Party hard with some southern hospitality...
BOURBON and blues bar Bunny Jackson’s has reopened, bringing a slice of the Deep South to Manchester.
Formerly based at B.Eat Street, the New Orleans-inspired juke joint has relocated to a new permanent home on First Street in the city centre, where it has replaced The Liquor Store.
Completed in around two weeks, the fit-out recreates the original vibe with a live music stage caged off by chain-link fencing, a fairylight-strung motorbike over the door and a corrugated metal-clad bar.
Behind the bar, shelves are stacked with a huge array of bourbon and whiskey, served straight up, as ‘duet’ chasers paired with beers and in a range of classic and contemporary cocktails.
“Basically it’s all about the juke joints back in the day, these places from the Deep South of America where people would go and let their hair down,” said co-owner Lyndon Higginson.
“It was all the hard workers who lived in the Deep South, they were the ones who drank hard and partied hard, and we want to give that vibe over in Manchester.”
A southern-style food menu centred around sandwiches such as po’ boys (£7.50), burgers (£7.50) and French dips (£8) will also be served until 9pm.
“Basically everything that’s amazing between two bits of bread,” added Lyndon. There’ll also be free hotdogs with your drinks when the kitchen is closed, plus 10p wings on Wednesdays.
If you want coffee, well ‘go next door, buy whatever you like and bring it back, we don’t care’, the menu instructs.
“It was cheaper than buying a coffee machine,” said Lyndon.
The bar will host live music ‘with a blue-tinged vibe’ on Sundays and Mondays to begin with, while upstairs on the mezzanine floor there’s a pool table, beer pong and darts to play.
Lyndon and business partners Mat Lake and Bart Murphy had been looking for a permanent home to resurrect Bunny Jackson’s since B.Eat Street closed at the end of this summer. The trio also own Junkyard Golf Club, which recently relocated to First Street too.
Bunny Jackson’s is open now and will celebrate officially with a launch party on November 23, sponsored by Coors and Jack Daniel’s.