Tangerine

Tangerine is Manchester’s latest greatest must-visit multipurpose venue, found straddling the gap between the two warring cities of Manchester and Salford. It’s best described as a food-hall-meets-creative-hub, but let’s unpick that. 

By day, it runs as a cantina and roastery, which transforms into a martini bar and music hall and live space in the evening, suitable for dance performances, art shows and live music.

Essentially, it’s like a souped-up Exhibition or Mackie Mayor, but with the Didsbury Dad energy dialled back. There’s a lot more going on here. 

The Canteen Collective – day bit to you and me – hosts seven independent kitchens, a bakery, in-house coffee roastery, florist and wine store. Like a chic little orange village, all under one roof. 

The after-hours zone opens up into a live-music space, arthouse screening area and performance space, centred around the Grand Departures Bar which has 40 craft taps and a full martini-programme, including seven espresso-martini variants.

It’s smart and exciting, without feeling like it’s trying too hard – a rare feat in Manchester 2025. There’s the energy and buzz of places like Ramona and DIECAST, but with a more impressive range of goodies to eat and drink, plus a lot of very, very orange-coloured lighting. 

Proximity-wise, Tangerine fills that tricky gap between Spinningfields in Manchester and the Eagle Inn in Salford. Pleasingly, for the purposes of this write-up, conceptually it does too.

It has the art-friendly, forward-thinking feel of the Eagle (and its sort-of near neighbours, The King’s Arms and The New Oxford), paired with the polished look and high-grade food and drink selection of Spinningfields’ better venues. 

In short, looks like David Gandy, thinks like David Bowie (especially Low-era Bowie, with his striking tangerine-coloured locks, but minus the naughty drug habit). Or Kates Moss and Bush, to be all gender parity about it.

This part of the city (Salford or Manchester, choose your team) has been weirdly overlooked for a long time. Tangerine brings something snazzy and savvy to the area, and does it with style.