Pub of the Week: Macca's Bar and Grill in Prestwich

This week's featured pub is Macca's Bar and Grill in Prestwich at the Longfield Centre. 

Macca's is a community-orientated bar offering entertainment and events as well as food and drink. 

They recently held a extra-long weekend of celebrations in honour of its first birthday. 

Landlord/landlady name: Stephen Kenny

Owner: Mark McKee

How long have you been the landlord/landlady for? And how are you finding it?

We are an Irish bar in the heart of Prestwich, and I have been the landlord since we opened 15 months ago, and I couldn’t think of a better job in the world.

We are a warm, friendly and inviting place where everyone is welcome. We are an integral part of the community, working alongside our local partners to make Prestwich as vibrant as possible.

When the idea came of opening a bar, we immediately thought of an Irish theme with a lively atmosphere for everyone to enjoy.

Prestwich is an up-and-coming area with a strong community ethos and is becoming a recognised destination for people to visit.

We feel that we have had quite an influence in this partly due to our central location in the heart of Prestwich and also because of our passion to bring people together to include the whole community by being an inclusive venue for all.

We are a great team, all the employees are local and a hold a strong connection with Prestwich Village. We are proud to say it’s been the same team on board and 99 per cent of the staff have been here since the start.

Give us some history about the pub.

Since opening the bar in March 2023, we have organised weekly events for all the local community to enjoy.

We are very much a hub providing a local, safe and friendly space with a warm welcome to all individuals and families.

Although we are in our infancy and just over one year old, we have already matured expanding our space by creating a separate function room to hold new events and functions in the aptly named Macca's Next Door.

Our venue has indoor and outdoor seating, large TV screens for all the sporting action and a great range of beers, wines and spirits.

Is food served? If so please describe it. 

We are the perfect place to enjoy a few drinks with friends or grab some fresh home-cooked food.

We have an Irish themed menu served daily using fresh local produce with a traditional hearty breakfast, lunch and evening menu so that families can enjoy sitting down and have a nice meal together.

We have wholesome lunchtime menu favourites such as Grandad sausages from a local butchers and pies sourced from the Great Pie Co.

Our Twilight evening menu serves all your favourites such as buttermilk chicken burgers, spicy hot wings and our very own salt and pepper chicken.

We also source our sourdough bread from a local award-winning baker as we like to support local businesses.

Everything is cooked fresh to order on site. We also offer an array of catering options for events and a bespoke tailor-made service for any specific dietary. Recently we were awarded our five-star food hygiene rating which we are really proud of.

Is there a beer garden? Please describe.

We have a lovely specious terrace with overhead heating outside the front windows of the bar which overlooks the Longfield Shopping Centre where our customers can enjoy a drink.

We are also dog friendly on the terrace and have regular dog walkers visiting and have dog water stations and dog treats available.

What is the most popular drink served and why?

As we are an Irish bar, Guinness is the drink of choice among a lot of our customers and is certainly very popular. We also serve lots of the Baby Guinness shots on the weekend.

What is the most memorable moment at the pub?

By far, St Patrick’s Day on March 17 this year was our most memorable moment at the bar which coincided with our one-year anniversary celebrations.

We held a four-day extravaganza weekend from the Thursday to Sunday which was action-packed with entertainment with something for everyone.

Our valued customers turned up to support and enjoy the ultimate St Patrick's Day celebration of traditional Irish music and Sonas Irish Dance group performed a spectacular dance on the terrace with audience participation.

It was lovely to see the local community enjoy the day along with our brilliant staff. There was certainly a lot of Guinness being enjoyed too while everyone celebrated Macca’s being one year’s old!

Do you have an entertainment line-up?

We are very much an entertainment venue, where people can meet, providing weekly events such as open mic night, quiz night, comedy night, karaoke night then a full weekend of music with singers/DJs on from Friday through to Sunday.

Our customers know if they come to Macca's on a weekend they are guaranteed to a brilliant atmosphere where the drinks are flowing, lots of singing and dancing.

On bank holidays we are family orientated organising fun days including barbecues, free facepainting and free treats for the children such as popcorn, sweets and candyfloss.

We also put on events throughout the year to celebrate Halloween, Chrismas and Easter. We organise games on the terrace.

There is a monthly market day on the square organised by the Makers Market where we open our doors and book entertainment for the children such as superhero mascots and magicians.

What are the biggest challenges within the industry and how can you overcome them?

The best way to describe Macca's is it can be a different place on different days of the week at different times catering for everyone and everybody. Food, drink, entertainment, live sports, family friendly, dog friendly.

We will continue to welcome our customers who visit far and wide. On the monthly Market Day, we have a flurry of new customers who may be visiting Prestwich for the first time which is great, and we want them to return.

We will continue what we are doing to put us on the map on Prestwich and cast the net further as there is a dream to expand in other parts of the country.

The Prestwich regeneration project commences next year, and, in the meantime, our main focus is building the brand of Macca's as a local household name which is represented by all the loyalty, dedication and hard work of all our fantastic staff, suppliers and customers to continue serving the community.

Our customers very much want us to stay in the area and continue to be a pillar of the community.

Prestwich is part of lots of changes with new buildings and areas being made such as hospitality, leisure, retail, offices, residential and health services so an exciting time.

What is the best thing about running a pub and why?

The bar is somewhere people can feel comfortable popping in on their own, who are out shopping on the Village and want to call in for a quick drink.

They will always be met with a warm welcome. Our staff all live locally, it is very much a place where there are recognisable faces too.

What is the worst thing about running a pub and why?

We can’t think of any worst things about running a bar, we are a new and upcoming business and it’s all positives so far.

We love being part of the local community.

We are attentive and listen to guest feedback and because we are a sole entity we can make quick decisions which may be delayed if we were part of a chain.

What bonus things are offered at the pub? Please explain.

We always try to help our neighbours and build relationships within our close-knit hospitality community and support each other and share information and ideas.

We are also very much community-spirited and are involved with local organisations and charities.

We have supported in-house events by putting on charity evenings with catering provided for local organisations so they can fundraise further and raise awareness for their cause.

The bar collects and donates food items for the local food banks and a homeless charity. Also anyone who approaches us with a charity need, we endeavour to help in some way by donating vouchers to spend in the bar or items for raffle prizes.

The impact of these activities and actions is building good relationships with our local organisations/charities and doing good in the community where it is needed.

The charities now feel comfortable contacting us when they are fundraising or require support in anything they are doing.

We feel by working together only strengthens the network of the support in Prestwich.

This year we have been approached to support local events such as the carnival and music festivals assisting in the organisation and anything they may need to help put these events on.

We also have special promotion offers on of food and drink during events such as the upcoming Euros so please do pay us a visit, we have plenty of screens to watch the football action on!