Pot Kettle Black was founded by Jon Wilkin and Mark Flanagan, professional rugby league players who played together at St Helens. The idea came from Mark’s time playing in Australia, and a 2013 injury gave him time to write a business plan. A landlord in the Grade II listed Barton Arcade, then semi-derelict, took them on, and the café opened in October 2014 with coffee from Workshop, house-made sandwiches and a team led by barista Goncalo Cid, who still works there. Its brews and brunch are internationally inspired, with a nod to its “Antipodean cousins”.

A kitchen arrived in 2016 and brunch with it. In 2018 a small bakehouse was squeezed into the back of the arcade; a second café in Spinningfields opened the same year and closed after Covid. The bakery took on wholesale accounts, was named Half Dozen Other in 2023 and moved to a warehouse in Red Bank near Victoria station, and its first high-street bakehouse opened at Circle Square on Oxford Road in December 2024. The Angel Gardens café, between Ancoats and the Northern Quarter, opened in summer 2021, followed by a counter in Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport run with HMS Host. In the Northern Quarter, Pot Kettle Black runs a permanent kitchen takeover at ASAP Coffee, walk-in only, serving its brunch plates alongside ASAP’s own coffee.

The Barton Arcade room is a soft industrial dining room with original oak flooring and vintage glass lighting, and seating under the arcade’s glass ceiling. Walk-ins are welcome and tables can be booked online. Angel Gardens is split-level, with herringbone timber, terrazzo and plants. The drinks run to espresso drinks and batch brew, with four alternative milks and retail bags of coffee; every coffee is a double shot and milk drinks are steamed to between 60 and 65 degrees. The eggs are free range, the chicken and beef are halal, and the pastry and sourdough come from Half Dozen Other.

Pot Kettle Black does not roast. The coffee is roasted by Ozone, which replaced the Workshop coffee it opened with.

Coffee on the shelf

  • Ozone Coffee Roasters named on the 2026 drinks menu as the coffee at the Pot Kettle Black cafés; the ASAP Coffee site serves ASAP's own coffee

Photograph: Pot Kettle Black