Highly acclaimed Pollen Bakery is teaming up with the folk behind Higher Ground to launch a summertime pop-up wine bar at Pollen's New Islington venue over four weekends in July and August.
This will be a taste of things to come as Higher Ground will be opening their own permanent New Islington base, Flawd neighbourhood wine bar, in September 2021.
Pollen x Flawd will offer bottles of natural wine, freshly baked Pollen bread along with British cheese, charcuterie from Curing Rebels and fresh produce from Cinderwood Market Garden. It will run every Fri/Sat/Sun, 5pm-10pm from 23rd July until 15th August. They are not taking reservations, so just rock up, choose a bottle and graze the evening away.
Higher Ground launched early in 2020 as the first pop up residency at The Bungalow at KAMPUS. It is a collaboration between Joseph Otway (former head chef of Stockport’s Where The Light Gets In) and Richard Cossins from Relæ in Copenhagen. The idea was to create a daily changing menu of simple and delicious dishes bringing together the best seasonal ingredients from the North West, and serving them alongside Manchester brewed beer and carefully chosen low-intervention and natural wines.
During the pandemic, they used The Bungalow as a base to offer delivery boxes of groceries, wine and cooked items (like their legendary madras pasty) to city centre residents.
In July 2020, they took over the kitchens at Ducie Street Warehouse for a short-term residency and now they are to open their first permanent location in the burgeoning New Islington neighbourhood in September 2021 together with partner Daniel Craig Martin.
Neighbourhood wine bar, Flawd will offer a range of local beer and a constantly changing list of natural, low intervention wines with a spotlight on small-scale wine producers. The aim is to make natural wine more approachable and Flawd will try to encourage a sense of curiosity to enable the discovery of new favourites.
“We really just want to open a neighbourhood wine bar for the growing New Islington community,” says Joseph Otway, “to create a space for people to drink great wine, relax and have fun.”
Flawd will be the ideal destination for an after-work drink, an aperitivo before dinner, or a few drinks before a night out in surrounding Ancoats or the Northern Quarter. The wine bar will have seating both indoor and outdoor, and will also offer a take-away bottle shop, making it easy to take a bottle of your new favourite away with you.
Foodwise, Flawd will serve small plates of British cheese as well as charcuterie and ferments from the award-winning Curing Rebels based in Brighton.
Flawd’s wine bar and bottle shop will be open from Wednesday through Sunday.
Wine bar hours: Wed / Thurs / Sun: 5pm-11pmFri / Sat: 5pm-11:30pm
Bottle shop hours: Wed / Thurs / Sun: 12pm-11pmFri / Sat: 12pm-11:30pm
Flawd Wine, Unit 3, Mansion House, Marina Promenade, New Islington,M4 6JL