portland Street in the old Leaf Cafe (or Cube gallery if you go further back). I’ve been to the Leeds one a few times and loved it so I’m very happy it’s here. I decided to try a ‘super bowl’ for a change because I was feeling a bit greasy and gross from all my constant troughing. It was as good as the ramen but left me feeling virtuous before I derailed it all by spending the afternoon wine-tasting. I also clocked at least six vegan mains and a load of plant-based sides (including the stupendous cucumber salad and my fave tempura cauliflower with hot sauce and Kewpie mayo). So that will keep half my friend group very happy.
Hallo-wine
Indulge me for a moment as I remind you that this coming Thursday (26 October) I’m hosting a very silly Halloween wine tasting to show you that wine and food matching doesn’t have to be scary. I have hand-selected six bottles with spooky themes (ensuring the wine itself is decent too of course) and matched them with daft snacks of the kind you see in my TikTok videos. I’d love you to come and join us for a night of matching things like devilled eggs, pickled onion Monster Munch and sour Haribo sweeties with wine. No costume necessary. This event takes place at one of my favourite wine bars The Beeswing at Kampus. Buy tickets here.
Isca supper club at Runaway Brewery
Speaking of wine, Levenshulme low intervention wine shop Isca is doing a pop-up in Stockport at Runaway Brewery on 23 November. It’s part of a series of supper clubs organised in association with the aforementioned Honest Crust pizza (I told you they were the collab kings). At this event you can expect a gorgeous, seasonal four-course meal from (the Is in Isca) Isabel Jenkins with optional wine and beer flights.
A book about Manchester’s beer scene
After House of Fu and my wine-tasting afternoon, I headed to Cafe Beermoth to join Matthew Curtis, Editor of Pellicle Mag in celebrating the launch of his new book in association with CAMRA. The book is called Manchester's Best Beer, Pubs & Bars and it’s a fantastic, knowledgable companion to the whole of Greater Manchester’s beery panorama. Not just a real ale fest - it includes places like Higher Ground who do a very strong line in modern sharing bottles - it really goes deep to cover every preference and area. I bet it was a lot of fun to research.
Rosso has closed and Sexy Fish has opened
If you heard the sound of clattering stilettos legging it over from King Street to Spinningfields in the past few weeks, that was because posing paradise Rosso suddenly closed its doors (with very little notice to staff, I heard), only for Sexy Fish to finally open. Neither are high on my list of places to eat but SF is at least a spectacle so I might go and gawp at its ostentatiousness at some point. Rosso will now become Cibo and I’ll still be more likely to go to Cibus in Levenshulme or Pasta Factory in Shude Hill for my Italian fix.
Mana goes for the chop
Manchester’s only Michelin-star restaurant, Mana, has dropped its prices. Along with welcoming its new head chef Serbian-born Ivan Vukadinovic formerly of Frenchie Covent Garden, Mana has pledged to become zero waste within the next two years. The team is also working on turning a small outdoor area into a kitchen garden to grow herbs and vegetables using compost made from kitchen waste. And it’s announced it will reduce the full price menu (formerly £195) to £175 to make it ‘more accessible’. Looks like some self-reflection is leading to positive changes. I have to applaud that.
Wong Wong Bakery turns 20
In my last newsletter, I talked about the best things I ate in September. One of these things was a rainbow cake from Wong Wong Bakery in Chinatown where I have been going for treats for most of the time it has been open. The fact that it turns 20 this year makes me feel a little bit old but that’s okay, ageing is cool. It’s better than the alternative. Congrats to the brilliant Wong Wong for keeping the population of Manchester in fluffy celebration cakes and porky buns for all this time. There are in-store events on the cards from 29 October - 29 November to celebrate.
Hyssop is back
One of my favourite restaurant review visits when I worked as a restaurant critic for Manchester Confidential was Hyssop in Glossop. That job gave me the opportunity to visit so many places I might not otherwise have got to and I really miss that element of it, if not others. Anyway, Hyssop was fantastic and the couple who own it have really been through the mill this past couple of years. So I was really pleased to see them announce the new phase of their business on socials this week. Although they won’t be returning to their former home on the high street. They’ve been running a cafe biz called The Two Hares for a while and now they will merge the concepts to create Hyssop and The Hare - a relaxed cafe by dy and their wonderful fine dining a la carte restaurant by night. Makes me want to hop on a train right now.
Duvel x Maray dinner with matched beers
I have been a huge fan of Middle Eastern-inspired small plates restaurant Maray ever since I reviewed the Albert Dock Liverpool branch for Confidentials a few years ago. When it opened in Manchester, I was thrilled and it’s somewhere I go back to again and again. This event in collaboration with Belgian beer brand Duvel looks really good. It’s a five-course menu that includes dishes like stuffed sabich pitta slider with aubergine, egg, tahini, sumac onions and fried potato, Argentinian red prawn bhaji with bloody mary sauce, and lamb koftas with labneh and rhubarb (with veggie alternatives too) - all paired with different Duvel beers. The beer is also used in some of the recipes.The dinners are £50pp, take place on 15 and 16 November and bookings open on the 1st.
The Xmas mania has begun
Manchester loves Xmas and tbh, I am as partial to a sprout bhaji and a glass of mulled cider as anyone. Nell’s Pizza has already started talking festive slices and this week, a press release about Diecast’s suitably OTT Xmas plans dropped into my inbox. To me, Winterhood looks like a hipster version of the Manchester Xmas markets, all bratwursts, steins, mulled wine and fairy lights but with added ‘bangin tunes’, writhing dancers, rum caravans and neon daiquiris.