Manchester Craft and Design Centre


I love Manchester Craft and Design Centre. It's a really unique place. The centre is home to some amazing professional crafters and makers, some of the best in the UK. It's an excellent place to look for unique and special presents or you can even commission work. For instance my sister and her partner are having their wedding rings made there so that they can incorporate Nick's grandma's wedding ring into theirs. The artists studios also function as their shop spaces and it's a great opportunity to actually speak to the person who made your purchase. It's housed in a former Victorian fish and poultry building on Oak Street, not very vegan I know but luckily for us their cafe space is!


The Oak Street Cafe space as it's known is situated in the central atrium space of the building. There's a emphasis on fresh and local ingredients with a changing specials board as well as the standard options and there are always vegan and gluten options. On the day these photos were taken I ordered the flatbread pizza from the menu which had a delicious home made tomato sauce base topped with basil tofu, fresh tomatoes, red onion and rocket. Matt chose from the daily salad options with a side of home made humus and bread. The hot option that was vegan friendly from the specials was a thai bean curry with rice.


All the cakes are home made and there's always a vegan one. This was one of the best ones I've tried there. It was beautifully rich and chocolately with just a hint of the passionfruit, an inspired combination. The cafe also does decent coffee with soya milk and a nice range of loose leaf teas and soft drinks. It's the sort of place you could quite easily spend time on your own with a good book. Oh, and don't blame me if you also come away with a nice bit of jewellery or a lamp!



Comments

  1. vegan.in.brighton2 September 2013 at 10:36

    Those daily salads look great and I love that they always have a vegan cake, how awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown2 September 2013 at 15:27

    Do you still meet at the last Saturday of every month at the Thirsty scholar? I've been a vegan for two years and it would be nice to meet others as I rarely find any. Just realised I posted on a page from 2011, thought I'd correct my mistake and go for a more recent one.

    Kind regards

    ReplyDelete
  3. Caroline2 September 2013 at 18:28

    Can't believe that I've never eaten there when it's just around the corner from my apartment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jasmine Trinity2 September 2013 at 20:47

    You're so lucky to have vegan eateries. I need to move :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tea and Sympatico3 September 2013 at 08:48

    Hi Keith, Manchester Vegan Society is every last Saturday at Thirsty Scholar and is a friendly group. Details on their Facebook and yahoo group. I run a vegan baking meet up you might enjoy too which is every couple of months at V Revolution. See our website for details www.cakeliberationfront.com
    Caroline- definitely worth checking out craft centre cafe. I only started going in last 12 months and I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown3 September 2013 at 14:15

    Thank you for such a fast reply i'll be sure to check them out.

    Kind regards

    ReplyDelete
  7. Joey3 September 2013 at 22:03

    That place does look great - the idea with the wedding rings!

    To be honest, anywhere where you can say 'there's at least one vegan cake option', I'll be there!

    ReplyDelete

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