Manchester takeaway 'buzzing' after Nicki Minaj orders food from them TWICE whilst performing in the city

The owners of a popular Manchester takeaway said they are ‘absolutely buzzing’ after Nicki Minaj personally requested food from them whilst in the city.

The American rapper brought her Pink Friday 2 World Tour to Manchester’s Co-op Live for two sold-out shows last Thursday (May 30) and on Monday (June 3).

Ahead of the first show at the venue, Nicki’s team reached out to Caribbean street food eatery Jerk Junction, which has venues in Chorlton, Altrincham, MediaCity and Wilmslow, to ask them to provide meals for the rapper and her team.

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Mel Wynter, Jerk Junction’s Head of Operations, said Nicki’s team reached out after receiving a personal recommendation from, of all people, legendary American rapper Nas.

“It’s all just stemmed from word of mouth, really,” Mel told the Manchester Evening News. “Last summer when Nas was doing Parklife, his team got in touch with us to make some food for them. Everybody’s quite connected so when Nicki’s team were coming over, they hit up Nas’ team for recommendations and then got in touch with us.”

Mel said that ahead of the first show, the MediaCity restaurant, at Kargo MKT, was contacted with the huge order - made up of portions of jerk chicken, jerk salmon, chicken wings and sticky prawns, alongside sides of plantain and rice and peas - and they decided to go all out on the occasion.

“It was absolutely go, go, go,” Mel explained. “We were running around getting everything ready, but we also wanted to make it extra special and personalised for them. We created some custom t-shirts and I even made some cupcakes for Nicki.”

The pink t-shirts featured the slogan ‘Nicki's Free’, in reference to the rapper’s recent detainment in Amsterdam on May 25. The musician said she spent around six hours in custody at Schiphol Airport before leaving the Netherlands for the UK. It meant her first originally cancelled show in Manchester, due to take place that evening, was cancelled at short notice and rescheduled to Monday night (June 3).

Jerk Junction also bought a pair of pink shoes from Spinningfields shoe shop Clints Inc. to gift to Nicki alongside the order. Hand-delivering the food to the singer’s team, the Jerk Junction staff were then invited backstage before getting to enjoy the show with complimentary VIP tickets.

“It was a really big order, we did about 21 meals and we did wonder if it was actually going to be for her or not,” Mel said, “but we were told she was the one that wanted the order. Before her team even took the food from us on the first night, they said they might need us again on Monday.

"We were waiting in anticipation to see if they liked the food and we knew that if we didn’t get the call back then they didn’t like it. Thankfully, they reached out and we did it all again.”

Speaking about the reaction, Mel said: “They just said thank you so much, they loved it and they will be in touch when they're back in. We didn't get to meet Nicki herself, as she is quite a private person, but we were told she loved it."

She added: "It just gives us that confidence that if another artist is performing in Manchester, they will know that we’re the people to come to here. We know that good Jamaican food in the UK can be quite hit and miss - our food is proper authentic and it speaks for itself.

“It just helps put us on the map even more here in Manchester, it solidifies who we are and that people can trust us when it comes to that authentic Jamaican food.”

Mel said staff at Jerk Junction were ‘absolutely buzzing’ to have been able to make food for Nicki. “It’s a really big thing for us, we’re buzzing,” she said. “Everybody is wearing the T-shirts and telling their friends and grandkids about it - everybody is very jealous of it!”

And as for whether they will be serving any more high-profile artists at Parklife again this year, Mel added: “We’re on standby and ready to go!”

Jerk Junction is at Kargo MKT, Quayside Media City, M50 3AG.