Latest: Greater Manchester food and drink news (2nd - 9th March)

Upcoming treats include award-winning markets with free ice cream, healthy (and less healthy) brunches, CBD lattes to offer a bit of ooh to your brew, plus plant based burgers and a week of Japanese collaborations across town. We’ve got clean eating, a bit of Mother’s Day inspiration and movie themed pizzas. Oh Manchester, this is why we love you.

Levenshulme Market is back 

After its usual winter hiatus, the first Market of the year will be held on Saturday 7th March, from 10am to 4pm on the Levenshulme train station car park. Recently crowned the UK’s ‘Best Small Outdoor Market’ at the Great British Market Awards, the first Saturday market of 2020 is a testament to the strength of the social enterprise, with over 45 stallholders, including a wealth of street food, artwork, crafts, vintage fashion, homewares and more. 

Firm local favourites including Winter Tarn Cheese, Reddy Lane Market Garden, Ginger’s Comfort Emporium, Coffee Cranks Cooperative will be there, and the Levy Market team is also thrilled to welcome brand new traders including street food stall Meksikan, Slurp, Crackle & Pop, Urban Presever and VinoBuono, who will offer their range of incredible wines on tap. Customers can come and pick up a bottle, or save themselves some money by bringing along their empty bottles and getting them filled up.

To celebrate their tenth birthday Ginger’s Comfort Emporium have created over 750 special scratch cards and will bring a limited number with them to Levy Market. Every card wins a free scoop, a free double scoop, or who knows what else.

The full line-up for the market can be found on www.levymarket.com and the Market’s Facebook page. 

Mindful drinking this month

This March, Bill’s Restaurant and Bar will become one of the first restaurant brands to launch a Mindful Drinking section to their new menu, featuring CBD drinks, kombuchas and non-alcoholic cocktails. Dan Whiteside, the group's Bar Development Manager wanted to develop a range of delicious drinks that could have potential health benefits for guests as well as identifying the opportunity to create more inventive non-alcoholic options.

Bill’s are working with Naturally Pure Lab who have created the UK’s first dissolvable CBD capsules, which mix perfectly with milk when making two new lattes; CBD Golden Latte - turmeric, agave, ginger root, cinnamon, black pepper & coconut milk, infused with whole plant CBD oil – and a CBD Latte - espresso, oat milk & agave, infused with CBD oil. 

CBD canned drinks company TRIP feature in a new non-alcoholic cocktail, Deep Peach Pink grapefruit, lemon verbena & earl grey cordial, topped with peach & ginger TRIP. Drinks from Real Kombucha also feature in the section, a delicious range of naturally flavoured kombuchas which have proven benefits for your gut and mental health.

Dan Whiteside says, “The CBD market is a growing market that Bill’s are proud to be involved with. More people want drinks that can have health benefits and the big talking points at the moment are mental health, wellbeing, and health in general.” To find out more visit Bill's website.

Bad habits, Good intentions

This Saturday marks the launch of Foodwell’s brand new Bad Habit brunch, creating a new vibe for weekends. Expect brunch to the sound of South Beach beats and Balearic tones every Saturday and Sunday for a unique bottomless experience. You could indulge your Bad Habit with bottomless Prosecco, G&Ts and beer, or those with Good Intentions might prefer their ‘reset bottomless menu,’ with unlimited cold pressed juices and tonics to fix up your hangover or to fuel your weekend workout. There are limited tables left for this weekend. View the menu here.

Honest and special

Following an Instagram-led petition on Change.org, Honest Burgers has announced that it will relaunch its Bacon Plant vegan burger on Tuesday 10 March, becoming an ‘off-menu’ item for insiders in the know. It was launched as a vegan monthly special back in January, combining a plant-based burger with This Isn't Bacon; featuring vegan smoked gouda, shoestring fries, plant-based bacon ketchup, chipotle 'mayo' spinach and pickles. The relaunch follows huge demand from customers to bring back the Bacon Plant, initiated by Honest fan and food influencer Licky Plate that garnered 647 signatures in just 48 hours - smashing the initial target of 100. The burger will be available in-restaurant only at all Honest restaurants for the foreseeable future.   

Honest Burgers co-founder Tom Barton said: "I thought the Bacon Plant petition was going to be a bit of fun. We didn’t know what to expect. Two days later and 600+ signatures... it’s time to give the people what they want!”

If meat is more your thing, you might want to nip in quickly for their March special Thai Fried Chicken burger; fried free range buttermilk fried chicken thigh tossed in a homemade honey sriracha sauce (a 24-hour infusion that mixes tangy, spicy and sweet flavours with classic Thai aromatics: kaffir lime leaves, coriander, lemongrass, and ginger.) It is served with Thai slaw, crispy shallots, American cheese, ranch mayo and lettuce and is only available until 30th March.

Karakuchi Nights 

Asahi Super Dry, Japan’s No.1 beer, is set to bring a taste of Japan to Manchester next week through a series of Karakuchi Nights in collaboration with a handful of Manchester restaurants. The series aims to engage consumers and local traders through a range of bespoke ‘activations’ inspired by the iconic beer’s inspirational birthplace of Japan - ‘Karakuchi’ is the word Asahi Super Dry uses to describe its unique taste profile which captures the complexity of its flavour; dry and crisp with a quick, clean finish. 

The first stop of the UK wide ‘Karakuchi Nights’ campaign is Manchester, where Asahi Super Dry has curated a full schedule of collaborative events to enjoy Japan’s beer, bar, food and music scenes with sampling activations at each venue throughout the week:

• Yo! Sushi (Tuesday 10th March) 5pm - 7pm
• The Anthologist (Wednesday 11th March) 5pm - 12am
• Cottonopolis (Thursday 12th March) 5pm - 12am
• Lost in Tokyo (Friday 13th March) 5pm - 12am
• Banyan Bar & Kitchen (Saturday 14th March) 6pm - 12am
• Also, enjoy a complimentary pint of Asahi Super Dry with a lunch deal at Crazy Pedro's from 12pm - 3pm everyday Tuesday 10th - Monday 16th March.

Visit Asahi Super Dry Facebook for city-specific events pages, or Asahi Super Dry Instagram for details in their story highlights.

Crazy Pie-dro

To mark this week’s National Pie Week and to celebrate Brits devout dedication to pies, Pedro’s have introduced the new March special Pie Hard 2 – Pie Harder. Like the movie-of-a-similar-name’s main character John McClane, Pedro is dedicated to his mission and duty of feeding the people with outlandish pizzas. 

Pie Hard 2 – Pie Harder is the real deal pizza pie made with tasty chicken and mushroom pie, red onion, spinach, topped off with Parmesan and balsamic. 

No bookings, no table service, just head straight to the bar and order away - no drama, all chills. Hasta La Pizza baby! Oh sorry, different movie.

For more information visit www.crazypedros.co.uk 

Trio of Mother’s Day treats

This Mother’s Day at Australasia, Molton Brown will be offering a complimentary goodie bag to all 'mums' and also a luxury hand massage for those dining in the restaurant between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm. Tables can be booked via this link.

Located above Australasia is ‘Sunset by Australasia,’ Manchester’s favourite 'beach bar' which has a beautiful heated terrace with a retractable roof. Its elegant afternoon tea (£30 pp) includes a welcome Mimosa and also a Mother’s Day make-up masterclass and goodie bag from the talented team at Pat McGrath Selfridges. Tickets can be booked via the website 

Grand Pacific will also be offering a Molton Brown goodie bag to each mum enjoying high tea in their impressive restaurant and bar, located in the renowned Grade II listed Manchester Reform Club.