Ancoats bar The New Cross quietly opened its doors in October 2022. This laid back, pared back neighbourhood spot with its whitewashed brick walls, vaulted ceiling and functional wooden furniture has a refreshing substance over style approach. Not that it doesn’t look good, but the focus is more on fostering a convivial atmosphere with weekend DJs, great beer and natural wine (with plenty of soft drink options too) – and subtly great food.
At the moment, the fantastic kebabs flying off the in-house open coal grill are a bit of a locals’ secret. But the bar is now launching a grab and go side hustle called Kiosk that is going to bring a lot more attention kebab-wards.
Launching its new venture, Kiosk on Thursday 6 April, The New Cross is giving away 50 free kebabs to celebrate. Get down at 5:30pm on Thursday to get your freebie. There will be party vibes to celebrate with a DJ keeping things bouncing into the evening. You don’t have to grab and go with your free kebab but are welcome to hang around and enjoy it with a pint in the eat in space.
What’s the food like at New Cross?
There are big plans for the food offering at The New Cross, but for now the focus is on kebabs. Meat is freshly cooked on the massive in-house charcoal grill and stuffed into pita sourced from Jewish bakery, Pittanoor in Broughton or served over Moroccan style salads (think carrot salad, dill, pomegranate molasses, tabbouleh) in a go box.
The team has recently come back from a very serious kebab research mission in Athens, Greece armed with new insight on how to make kebabs of mythical status. For meat eaters, there’s a free range chicken thigh souvlaki kebab marinated overnight lemon and herbs, and a lamb kofta kebab (blended with beef fat for extra oomph), dry spiced with cumin, fennel, coriander, chilli powder, sun dried red pepper paste and Aleppo pepper to create a sweet and spicy flavour.
The team also freshly make their own herby falafel from scratch, whizzing up chickpeas with coriander, parsley, dill, cumin cardamom, chilli, garlic, onion and lemon before deep frying into light and crispy fritters. Whatever you choose, it will be stuffed into a steaming pita with fresh salad, home made chilli and yoghurt sauces and pickled chillies and served with fries.
You can also get your falafel in a bowl or box with chopped salad, pickled cabbage and house made hummus.
Kisok is a mini takeaway attached to The New Cross pub. It will be serving grab ’n go kebabs every day from midday until late.
The New Cross is open for drinks and dine in Thursday and Friday from 4pm. Saturday and Sunday from 12pm with DJs every weekend.
Free kebabs to the first 50 people that head down at 5:30pm on Thursday 6 April.
