Drink Archives - Neil Sowerby

A decade of daiquiris downed! Happy big birthday, Manchester Rum Festival

CHEERS to a great anniversary coming up on Saturday, July 4, celebrating one of the great gifts from the Americas. And I don’t mean “Freedom 250’ in Washington DC, a tribute to the overblown Trump masquerading as a significant US Independence Day. Altogether merrier, this side of the Pond, is a boozy jamboree marking a decade of Manchester Rum Festival. And its founder Dave Marsland, has pulled out all the stops for this daylong tasting in the iconic New Century Hall.

Speech, speech, ‘President Dave! “Rum isn’t just a drink, the spirit has helped shape empires, fuelled pirate legends and rewritten global trade forever. It’s a liquid time capsule steeped in centuries of adventure, rebellion and power. Born in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean, rum became the heartbeat of sailors, merchants and even navies, earning a legendary status that still echoes through global history today.

“We are so proud that our wonderful city can be part of the story with the annual festival – it has truly become a world class event attracting brands from every corner of the planet. This year should be epic, the best yet, with over 40 brands, 100 rums, showcasing just how versatile this incredible spirit really is.”

I am glad to have been on that rum journey most years. Lost count of daiquiris downed. Good to see the festival continues to surprise. The 2026 edition welcomes an exciting wave of first-time exhibitors, with new arrivals representing destinations including Japan, Belize and Mauritius.

Returning favourites will once again feature prominently throughout the festival, with much-loved names including Chairman’s Reserve of Saint Lucia, Pusser’s Rum, Gosling’s of Bermuda, Clément from Martinique and Jamaica’s Hampden Estate all set to appear.

Stand-outs include festival newcomers Windrush 1027 Classic Rum and the Rolling Stones’ own riff on the spirit, Crossfire Hurricane Rum.

The first is “a refined tribute to the journey that shaped a new era of British culture. Blends distilled in Jamaica and Dominica from the finest sugarcane molasses and aged in oak barrels, this golden spirit can be sipped neat, over ice, or be mixed into classic cocktails. A rum that remembers, and reimagines.”

The Empire Windrush and its 1,027 passengers sailed from Trinidad, Jamaica, Tampico and Bermuda to Britain in 1948. 20 years later the Stones unleashed Jumpin’ Jack Flash, its first line reading “I was born in a cross-fire hurricane.” Over half a century later they have a new album out, but will it pack the punch of this 80 proof blend of rums from Jamaica, Barbados and the Dominican Republic?

The spirit was created in collaboration with Ian Burrell (above). I recall one interviewing the legendary rum ambassador to name his faves. His diplomatic reply: “My three favourite rums are the one in my glass, the next one, and a free one. There are so many great rums out there it would be impossible to narrow it down to a few brands. Plus some rums work better in a particular situation than others.’

Best rum cocktail, Ian? “Has to be the Daiquiri. Rum, lime and sugar. Simple. The rum trinity. But I regularly drink Burrell Daiquiris – 2 parts lightly aged rum, 1 part fresh lime juice, 0.5 parts Blue Agave nectar, 3 dashes of Angostura Orange Bitters and a twist of orange peel.’

Of course the cocktail offering is one of the great delights of every Manchester Rum Festival. Once again MONIN will take over the cocktail bar, presenting four rum-focused serves created in collaboration with venues from across Manchester, offering visitors a fresh way to experience the spirit. Fellow fesival partners Carib Lager will be on hand to provide chilled palate cleansers. Ballast? Sanka’s Caribbean Kitchen are making their debut. Music? DJ Dom returns with a danceable soundtrack of Soca and Reggae.

Rum Ramble seminars are back

The Rum Ramble seminar series will return with four sessions, taking place inside the New Century Hall Lecture Theatre and offering visitors a deeper dive into the stories, craft and culture behind some of the world’s most exciting rum producers. Designed for enthusiasts and curious newcomers alike, the sessions will explore everything from naval heritage and global rum traditions to flavour innovation and cocktail culture, led by respected voices from across the industry.

This year’s line-up includes Let’s Go Banana’s: Explore the South Pacific with Cargo Cult Rum, hosted by Sydney Rum Distillery CEO Steve Magarry, alongside From the Docks to the Bottle: Mr Fogg’s True Navy Rum Explained with Planteray Rum ambassador Paul McFadyen.

Guests can also discover unexpected rum-making regions during Rum Without Borders: A Global Discovery of Unexpected Origins, hosted by Marcos “Rum Interest” Pilavakis and Robert “Robban” Sandqvist, before closing the day with Cocktails: They’re a Rum Old Thing, a session led by MONIN beverage expert Nate Booker exploring rum’s versatility in modern cocktails.

Manchester Rum Week 2026

Also, returning for the second year to support the city’s amazing bars, Manchester Rum Weekwill take place in the run up to the festival from Monday, June 29 to Sunday, July 5 2026, showcasing the very best rum cocktails across Greater Manchester. Some of the city’s top bars will be offering exclusive cocktails, special offers and bespoke menus, all created by Manchester’s talented bartending community. Venues already confirmed include Exhibition, Turtle Bay, Blinker, Posie, 10 Tib Lane and MDNT – with more still to be announced.

And there’s an extra party, too…

Ticket holders for Manchester Rum festival 2026 will also get access to the official Manchester Rum Festival birthday party this year, hosted at The Morris, which promises to be bags of fun for those that love rum.

Grab your ticket now

Tickets are on sale via DesignMyNight, with General Admission priced at £25 and Rum Ramble seminar sessions available for £10 per person (both excluding booking fees). A full list of exhibitors is available here.

14 June 2026/by Neil Sowerby

Beer, Food, Restaurants

It’s a Dhokla shock as Bundobust casts off its menu shackles

Rick Stein, little old name dropper you. I first encountered Dhokla in his 2013 cookbook spin-off India. He wrote: “I got this recipe from Chirayu Amin, the former chairman of the IPL (Indian Premier League Cricket). This grandee had invited our Rick to the launch of his kitchen annexe. Among the dishes served was this savoury cake bread speciality of Gujarat; millionaire foodie Amin topped it with prawns, sacrilege in what is arguably the Sub-Continent’s most vegan state.

Featuring it in her BBC series Flavours Of India (available on IPlayer) Madhur Jaffery declared: “If there is an haute cuisine for vegetarians – ancient traditional foods with outstanding flavours and textures, all based on sound nutritional principles – it can be found here.” And Dhokla is a perfect example.

Gujarat is where the Patel family hail from. Its plant-based cuisine is the wellspring of their Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant Prashad in the West Yorkshire hamlet of Drighlington. This in turn has spawned one of the most inspired hospitality collabs of recent times – Bundobust. Prashad founder Kaushy Patel’s son Mayur joined forces with Bradford bar owner Marko Husak to perfect their Indian veggie street food meets craft beer formula. It started in 2013 in Leeds and followed it up with two Manchester outlets and Liverpool.

Now the boys have shaken it up, unleashing a menu for 2026 packed with surprises. 16 new dishes to pick from. Some are reinvented returning classics, others feel newly minted. They call it: “The most Bundo version of of Bundo and everything we wanted it to be when we first dreamt it up back in 2013. 2013!! Mad. More shareable, more new flavours, textures, more Too Much Spicy, just more Bundo.”

They have been launching it in stages. In Leeds on April 13, Liverpool the 20th with Manchester following on the 27th. If you thought their food offering had gone a little predictable think again. I certainly have done after a preview at their original Mill Hill site five minutes from Leeds Railway Station. Fond memories for me here. I was the first critic to review it. Maybe Dhokla was on that original plastic menu card. I can’t remember. It has always been a Prashad signature dish and you’ll find a recipe in their cookbook.

Well it is here now as Dhokra Chaat and is springily gorgeous. This Gujarati steamed savoury cake is made with a gram flour batter, also known as Khaman, which is fermented overnight before steaming. Bundo infuse the mix with ginger and turmeric and serve it with fresh onion tossed in a mustard tarka with a garlic, coconut and coriander chutney.

The revamped menu is the product of patient research around the UK’s Desi hotspots and forays to India. Testimony to this is Litti choka. It is popular in eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar and certain Nepalese provinces. Why have been hiding this secret so long? Basically, these are fire-roasted dough balls, made from black gram flour and filled with masala spiced crushed peas and raisins. As is tradition, they are served on a warm smoked aubergine and tomato spread.

I love the back story of another menu newbie. Galouti Kebab was created as a soft, shallow-fried meat and papaya patty to cater for Lucknow’s toothless Nawab, Asad-ud-Daula. Bundo substitutes masala mushroom and rajma and serves on a puri with pickled red onion and spinach and mint chutney.

Conservative Bundophiles, don’t fret. This is not a total overhaul. I can’t resist ordering old favourites that have been there from day one – the best Okra Fries around – dusted with kala namak and amchoor – and pomegranate-speckled Bhel Puri, puffed rice and samosa shards made tangy with tamarind.

The Pav Bhaji has featured in various guises over the years, but the latest might be the pick. Here it comes toasted and slathered in masala butter, to scoop up a spiced buttery mixed veg masala topped with fresh cucumber and onions.

It’s still all small plates, but with a certain heft to them. Take the latest variation on Paneer Tikka – two chunky skewers of barbecued halloumi-like Indian cheese, mushroom and pepper marinated in tikka yoghurt. With lashings of red pepper ketchup and spinach chutney to seal the deal.

Wash the new menu down with a glass or two of Bundobust Brewery beers tailored to the spice – a Mango Lassi Dazzler pale ale or a Chacha Chai stout.

* Most dishes are priced between £6 and £8.50. A Combo for Two at £38.50 will save you £5.50, while a comprehensive Bundo Combo, feeding four to six hungry folk, costs £134, a saving of £20.50.

21 April 2026/by Neil Sowerby

Books, Wine

Why I’m still yapping – homage to a great French wine pioneer

I’m on a Rhône roll. It all started a year ago when I was on a Vallée de la Gastronomie press trip exploring the food and drink specialities of the 500km corridor of France between Dijon and Marseille, much of it following that mightiest of rivers.

De rigueur was a stop-off in the Northern Rhône wine region – home to fabled Syrah-based reds such as Côte-Rôtie, St Joseph, Cornas and, of course, Hermitage, its perfect terroir of vertiginous vineyards towering over Tain L’Hermitage on the left bank.

Our base was arch rival Tournon-sur-Rhône, across on the right bank and so officially in the Ardèche. Just 4km south we stopped for a bistro lunch – and epiphany. Nothing has changed in the hamlet of Mauves since the great American wine importer Kermit Lynch visited in the 1980s. In his Adventures On The Wine Route he described it as a “thin strip of a town that supports itself growing fruit and making wine. Nowhere in Mauves is there evidence of the French flair for storefronts, or any outward flair at all for that matter.”

So there I am sitting in the Du Jardin à L’Assiette after my onglet de boeuf et sa réduction vin rouge/‘échalotes with a fruit-driven St Joseph from down the road when ‘Mauves’ strikes a chord. A quick Google of Gérard Chave and I briefly “faire mes excuses’. One minute down Main Street (really the only street) lies the HQ of one of the world’s great winemakers, recipient of the Légion d’honneur, whose family have been ‘treading the grapes’ since 1481.

The pebble dash is much newer, but the faded sign looks almost medieval. Even before Lynch, the UK’s own Robin Yapp had made the pilgrimage in search of securing an allocation of the red (and the domaine’s equally sublime white).

In his Drilling for Wine, published in 1988, the same year as Adventures, the Wiltshire dentist turned wine merchant wrote: “The busy route nationale 86 passes through… in the dash and bustle of the traffic it’s easy to miss the small tin panneau set at right angles to the wall above the door, its faded legend J-L Chave, Vigneron being all that indicates the Chave establishment.”

Jean-Louis was the name of Gérard’s father and also of his son, who runs the show these days with Dad benignly over-seeing. A classy rusticity belies a cellar containing sophisticated bottles that cost over £300 each, when available, from Yapp Brothers. The whole appellation only runs to 140 hectares, not much more than a major Bordeaux estate, of which Chave has the major holding (the negociant Jaboulet has the largest ‘Kindness-style’ banner on the hill).

Back in the early Eighties I was buying from Yapp great vintages of Chave Hermitage for a few quid, plus other near exclusives, equally tannic and long-lived… Auguste Clape’s Cornas and Robert Jasmin’s Côte-Rôtie. Each a different variation on the Syrah grape.

What a cellar. I can still recall the intermittent opening of a bottle, unleashing scents of raspberry, blackberry, black cherry, spice, olives and smoke. Time had to be taken with each glass as its wonders unfolded.

All long drunk, alas. The firm Robin formed is still going strong, though he is now retired and his son Jason has also stepped back, leaving stepson, Tom Ashworth at the helm in their new expanded premises near Frome, Somerset, having moved from Mere in Dorset. Have they left behind at “The Old Dairy’ the replica of the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape statue Robin recreated at great expense?

His prose is equally extravagant. Drilling for Wine (stocked by Abe Books) is a rollicking, picaresque tale of an ingenue with limited French at large in the Rhône and Loire. That he earned the trust and allocations of so many seasoned winemakers is testimony to more than his charm, but don’t let that spoil some good stories. Lynch’s book is in a different league – arguably the best wine travelogue ever written. His wine importing hub in Berkeley, California has arguably been as influential as fellow Francophile Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant there.

And now a liquid Chave epiphany

I caught up recently with Yapp’s current range at their Annual Tasting on London’s Pall Mall. A limited range of the wines also featured at a Terrace Tasting at Ad Hoc in Manchester. This was organised by northern rep, Miles Burke, who is responsible for their increasing presence on the city’s restaurant lists, notably at Stow, MFDF Awards Newcomer of the Year 2026.

The true classics, though, turned up at Pall Mall. Among the reds, the aforementioned Cornas from Auguste Clape, darkly, brooding as ever, and Domaine de Trevallon from further south in Provence, still an outlaw outside AOC rules because it blends Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah. I must have collected the first 10 vintages of the latter, but it’s now outside my price range. The 2016 now costs £125 retail from Yapp, the 2012 £215 on the Stow list. The 2017 Clape is £150 from Yapp and £290 from Stow (a kind mark-up).

Good to reacquaint myself with such old faves, but it was a duo of legendary Rhône whites that captured the attention of myself and many another taster on the day.

Château-Grillet 2022 was the headline act. All the characteristics of the Viognier grape were there – honeysuckle aromas and textures of stone fruit on the palate – but it felt a touch closed in, a reminder that 10 years of bottle age would transform it. This monopole vineyard with its own AOC and a handful of growers under the Condrieu AOC flew the unfashionable Viognier flag for decades. Hard to believe when this grape is now cultivated across the globe. Alas, too often creating blowsy wines, all vanilla and talcum. Nowhere but this narrow corner of the Rhône is is it so sublime.

Alongside it on the table the powerful White Hermitage that is not overshadowed by its red sibling. Domaine Jean-Louis Chave 2020 blends Marsanne and Rousanne for a rare complexity and a 14.5 per cent ABV. A food wine, as they say.

For an entry level Rhône white (just £17.50) across the room I encountered a Côtes du Rhône Villages L’Oratory Blanc Sablet 2024. This an aromatic apricot and peach-laden blend of Southern Rhone varietals Viognier, Bourboulenc, Clairette, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc from Domaine Saint-Gayan. When we visited in the Eighties with the kids in tow (“go play with the vigneron’s dog while we taste”), the target was the surprisingly elegant, powerful old vine Gigondas red produced by Roger Meffre. The winemaker now is his son-in-law, Christian-Yves Carré de Lusançay, who was pouring at Pall Mall.

In the diary – the ‘Rhone In White’ show at Freight Island

If all this has whetted your appetite for the whites of the region, try and squeeze a ticket for a Trade Show at Manchester’s Freight Island on Wednesday, April 29.

Explore 100 plus Rhône whites from 20 plus appellations, North and South. 12pm-5pm. The doyen of contemporary Rhône experts, Matt Walls, will hold two masterclasses exploring the Rhône’s diverse styles and terroirs:

Matt moved his family to the region for two years to research his comprehensive Wines of the Rhône (Infinite Ideas, £30). Indispensable.

Five Yapp wines that won’t break the bank

IGP Collines Rhodaniennes: Patrick Jasmin ‘La Chevalière’ 2023 £19.95

Patrick took over the family estate in Ampuis when his father Robert was hit by a car and killed in 1999 and has continued to make exemplary Côte-Rôtie plus this ‘mini version’ from lesser Indication Géographique Protégée vineyards. Sleek and lovely Syrah.

Jura Arbois: Trousseau Domaine Jean-Louis Tissot 2024 (£21.50)

A light, spicy red wine from pure Trousseau – a grape which thrives on the slopes around Arbois in the Jura region between Burgundy and the Alps. The Tissot Ploussard is even lighter but equally savoury.

Tavel: Domaine Maby ‘La Forcadière’ Rosé 2025 (£17.95)

Forget all those pale commercial Provencal rosés. This organic, full-bodied deep pink Rhône iteration is a great food wine. It would cope with a herby meat daube or even a tagine.

Saumur Champigny: Domaine Filliatreau ‘Vieilles Vignes’ 2022 (£23.25)

A red I have loved for 30 years. Everything a Loire Cabernet Franc should be and more. Perfect slightly chilled now but lay it down for a few years and expect even greater rewards.

Reuilly: Gerard Cordier Blanc 2024 (£17.75)

Robin Yapp’s pioneering expeditions extended beyond the Rhône into the Loire and even today when the list covers many regions some stalwarts from the Valley remain. One of the most evocative chapters from Drilling for Wine is his meeting with the generous Cordier family, restoring his faith after he had been ripped off by a grower in another small village. The Cordiers still supply their Reuilly sauvignon blanc and, as I write I’m going to match it tonight with new season asparagus. Let’s close with the Yapp catalogue’s celebration of this humble white: “It has a bracing bouquet of wild flowers and camomile with crisp, nettle and gooseberry flavours on the palate.”

So a far remove from Chave White Hermitage, but wine offers so many varied delights. As exemplified by a Yapp Brothers Tasting. By they way, there never was a Brother. Robin thought the name added gravitas to his nascent operation.

1 April 2026/by Neil Sowerby

Travel, Wine

It’s a Zin! But what version of this enigmatic Californian red will turn up?

1976. Up in Dry Creek Valley, Zinfandel heartland of Sonoma County, Joel Peterson was picking for his first solo foray into crafting that stalwart Californian red. A lightning storm drenched the 29-year-old amateur winemaker as he hoisted 50lb tubs of grapes into his truck while two ravens harassed him from a nearby tree. And thereby hangs an epiphany.

Let Zinfandel chronicler David Darlington take up the story in his Angels’ Visits (1991): “At the time Joel was reading Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermuir, a gothic novel whose hero, Lord Ravenswood, falls off a bridge and drowns in quicksand while coming to the rescue of his sweetheart.

“Under the circumstances it seemed to Joel that such a plot might also describe the start of a small winery. As he drove away… the setting sun squeezed beneath the clouds, igniting the landscape a surreal orange and painting two rainbows on the charcoal sky. In Joel’s mind Sir Walter Scott receded and Native Americans appeared as he recalled an Indian legend wherein man is discovered in a pod, and is instructed in the arts of survival by a raven.”

Ravenswood – Gothic birth of an iconic producer

Joel Peterson is a great survivor himself. The gestation of his Ravenswood brand might sound fuelled by waccy backy – this was seventies California after all – but Joel’s ‘drug of choice’ was always a certain heady, tannic red made from the State’s bedrock grape. Zinfandel is a thin-skinned, small grape which means less skin-to-juice ratio, so potentially higher tannins. It is also notorious for uneven ripening, so bunches have to be left on the vine to ripen fully. This leads to high sugar in the berries, which makes for high-alcohol wines. Hence a now discredited trend for late harvest Zins, dry and sweet.

Peterson never went down that route. 600 cases were made from that initial harvest. After which he became a gypsy winemaker around the area until he eventually could create a winery of his own. His pride and joy were the single vineyard Zins he made, lauded by the likes of Robert Parker. The plan was for small open top, redwood fermenters, hand punch downs, extended macerations, native yeast, gentle transfer, minimal processing and small French oak aging – all done by hand. European with a Californian twist.

But he admits in the book that their ‘Chateau Cash Flow’ was the generic Ravenswood Vintners Blend, the cheaper early release version. Launched in 1983, annual production neared one million cases, at one point, making it the world’s bestselling red Zinfandel. You’d find it in Morrisons and Tesco, maybe still can. Dwarfed, though, by the big guns who dug a gold mine in creating White Zinfandel Blush. But that’s a whole other story.

Ravenswood itself was engulfed by drinks behemoths. first Constellation Brands and then on to Gallo (California-based, it’s the largest wine producer by volume on the planet). Ravenswood then went into limbo and Peterson founded a new boutique winery, Once & Future, to recapture the magic of Zinfandel, and his son, Morgan Twain-Peterson, became a Master of Wine with his own highly regarded winery, Bedrock Wine Co.

Serendipity that led me back to top-end Zinfandel

So is it a case of the Zinfandel Empire fights back? Ironically Gallo have resurrected Ravenswood as a fine Zinfandel with an initial annual production of 6,000 cases with Peterson as consultant. For his own project he remains an inveterate searcher out of off-the-radar old vine parcels. Hence the Wine Society bottle I’m about to sample. This latest example of their flagship ‘Exhibition’ range is the result of an abundant 2024 vintage leaving Peterson with more Zinfandel than usual.

This bespoke blend lives up to its Society tasting notes: “With an average vine age of over 80 years, this full-flavoured, vibrant Zinfandel has a rich cherry, plum and blackberry perfume, bright acidity with rich soft tannins, and an evolving long finish. Made in small open top fermenters, and aged in about 10 per cent new oak the resulting wine has great balance and generosity.”

So quite a step up from the Vintners Blend. Beautifully balanced, it still weighs in at nearly 15 per cent ABV, but it wears the alcohol lightly. It proved a perfect accompaniment to a hot game pie. Serendipity? The special offer (£16) came into my e-mail box just the day after Angels’ Visits dropped through the letter box. I’d bought the book on a whim after it was extolled in the Substack of one of my favourite wine writers. Anyone who shares a podcast (Intoxicating History) with Tom Parker Bowles must be posh but Henry Jeffreys is a sharp and streetwise advocate of all things grape.

Grape rivals – Ridge Vineyards versus Ravenswood

I was captivated by Angels’ Visits because it tells stories of individual, very individual, Californian winemakers who have championed the Big Zin since the Sixties… and their vastly contrasting wine styles.. Essentially, though, it centres on Peterson’s Ravenswood and arch rivals, in the Santa Cruz Mountains (main picture) south of San Francisco, Ridge Vineyards. Their Zinfandels under well-travelled philosopher winemaker Paul Ridge aimed for a Bordeaux-style elegance over power. Matching its signature wine, the Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon. Draper, who turns 90 in March, has long been Emeritus.but his cerebral approach remains under the hands-off ownership of a Japanese pharmaceutical giant.

Last year I tasted half a dozen Ridge wines at a Berkmann Cellars trade event in Manchester – Zinfandels from their Lytton Springs and Geyserville particularly captivating, if just a mite polite. Angels’ Visits author Darlington does stray into Jungian parlance of Apollo versus Dionysus. I see where he is coming from. His historical research into how Zinfandel wound up in the Golden State is more plodding. The jury really is out on whether it is the same grape as – or a close relative of – the similarly thick-skinned Primitivo of Puglia in Italy.

He does debunk the once accepted theory that it came from Hungary or Croatia via the colourful founder of Buena Vista winery, California’s first, dating back to 1857. Colonel Agoston Haraszthy’s portrait still hangs in their Sonoma base. The grape was also, quite boringly, believed to have originally been a table grape in New England.

When Haraszthy went bust he hopped off to Nicaragua to make spirits from sugar and met a bizarre end. Over to Angels’ Visits again: “On July 6. 1869 he went to meet a business associate on the banks of a Nicaraguan river. He never returned. His footprints were found leading to a tree whose limbs reached across the river:

one of th/e branches, broken off in the middle, was presumed to have snapped as Haraszthy tried to cross on it.

“A few days earlier at the same spot a crocodile had killed a cow, and to this day Agoston Haraszthy is assumed to have followed the unlucky bovine into the jaws of oblivion.”

3 February 2026/by Neil Sowerby

Drink, Food, Restaurants

All the winners from the MFDF Awards 2025 on a night celebrating community

The only hospitality awards that really count in Manchester continue to delight and surprise. Now in their 28th year the Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards returned to New Century Hall for a celebration of the resilience of the city and region in testing times. 18 winners were announced from food and drink establishments with 130 outstanding venues, producers and traders nominated, Standards were incredibly high

On the flip side were the restaurants and bars that went under in 2025. Some were listed by co-host Matt White in his introduction in a poignant reminder of the knife-edge hospitality is on. It was a lovely moment when Neighbourhood Venue of the Year Stretford Canteen paid tribute to fellow nominees fromdown the road, The Perfect Match, who didn’t make it into 2026.

he Restaurant of the Year wasn’t entirely unexpected – Michelin-starred Skof, just a stagger across Sadler’s Yard from last night’s awards venue. Its chef patron Tom Barnes, now in his mid-30s, was once a kitchen prodigy. The same applies to Matt Bennett, named Chef of the Year for his excellence at Prestwich’s The Pearl after sous chef stints at Mana, Ancoats and Gidleigh Park, Devon. Matt’s youthful looks were captured by Stanley Chow in a portrait presented on-stage by the acclaimed artist, who sponsored the category. A new MFDF innovation, it all added to the surprise value for 27-year-old Matt, surely our youngest ever Chef of the Year winner.

Overall sponsor of the Awards was Therme Manchester – in their words, a transformational large-scale wellbeing destination which will feature pools, saunas, waterslides, and wellbeing therapies set to complete construction in late 2028.

As part of the partnership this year’s awards saw the first, ‘Community Food and Drink Project of the Year’ created. This new category recognises and celebrates the outstanding food and drink initiatives making a real difference in Greater Manchester, the prize a £1,000 funding boost from Therme as well as a further £2,000 to kick off a joint legacy project. The inaugural (and well deserved) winner was Platt Fields Market Garden.

Ben Dutson, Head of Food Operations at Therme Manchester is looking forward to continuing their support: “We’re delighted to have sponsored this year’s awards and play a part in supporting and celebrating the brilliant food and drink businesses that make Manchester such a phenomenal place.

“Therme is all about living well and having fun – and making wellness more accessible for the community, so I can’t think of a better way of embodying that than by supporting all the great businesses and community groups that we have recognised tonight.”

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Restaurant of the Year – Skof

Shortlisted: mana, Adam Reid At The French, Winsome, Higher Ground, Stow, Erst, Cantaloupe, Skof.

Chef of the Year – Matt Bennett

Shortlisted: Rosie Maguire (Higher Ground), Shaun Moffat (Winsome), Adam Reid (Adam Reid at The French), Mary-Ellen McTague (Pip), Patrick Withington (Erst), Jamie Pickles (Stow), Jack Fields (Restaurant Orme), Matt Bennett (The Pearl).

Newcomer of the Year – Stow

Shortlisted: Cantaloupe, Bangkok Diners Club, Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar, Café Continental,Winsome, Royal Nawaab Pyramid, Kung Fu Noodle, Stow.

Bar of the Year – Speak In Code

Shortlisted: Stray, Schofield’s Bar, Red Light, Pray Tell , Renae, Libero, Flawd Wine, Speak in Code.

Affordable Eats Venue of the Year (sponsored by Therme): Double Zero

Shortlisted: Noodle Alley, Pho Cue, Cafe Sanjuan, Hong Thai, Seoul Kimchi, Double Zero, Wow Báhn Mì, Rabbie’s Thai.

Takeaway of the Year – This & That

Shortlisted: Ceresi, Ad Maiora, Home Chinese, Viet Deli, Pancho’s Burritos, Rack, Mughli Charcoal Pit, This & That.

Cafe or Coffee Shop of the Year – Something More Productive

Shortlisted: Cafe Sanjuan, Oscillate Coffee, Federal Cafe Bar, Just Between Friends Coffee, Sipp Coffee, à bloc, The Old Fire Station Bakery, Something More Productive.

Wine offering of the Year – Flawd Wine

Shortlisted: Ad Hoc, Higher Ground, The Beeswing, Salut Wines, Reserve Wines, Where the Light Gets In, Kerb, Flawd Wine.

Food trader of the year – Rack

Shortlisted: The Little Sri Lankan, House of Habesha, Baity, Rita’s Reign, Taiko Ramen, Thatziki, Little Scarfs, Rack.

Foodie Neighbourhood of the Year – Stockport

Shortlisted: Urmston, Levenshulme, Chorlton, Monton, Salford, Altrincham, Sale, Stockport.

Independent Drink Producer of the Year – Track Brewing Co

Shortlisted: Balance Brewing & Blending, Pod Pea Vodka, Stiff Tea Brewing Company, Sureshot Brewing, Runaway Brewery, Seven Bro7hers, Weekend Project Brewing Co, Track Brewing Co.

Independent Food Producer of the Year – Pollen Bakery

Shortlisted: Long Boi’s Bakehouse, Holy Grain Sourdough, Littlewoods Butchers, Lily’s Vegetarian Indian Cuisine, Wong Wong Bakery, Half Dozen Other, Mayya Bakery, Pollen Bakery.

Neighbourhood Venue of the Year – Stretford Canteen

Shortlisted: Fold Bistro & Bottle Shop, The Pearl, Lupo, Cantaloupe, Tawny Stores, The Perfect Match, Gladstone Barber and Bistro, Stretford Canteen.

Pub or Beer Bar of the Year – Marble Arch

Shortlisted: Victoria Tap, Runaway Brewery, City Arms, The Magnet Freehouse, Café Beermoth, North Westward Ho, Track Taproom, Marble Arch.

Great Service Award – Maray

Shortlisted: Tast Catala, Atomeca, Higher Ground, Adam Reid at The French, Federal Cafe Bar, Blacklock, Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar, Maray.

Low or No Offering of theYear – Nell’s Pizza

Shortlisted: Cloudwater Brew Co, Dishoom, Red Light, Blinker Bar, Hinterland, Lina Stores, Speak in Code, Nell’s Pizza.

Community Food and Drink Project (sponsored by Therme) – Platt Fields Market Garden

The Howard and Ruth Award for Outstanding Achievement – Rustica

• As usual, across all categories (bar the last) shortlisted venues were put to the public vote via the MFDF website where thousands of food and drink fans voted for their favourite winner. Scores from a mystery shopping visit, carried out by members of the judging panel, were also combined with the public vote for some of the awards to determine the winners.

27 January 2026/by Neil Sowerby

Food, Travel, Wine

My Italian Food Trail: Peposo (don’t stint on the peppercorns)

Scuse, my Peposo is inautentico. It’s the chopped San Marzanos that are the culprits in this. Tomatoes hadn’t made their arrival from the New World when this famous Florentine beef stew first sprang to prominence in the 15th century, promoted by Renaissance man incarnate Filippo Brunelleschi. This and the tiled dome of the city’s Cathedral are his lasting legacies.

In a week’s cooking schedule that began with the daring spice fusion of two Gurdeep Loyal dishes this Peposo was earmarked as a bowlful of Italian authenticity. And, yes, as I was preparing it UNESCO designated the whole of Italian cuisine as an intangible cultural heritage.

Such recognition is never likely to address the tangle of Asian Second Generation food strands found across Leicester-born Gurdeep’s two cookbooks. I reviewed the latest, last summer, but it was from his debut, Mother Tongue, that I yoked together Curry Leaf, Lemongrass and Aleppo Pepper Chicken and Sambhar Sweet Potato Hasselbacks with Red Leicester. Neither was what you would call a shy, retiring dish.

Still there seemed to be some distant affinity with the work-in-progress Peposo. The Tuscans are reticent about spicing, just as they eschew salt in their bread, and beloved pasta dish Cacio e Pepe is rather subtle with the the Pepe. Not so Peperoso. Some recipes recommend insane amounts of black peppercorns giving a real kick to a dish of markedly few ingredients – olive oil, red wine, garlic, salt and stewing beef. Note, no onions or herbs.

Nothing but shin beef will do – discuss

A purchase of two kilos of Belted Galloway shin beef on the bone from Littlewoods of Heaton Chapel was a kind of cart before the horse inspiration. The roasted bones had contributed molten bone marrow – a freezer staple for lubricating home-made burgers in the future – and helped make a goodly quantity of beef stock, too. The chopped up beef was perfect for the long stewing required for the Peposo.

It’s a stove-top, pan-off operation where the Chianti (a whole bottle for 800g of meat) evaporates and enriches it. Even richer with the two cans of quality tomatoes, which I stand by.

Two stalwart UK champions of Italian food, Jacob Kenedy (Bocca di Lupo) and the late, great Russell Norman (1965-2023) go big on tomatoes in their versions. I went with Russell’s because his Brutto: A (Simple) Florentine Cookbook (Ebury Press, £32) proved an invaluable companion during last year’s travel-writing expedition to to the city. In particular it introduced me to the challenging street food tripe, Lampredotto for Confidentials. And yes I am now a fan of that braised tripe from the cow’s fourth stomach, doused in salsa verde, on a bun.

You won’t find it on the menu of Norman’s Trattoria Brutto in London’s Smithfield, but Peposo’s usually an option. In the preamble to his recipe (included later) he describes it as “a dish of extremely deep flavours and comforting textures. But it’s not a preparation that can be rushed. You need at least four hours, preferably more, and – as with many Tuscan recipes – it is improved by leaving it overnight. I’d love to be able to say you can use an alternative cut if you can’t get hold of beef shin, but it really must be shin. And you must leave the fat on – do not be tempted to trim. Your butcher will always be able to provide shin, even if your supermarket can’t.

“Additionally, the wine element needs to be appropriately regional. Chianti or even a standard Sangiovese, will provide much better results than a cheap New World Merlot from a petrol station.’

I used Lidl’s standard Chianti Riserva, Corte Alle Mura. Fort £1.50 more they have a Christmas special on, from the same 2019 vintage, Medici Riccardi for a couple of quid more.

Russell’s version is actually rather modest with its pepper input. As it melted together over the long stew I ground extra peppercorns (Kampot, of course) into it. The result was a tasty marvel, which I first served with Judion beans in a tomato and sage sauce, the next day with a creamy celeriac and apple mash. Accompanying it then, a Fontodi Chianti Riserva (a ste up from Lidl). Each time we scooped up the rich juices with slices of Todmorden-baked baguette Tuscan-style. In Florence they have a saying for it: ‘fare la scarpetta’, which translates as “to do the little shoe”

Brunelleschi and a Duomo built on peppery beef stew

The acknowledged birthplace of Peposo is in Impruneta on the Arno, 15 miles south of the centre of Florence, where the Chianti vineyards really start. At the end of September ‘Peposo Day’ is an important part of the town’s flamboyant Grape Festival with local cooks battling it out to produce the best version.

Why Impruneta? It’s all down to the terracotta industry that has been there since the Middle Ages. Its furnaces baked the burnt-red roof tiles used in the construction of Florence’s Doumo. The workers exploited the front of the kilns to slow cook in orci (olive oil/grain jars) poorer cuts of meat with pepper and wine for their daily repast.

On his Impruneta visits the Duomo’s architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, became a fan of this Peposo with its peppery kick and twigged how this slow food could become fast food for his work team high up in the scaffolding.

It would save valuable minutes if they ate on the job rather than clambering down and back up each lunchtime, so he ordered the Peoposo to be transported by wagon to Florence in terracotta casseroles, then hauled up to scaffold canteens. Not sure if the abundant red wine also winched up was a good heath and safety idea…

Peposo the Brutto way

Ingredients

100g lard (or butter if you’re afraid of lard)

800g beef shin, cut into small chunks

Flaky sea salt

1 bottle of Chianti or Sangiovese

2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

2 tbsp black peppercorns

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

Black pepper

Sourdough bread, for serving

Method

Melt half the lard in a very large frying pan and sear the meat on all sides until nicely browned. Add a few pinches of salt during this process. You may need to fry in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. If there is a dark residue at the bottom of the frying pan, deglaze with a splash of red wine. When all the shin is brown, transfer to a very large saucepan in which you have melted the remaining lard. Add the sliced garlic and the peppercorns, and stir for one minute. Now add the chopped tomatoes and the rest of the wine. Bring to the boil briefly, then reduce to a very low simmer.

For the next four hours, keep half an eye on your Peposo to make sure it’s not drying out too quickly. If it is, cover it, but the full bottle of wine should have been sufficient to keep it stew-like. After four hours, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. The beef shin will have disintegrated somewhat and become stringy and soft. You can encourage this further with some hearty wooden-spoon action. If it hasn’t, leave it longer. Or you could let it cool and leave it covered overnight. Then give it another 30 minutes on a medium heat the next day.

Serve with hunks of sourdough or unsalted Tuscan bread.

19 December 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Beer, Drink

Why the marvellous Marble Arch mustn’t be squeezed out by this high rise hell

We first met in 1983. It was love at first sight. Those tiles revealed, that mosaic floor unearthed. After your makeover you were intoxicatingly beautiful, Marble Arch. Not an opinion particularly shared by some decidedly unromantic fellow drinkers.

It had taken me a huge effort to persuade a posse of hardened Daily Mirror sports hacks to trek through the urban wasteland that was Rochdale Road, Manchester. Just to see a pub brought back from the dead. Ten minutes each way from the Printworks when it was a print works, then called Maxwell House after Ghislaine’s ogre of a dad.

First time, last time. This had been valuable drinking time lost. All too soon our break would be over, as would the evening’s matches, copy phoned in, ready via hot metal to be turned into tomorrow’s newspaper (and later chip paper). Mirror circulation was over 3m, its sport section at its heart. Liverpool were Champions and European Cup-winners that season.

Meanwhile, the Manchester-based national journos drank for England. Around Shudehill there was a phalanx of pubs to abet them. Really only the Hare and Hounds left today. And a lovely heritage interior it has, but not a patch on The Marble Arch, to which I have been a persistent pilgrim over these past four decades of irrevocable change. So imagine my horror when I heard that high rise urban transformation was threatening finally to engulf the Grade II listed building.

It’s not all ‘going to plan’ as the cranes gather

This world class hostelry, with beers from its own acclaimed brewery, is not facing demolition. Just being potentially spoilt by crass developers intent on cramming an extra 17-storey apartment block as close as possible. Let’s call it maximising development potential. Or greed. There isn’t even the usual ‘social housing’ proviso wheeled out.

The plan for ‘Downtown Victoria North Phase 2’ hadn’t originally been so threatening, but out of the blue in September Marble owner Jan Rogers discovered that the proposed Gateway Square breathing space, part of the original 2019 plans, is now going to be jettisoned. So much for the “sensitive approach” to the pub and its neighbours, with new buildings capped at six storeys to “respect and celebrate the character” of the site.

Thom Bamford has covered all this in detail in an excellent article for I Love Manchester. Please read and contribute to the public consultation. My contribution here is make the case for the pub I feel so close to.

It’s not about NIMBY nostalgia. The Marble Arch is a major hospitality asset for Manchester. For personal reasons I’m less emotional about similar plans affecting the trad multi-room gem that is The Britons Protection (these are currently on hold, I believe). Even if it survives being closely cuddled by the 27-storey Apex Tower apartment block, in six years’ time it will sit in the immense shadow of what will be the city’s largest skyscraper at 860ft high. Extra huge welcome to Nobu Tower, just across the tramlines.

The game’s already up for the Lower Turk’s Head in the shadow of its 16 storey glass neighbour, Salboy’s ‘Shudehill Shard’; after protests the Sir Ralph Abercromby escaped demolition in the £400m St Michael’s re-development but that just feels like tokenism; the Jolly Angler, a basic boozer I felt more affection for remains an abandoned shell among the cranes around Piccadilly Station.

So what makes the Marble Arch so special?

A very brief history first… The pub’s spectacular tile and mosaic interior dates back to 1888 when it was a showcase for McKenna’s Harpurhey Brewery. It was one of the first buildings in Manchester to have electric lighting.

At some point during the 20th century it passed into the stewardship of Wilson’s Brewery and was known as the Wellington Vaults. Eventually the locals’ nickname for it, the Marble Arch, stuck. In 1954, on an iconoclastic whim, that whole barrel vaulted ceiling and the amber frieze were covered over with chipboard and paint.

A 1975 Manchester Pub Guide summed it up as a place “where the interest almost ceases on entry”. Apparently it was “very good if you want to watch TV.” A far cry from the entry in Matthew Curtis’s 2023 Manchester Beer Pubs and Bars”: “While developers have sought to modernise the surrounding area the Arch has remained true to its heritage… this compact red brick building with its faux marble facade (it’s actually Shap granite) and pillars that bestraddle the entrance way feels as though it’s stood here for an eternity.”

Well, since 1983 when CAMRA stalwart, John Worthington, bought it, rescued its features and I made my own contribution to eternity. The key date for its current epic reputation is surely 1997. Recession was hitting hard, but Jan rejected plans by her colleagues Mark and Vance to focus on karaoke for salvation and instead launched Marble Brewery. Inspired. This was then well ahead of the craft beer game.

A world class brewery that has led the way

Marble’s kit, in the pub cellar, was installed by the legendary Brendan Dobbin, one of the first brewers to use American and New Zealand hops in the UK at his West Coast Brewery in a less than gentrified Moss Side.

Original head brewer Dade left to set up Boggart Hole Clough Brewery in 2000 and was replaced by James Campbell. From then until he left in 2013 he created a famous roster of Marble ales – Manchester Bitter, Lagonda, Dobber, Pint, Ginger, Earl Grey IPA and more.

I remember clambering down into the cramped brewery beneath the pub with James and his core team Dom Driscoll and Colin Stronge, both of whom, along with Rob ‘Blackjack’ Hamilton, to go on to illustrious brewing careers. Further high profile helming of Cloudwater and Sureshot earned Campbell himself the ‘Outstanding Achievement’ gong at the Manchester 2023 Manchester Food and Drink Awards

All the Marble beers are vegetarian to this day. Jan’s son Joe Ince brews in a custom-built facility in Salford with the beers hugely popular across the free trade.

Still it remains that pub interior that draws aficionados from across the world. Remarkably the exterior was pictured in the Oxford Companion to Beer (2012), edited by Brooklyn Beer’s resident guru Garrett Oliver. Blame the UK editors. Not his fault that the colour plate montage of ‘London Pubs’ featured Rochdale Road’s finest. Alongside the likes of The Cheshire Cheese. Some confusion with the metropolis’s monumental clogged traffic island?

Our own Arch feels very much part of Manchester. Welcoming to old regulars, hardcore ale tourists and a curious new generation checking it out. Over time, of course, it has gently morphed. The bric and brac of four decades has accumulated. It all feels beautifully lived in and shared. They’ve never attempted to rectify the slightly sloping mosaic floor, though the original bar on the side was switched to the back, where the nine hand pulls and eight keg taps live; behind this was added a kitchen and small refectory. The outside beer area thrives spite of the constant construction hubbub.

Not just any pie and pint

The food is consistently excellent. On my visit to discuss the planning rumpus with Jan I couldn’t resist The Pie (or Heaven In a Crust), featuring “Marble stout marinated feather blade steak with drunken onion and boozy gravy”. There’s a choice of mash or thick-cut chips; mushy peas or buttered greens. It’s never going to lift the place into the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs. But then few of those Farrow-and-Balled ‘rural idylls’ could ever match the beer offering here. Or the wit of the clientele.

With the pie I had a pint of Earl Grey IPA. Dangerously drinkable at 6.8 per cent, it’s just one delicious example of the international reach of this new wave Manchester brewing pioneer (Jan is a big fan of one of its successors, Track).

‘Earl Grey’ was created initially as a collaboration with Dutch breweries de Molen and Kees. As the name suggests, the process involves the addition of that tea scented with bergamot. A far cry from the 19th century Harpurhey small beer brewing culture.

As I head out in the late afternoon it is filling up nicely with folk whose love of ale-fuelled camaraderie has made them brave the roadwork chaos outside (pavements shut off, buses prevented from stopping). In such fractured times more than ever we can’t afford to lose our Marbles.

17 November 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Drink, Food, Restaurants

Unveiled: the fantastic 2025 MFDF Awards shortlist – cast your votes now

The 2025 Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards shortlist has been announced, and Therme Manchester, the UK’s first urban wellbeing resort under construction in TraffordCity, has been confirmed as the headline sponsor.

The winners will be revealed at the MFDF Awards Dinner at New Century Hall on Monday, January 26 and the region’s food and drink fans are invited to vote for the winners now via the MFDF website.

These are the most prestigious and longest standing awards in the North West and celebrate the region’s exceptional hospitality industry, with 128 nominees this year across 16 categories.

This year Therme Manchester is headline sponsor – a transformational large-scale wellbeing destination (imaged above) which will feature pools, saunas, waterslides, and wellbeing therapies set to complete construction in late 2028 and welcome 1.7 million guests in its first year. It promises a groundbreaking approach to nutrition, hydration, food sustainability and support for local producers,

MFDF Awards Director Alexa Stratton-Powell told me: “As we welcome Therme Manchester as a partner it’s an opportunity to celebrate the next chapter for our world-class city region and champion the talent and communities that make it extra special. This year’s list of nominees is a phenomenal example of this innovation with talent from all quarters of Greater Manchester to celebrate -from takeaways in Trafford to Michelin star meals in Ancoats.”

It does look an exceptional list. Here it is in full:

AFFORDABLE EATS VENUE OF THE YEAR (sponsored by Therme)

Noodle Alley

56A Faulkner Street, Manchester, M1 4FH

Pho Cue

52A Faulkner Street, Manchester, M1 4FH

Cafe Sanjuan

27 St Petersgate, Manchester, SK1 1EB

Hong Thai

140 Oldham Road, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6BG

Seoul Kimchi

275 Upper Brooke Street, Manchester, M13 0HR

Double Zero

368 Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 8AZ

Wow Báhn Mì

132 Oldham Road, Ancoats, Manchester M4 6BG

Rabbie’s Thai

Civic Centre, Wythenshawe Manchester, M22 5RQ

Last year’s winner: Nell’s Pizza, Manchester

TAKEAWAY OF THE YEAR

Ceresis

166, Northenden Road, Manchester, Sale, M33 3HE

Ad Maiora

84 Tib Street, Manchester M4 1LG

Home Chinese

16 Chorlton Street, Manchester M1 3HW

Viet Deli

22 Blackfriars Street, Manchester, M3 5BQ

Pancho’s Burritos

Arndale Food Market, 49 High Street, Manchester, M4 3AH

Rack

Arndale Food Market, 49 High Street, Manchester, M4 3AH

Mughli Charcoal Pit

30 Wilmslow Road, Manchester, M14 5TQ

This & That

3 Soap Street, Manchester M4 1EW

Last year’s winner: Fat Pat’s, Manchester

CAFE OR COFFEE SHOP OF THE YEAR (new for 2025)

Cafe Sanjuan

27 St Petersgate, Manchester, SK1 1EB

Oscillate Coffee

52 Flixton Road, Urmston, M41 5AB

Federal Cafe Bar

194 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3ND

Just Between Friends Coffee

56 Tib Street, Manchester, M4 1LG

Sipp Coffee

105 Beech Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 9EQ

à bloc

38 Stamford Park Road, Altrincham, WA15 9EW

The Old Fire Station Bakery

47 Albion Place, Crescent, Salford M5 4NL

Something More Productive

9 Egerton Crescent, Withington, M20 4PN

WINE OFFERING OF THE YEAR (new for 2025)

Ad Hoc

28 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN

Higher Ground

Faulkner House, New York Street, Manchester M1 4DY

The Beeswing

KAMPUS, 24a Minshull Street, Manchester, M1 3EF

Salut Wines

11 Cooper Street, Manchester, M2 2FW

Reserve Wines

1 Eagle Street, Manchester, M4 5BU

Flawd Wine

9 Keepers Quay, Manchester, M4 6GL

Where the Light Gets In

7 Rostron Brow, Stockport, SK1 1JY

Kerb

49 Henry Street, Manchester, M4 5DH

FOOD TRADER OF THE YEAR

The Little Sri Lankan

House of Habesha

Kargo MKT, Salford M50 3AG

Baity

Kargo MKT, Salford M50 3AG

Rita’s Reign

Piccadilly Street Food Market, Piccadilly, Manchester, M1 1LY

Rack

Arndale Food Market, 49 High Street, Manchester, M4 3AH

Taiko Ramen

1 Eagle Street, Manchester, M4 5BU

Thatziki

Kargo MKT, Salford M50 3AG

Little Scarfs

17A Lower Hillgate, Stockport, SK1 1JQ

Last year’s winner: Honest Crust, Manchester

FOODIE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE YEAR

Stockport

Urmston

Levenshulme

Chorlton

Monton

Salford

Altrincham

Sale

Last year’s winner: Prestwich

INDEPENDENT DRINK PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

Balance Brewing & Blending

Unit 10, Sheffield Street, Manchester, M1 2DN

Pod Pea Vodka

Ten Locks, Fairhill Road, Irlam, Manchester, M44 6BD

Stiff Tea Brewing Company

3 Hoyle Street, Manchester, M12 6HG

Sureshot Brewing

5 Sheffield Street, Manchester, M1 2DN

Runaway Brewery

9-11 Astley Street, Stockport, SK4 1AW

Track Brewing Co

Unit 18, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester, M1 2NP

Seven Bro7hers

Unit 63, Waybridge Enterprise Centre, Daniel Adamson Road, Salford, Greater Manchester, M50 1DS

Weekend Project Brewing Co

Hulme Lane, Lower Peover, Knutsford, WA16 9QH

Last year’s winner: Cloudwater BrewCo, Manchester

INDEPENDENT FOOD PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

Long Boi’s Bakehouse

40 Forest Range, Manchester, M19 2HP

Holy Grain Sourdough

253 Deansgate, Great Northern Mews, Manchester M3 4EN

Littlewoods Butchers

5 School Lane, Heaton Chapel, Stockport, SK4 5DE

Lily’s Vegetarian Indian Cuisine

85 Oldham Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 7DF

Wong Wong Bakery

32 Princess Street, Manchester M1 4LB

Pollen Bakery

Cotton Field Wharf,, Manchester M4 6FQ

Half Dozen Other

Unit 17 Redbank, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, M4 4HF

Mayya Bakery

32-34, Duncan Street, Salford, M5 3SQ

Last year’s winner: Great North Pie Co, Wilmslow

NEIGHBOURHOOD VENUE OF THE YEAR

Fold Bistro & Bottle Shop

7 Town Street, Marple Bridge, SK6 5AA

Stretford Canteen

118 Chester Road, Stretford M32 9BH

The Pearl

425 Bury New Road, Prestwich, M25 1AF

Lupo

Mountheath Trading Estate, Unit 65 Ardent Way, Manchester, M25 9WE

Cantaloupe

71 Great Underbank, Stockport, SK1 1PE

Tawny Stores

1 Upper Hibbert Lane, Marple, SK6 7JQ

The Perfect Match

103 Cross Street, Sale, M33 7JN

Gladstone Barber and Bistro

Unit 3 Pattern House, Castle Street, Stalybridge, SK15 1NX

Last year’s winner: Bar San Juan, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

PUB OR BEER BAR OF THE YEAR

Victoria Tap

Victoria Station Approach, Manchester, M3 1WY

Runaway Brewery

9-11 Astley Street, Stockport, SK4 1AW

City Arms

46-48, Kennedy Street, Manchester M2 4BQ

The Marble Arch Inn

73 Rochdale Road, Manchester, M4 4HY

The Magnet Freehouse

51 Wellington Road North, Stockport SK4 1HJ

Café Beermoth

Brown Street, Manchester, M2 1DA

North Westward Ho

19 Chapel Walks, Manchester, M2 1HN

Track Taproom

Unit 18, Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester, M1 2NP

Last year’s winner: Mulligans, Manchester

GREAT SERVICE AWARD

Tast Catala

20-22 King Street, Manchester, M2 6AG

Atomeca

1B, Deansgate Square, Owen Street, Manchester, M15 4YB

Higher Ground

Faulkner House, New York Street, Manchester M1 4DY

Adam Reid at The French

16 Peter Street, Manchester M60 2DS

Maray

14 Brazennose Street, Manchester, M2 6LW

Federal Cafe Bar

194 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3ND

Blacklock Manchester

37 Peter Street, Manchester M2 5GB

Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar

3 Bankside Boulevard, Salford, M3 7HD

Last. year’s winner: Schofield’s Bar, Manchester

LOW OR NO OFFERING OF THE YEAR (new for 2025)

Nell’s Pizza

22 Minshull Street, Kampus, Manchester M1 3EF

Cloudwater Brew Co

7-8 Piccadilly Trading Estate, Manchester, M1 2NP

Dishoom

32 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BT

Red Light

4-2 Little David Street, Manchester, M1 3GL

Blinker Bar

64 -72 Spring Gardens, Manchester, M2 2BQ

Hinterland

16-20 Turner Street, Manchester, M4 1DZ

Lina Stores

17 Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3HN

Speak in Code

7 Jackson’s Row, Manchester, M2 5ND

BAR OF THE YEAR

Stray

1 Eagle Street, Manchester, M4 5BU

Schofield’s Bar

Sunlight House, 3 Little Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3JZ

Red Light

4-2 Little David Street, Manchester, M1 3GL

Speak in Code

7 Jackson’s Row, Manchester, M2 5ND

Pray Tell

Unit 6 Stanley Square, Sale, M33 7XZ

Renae

45-47 Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1NA

Libero

2A Kings Court, Railway Street, Altrincham, WA14 2RE

Flawd Wine

9 Keepers Quay, Manchester, M4 6GL

Last year’s winner: Hawksmoor, Manchester

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

Cantaloupe

71 Great Underbank, Stockport, SK1 1PE

Bangkok Diners Club

17 Blossom Street, Ancoats, M4 5BR

Stow

62 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BW

Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar

3 Bankside Boulevard, Salford, M3 7HD

Café Continental

5 Melbourne Street, Stalybridge, SK15 2JE

Winsome

74 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6JD

Royal Nawaab Pyramid

The Pyramid Kings Valley, Stockport, SK4 2JU

Kung Fu Noodle

48A George Street, Manchester, M1 4HF

Last year’s winner: Skof, Manchester

CHEF OF THE YEAR

Rosie Maguire (Higher Ground)

Shaun Moffat (Winsome)

Adam Reid (Adam Reid at The French)

Matt Bennett (The Pearl)

Mary-Ellen McTague (Pip)

Patrick Withington (Erst)

Jamie Pickles (Stow)

Jack Fields (Restaurant Orme)

Last Year’s winner: Tom Barnes (Skof)

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

mana

42 Blossom Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6BF

Skof

3 Federation Street, Manchester, M4 4BF

Adam Reid At The French

16 Peter Street, Manchester M60 2DS

Winsome

74 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6JD

Higher Ground

Faulkner House, New York Street, Manchester M1 4DY

Stow

62 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BW

Erst

9 Murray Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6HS

Cantaloupe

71 Great Underbank, Stockport, SK1 1PE

Last year’s winner: Where The Light Gets In, Stockport

*The shortlist reflects the incredible culinary diversity of Greater Manchester*

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

The shortlisted nominations have been compiled by the MFDF Judging Panel, taking into account award submissions from the hospitality industry. The panel is made up of the region’s leading food and drink critics, writers, and experts. The awards are now open to public vote on the MFDF website.

As well as the public vote, a mystery shopping period will now commence where judges will visit nominated venues in some categories or an anonymous dining visit and will score venues based on their experiences.

The mystery shopping and public voting period will end at midnight on January 12, 2026 when the polls will be counted and combined with the judges’ scores and the winner of each category will be chosen.

The MFDF 25 Award Winners will be announced at the MFDF Awards Dinner on Monday 26th January and tickets can be purchased by emailing isabella@foodanddrinkfestival.com.

31 October 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Cocktails, Food, Restaurants

Pickled Onion Monster Munch Beurre Blanc, Mr Springsteen?

Readers of this blog will know my admiration for the leftfield ingredient crusade of second generation Asian food guru Gurdeep Loyal. Sharing his culinary conceits is like ‘coming out’ in the kitchen That’s how I found myself preparing his ‘Aloo Chaat Wedge Salad with a Pink Peppercorn Ranch Dressing’.

Potatoes and chaat masala meet American iceberg lettuce dressing. His aim? To marry the “same splendidly kitsch garnishing skills as Indian street snacks” with the “Fanny Cradock meets breakfast buffet school of culinary arts.” Cue, in his debut cookbook Mother Tongue, some ‘visual mood board’ fantasy about the iconic Fanny sporting a sari on Christmas Day!

What has all this to do with my surprise encounter with fine dining Monster Munch (more later) in the Huddersfield commuter village of Kirkburton? Less fusion, but a restaurant chef operating with a similar panache and sense of humour.

For all I know, behind the blinds here some bungalow kitchens may still pay retro homage to Fifties telly chef Cradock (and her monocled hubby Major Johnnie). On the flipside, in pursuit of home molecular gastronomy. hipster newcomers may be plying their Sous Vides and Thermomixes.

There’s certainly a state of the art Thermomix in constant use by chef Will Webster in Kirkburton’s prime dining spot, Norman’s Neighbourhood Kitchen, which was sprinkled with unexpected stardust in May when the touring Bruce Springsteen and his actor mate Stephen ‘Boiling Point’ Graham dropped in for lunch just days after it had gained its AA second rosette.

Among the small plates they ate was Isle of Wight tomatoes with sherry dressing, a pangrattato topping and wild garlic ice cream. Graham described it as “Mad Merlin Stuff”. I loved the dish too on my more recent visit; wild garlic being out of season, Thai basil was substituted in the soft scoop.

Celebrity trolling was not the reason for my lunch. I was catching up on a long-time recommendation from my friend, Amanda Wragg, Yorkshire Post restaurant reviewer, who had given Norman’s her Meal of the Year accolade in January. Just six months after Webster left Halifax’s Shibden Mill Inn to join former front of house colleague Ollie Roberts. The pair now have a four-strong kitchen, all of whom appear to be partial to snacking on Monster Munch (more later). Whether the restaurant dog Norman also gets a treat, I’m not quite sure.

This is not just about me playing catch-up. The day after my visit that same Yorkshire Post published a piece trumpeting how trendy and prosperous the village is these days. And Norman’s is not alone as a food mecca. Folk queue every day for the puff pastry heritage meat sausage rolls at celebrity chef Tim Bilton’s upmarket Butcher’s Larder further down North Road. To think, I’d always hurtled along Penistone Road past the Kirkburton turn-off.

Similarly, I’d tended to ignore the Shibden Mill Inn, though it’s only a 40 minute drive from my home. I’d certainly never associated its top-end dinner menu with the word playful. Will, who spent most of his six years there as head chef, has found new creativity with a smaller team to juggle ideas with.

Hence the creation of Pickled Onion Monster Munch Beurre Blanc (got there at last). If a current dessert – white chocolate and salty chicken skin fudge – sounds wacky it follows in the footsteps of a signature sauce based on a kids’ snack shaped like monster claws.

“The pickled onion version was the most popular snack among the team,” says Will. “That’s the inspiration. We played with crushing them, adding onion powder and a touch of extra vinegar and it worked. Extra flavour came from diced pancetta and charred sweetcorn… the Munches are corn-based.”

Stone bass and clams have previously benefited from its gorgeous, gloopy intensity. Flakey halibut was my dish on the day – dish of the day. I overdosed on bacon and creaminess by also ordering a tartiflette, a favourite potato dish of mine that perhaps belonged more to an Alpine ski resort than sweltering midsummer Yorkshire. A prawn crudo with strawberry, elderflower and more chicken skin might have fitted the bill better.

I don’t regret, though, the nibble I ordered with my glass of Sicilian white Grillo (from a well-chosen, well-priced list). It’s a swallow-in-one but deserves to be savoured, the tiny rare beef tart with mushroom xo sauce and a whoosh of shredded horseradish.

I squeezed a walk-in counter in the window; the rest of the 40 cover dining room was full. Mostly a demographic that could probably recall when Monster Munch was a new snack craze and this had been the industrial West Riding.

For corn snack completists Wikipedia offers a comprehensive history of Monster Munch, briefly called ‘The Prime Monster’, majoring on mega bag size. In brief, though, four monsters were created in contrasting colours with varying amounts of arms and eyes. Each representing a different flavour. Even after Walkers Crisps took over the brand Pickled Onion remained the pick as it does to this day. Confession: I’ve never tasted a Monster Munch.

*The Pink Gibson brings a touch of Monster Munch to Hawksmoor*

The closest I have come till now was when upmarket steak house Hawksmoor revamped their cocktail list last October. My favourite among the newcomers was ‘The Pink Gibson’, their take on a dry martini that substitutes a pickled onion for an olive as garnish. Boatyard Vodka, Audemus Umami gin, Aperitivo Co dry vermouth and pink pickled onion juices were the new version’s constituents. Hawksmoor’s head of bars Liam Davy rhapsodised: “It’s a classic dry martini which we have found a way of making taste like a pickled onion Monster Munch…it’s an incredibly refreshing quite savoury drink.”

So there’s a trend going. “Monster, monster” as that football agent geezer Eric Hall used to say.

Norman’s Neighbourhood Kitchen, 22A North Rd, Kirkburton, Huddersfield HD8 0RH. #Good Food Guide 100 Best Local Restaurants. Norman’s is shut for its annual break from August 23, reopening on September 9.

21 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

Drink

Capreolus – distilling the ethereal essence of the mighty quince

Golden fruit of the gods is the Hellenic sobriquet for the quince. I don’t know the Greek for knobbly but this hard fruit inevitably is that, just as its raw interior tastes tart and astringent, belying the heavenly scent from its skin. Cooking transforms it. So too distilling squeezes out something quite remarkable.

All this occupies my thoughts in a small plates bistro just off Columbia Road Flower Market in Bethnal Green as I sip a quince eau de vie made by Capreolus. Its yellow hue mirrors the mother fruit’s surface, the scent almost tropical with a lingering juicy taste unusual in a 43% spirit. It has been poured by the distillery’s founder Barney Wilzcak (who with his professional photographer hat on took the quince picture above). Barney describes it as ““possibly the most ethereal fruit we work with, astonishing in its nuance and elegance.”

At Brawn I am a guest of Les Caves de Pyrene, best known as natural wine specialists but this trade tasting puts the spotlight on four other artisan drinks makers on their roster. Three have come over from France – Caroline Rozes (Armagnac Laurensan), vermouth specialist Jean-luc Carrozes (Vinmouth) and Laurent Cazottes, whose biodynamic estate in Southern France produces grapes, fruits, flowers, grains, and plants from which he fashions wines, spirits and liqueurs. A tomato liqueur was particularly astonishing. You can see why his wares can be found on Michelin restaurant digestif lists across France and beyond (you’ll find several examples at lovely Bavette Bistro in Horsforth near Leeds).

A new organic orchard of their own for Capreolus

All Laurent’s samples taste exquisite, but I am here primarily for the fourth exhibitor, Capreolus. Seven of their eau de vies are on the (low intervention) list at Manchester’s Higher Ground – at between £9 and £16 a 25ml measure. Lunching there a fortnight before my Caves de Pyrene date I mentioned it to the restaurant’s Daniel and Ana. And – curse them! – they were just days away from a private visit to the distillery in deepest Gloucestershire. When next winter Higher Ground opens Bar Shrimp next door they are promising a special collaboration with Capreolus.

Thanks, Ana, for the promised picture of Barney on site and his new quince tree project. In his March newsletter he had revealed that after a two and a half year search Capreolus had purchased some five acres of lowland hay meadow, where they had planted 252 quince trees, representing four varieties never grown commercially in the UK before. A big welcome then to Ispolinskaja, Turunchukskaja (both Ukrainian), Limon Ayvasi (Turkish) and Cydora Robusta (German). The trees, one year old and eight feet tall when they arrived, are interspersed with crab apple trees for diversity’s sake. It is one of the largest UK quince orchards, but the plan is to restrict yields to five tons annually, a third of a commercial crop target.

It will plug a gap in their commitment to their own immediate terroir. At the moment this is the only fruit they buy in regularly from outside a 35 mile radius of their base at Stratton near Cirencester.

Foxwhelp is an awkward orchard customer but what a collab

Little Pomona Cider and Perry Mill is also outside that radius, lying 55 miles north west in Herefordshire. It’s a luminous spot that I have visited. That was just a few months before co-founder Susanna Forbes succumbed to cancer. We spent three fascinating hours in the company of her and husband James sampling their acclaimed boundary-pushing ciders and perries.

The pair came from a background in wine (James) and drinks journalism (Susanna) and across their range have not been afraid to incorporate hops, cherries and (you guessed it) quinces. Their ‘Still Life with Quince’ is an intense blend of barrel-aged cider and quince wine.

But when it came to a long-mooted collaboration with Capreolus their contribution was a single varietal cider made from an uncompromising apple called Foxwhelp. How come the evocative name? One cider apple historian attributes it to originating near a fox’s den where the cubs or whelps would play with the windfalls. Jury’s out.

Tannic and lashingly acidic, producing ciders with great ageing capacity, Foxwhelp has been around since the 17th century with its own hardcore admirers willing to pay premium prices. Susanna called it “the Riesling of the apple world”. Little Pomona have respected its qualities by barrel-ageing successive vintages in a solera system, akin to sherry making. Was this blend the base for 2022 Capreolus? I never get to ask at a crowded Brawn.

I do know some of what to expect when I taste the 2022 Capreolus x Little Pomona Foxwhelp Cider Eau-de-Vie (43%) and there it is – that mind-blowing aroma of wild strawberry and blood orange typical of the cider version. That strawberry rush continues on to the palate alongside a rounded appliness, as you’d expect. The concentration is down to wild yeast fermentation of meticulously sorted low-yielding fruits, preserving up to 45kg of fruit in each finished litre. Labour intensive isn’t the half of it for Barney and his partner Hannah Morrison. There’s a small child and dog to share the adventure, which began when he abandoned his job as a conservation issues photographer to develop the distillery on his family’s land.

His talent with words is evident too: “What enchanted me was how this elegant way of working, this capturing of pure essence, revealed so much. What I discovered was something that not only isolated a moment of peak ripeness but transported me to the parent plants and landscape in which I was raised.

“The elevation of flavours imperceptible in the raw fruit took me to standing in 300 year old perry pear orchards. The aroma of a Blackberry Eau de Vie to the autumnal warmth of the sun. The synesthetic link of aroma and flavour is something where language consistently fails.”

It sounds idyllic but to reach this point where their spirits (including a lovely gin) can command such high prices in prestigious places has taken prodigious efforts. Still there remains an idyllic aspect to housing two copper stills in an old lean-to greenhouse. Roe deer roam this land, hence the distillery borrowing the latin name for the breed: Capreolus Capreolus. “Delicate, slipping away, this animal is a constant accompaniment to picking in the surrounding countryside, a reminder of the fleeting nature of what we are trying to preserve.”

Barney has written an illuminating, evocative account of Capreolus for the Caves de Pyrenes blog. Do check it out.

“In 2022, with my daughter 8 weeks old and bouncing beneath a tree in the garden where we work, we touched every single fruit of 3,000,000 raspberries as fingers felt for flaws and removed every single leaf, stem and hull. In the resulting eau de vie you can smell 1,000 seeds in your glass, crushed mint and raspberry leaf, lemon zest, and yes, the perfume of the most perfect fruit enveloping you – it is as if you were stood amongst the plants themselves.”

As I sip that particular spirit in the urban sprawl of East London I feel transported to the perfumed orchards of Gloucestershire.

16 August 2025/by Neil Sowerby

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A new organic orchard of their own for Capreolus

Foxwhelp is an awkward orchard customer but what a collab

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