One of Manchester’s biggest and best-loved food and drink events is making its big comeback this week, celebrating all things beer right across the city.
Indy Man Beer Con (or IMBC)’s cornerstone event is the beer festival at the historic Victoria Baths, where the old Edwardian swimming pool is filled with bunting and bars.
IMBC was founded by Jonny Heyes of Common & Co fame back in 2012, and now brings together more than 60 brilliant breweries, including Bristol’s Lost and Found and Cheltenham’s Deya.
But the celebrating won’t be confined to Victoria Baths, with a city-wide IMBC Fringe festival also taking over other venues around Manchester.
Takeovers, events and collaborations will seep into bars right through until Sunday evening.
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IMBC will be back at Victoria Baths. Credit: Jody Hartley
One of the big ones will be Runaway to Kampus, with Runaway Brewery Tap Room upping sticks and moving into the Bungalow at Kampus for the whole weekend.
The building-on-stilts at the canal-side neighbourhood will host the four-day residency, in conjunction with Nell’s Pizza and other friends of the brewery.
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There’ll be fresh beer on tap plus a full selection of bottles (including a few rarities from the cellar).
Elsewhere, the award-winning Salford brewery will land at Chorlton’s beloved The Beagle all weekend, taking over the taps with keg and cask offerings.
IMBC will be back at Victoria Baths. Credit: Jody HartleyIMBC will be back at Victoria Baths. Credit: Jody Hartley
On Saturday and Sunday, the Drop Project Den will pitch up at Common with a six-tap takeover and a Shifty special pizza from Nell’s.
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London’s Drop Project are known for creating fresh, premium beers that push creative boundaries.
Back at IMBC at Victoria Baths, there’ll be tasting areas, snug bars in the Turkish Baths, street food and – obviously – plenty of beer.
Traders on site will include Bundobust, Siop Shop, Tikka Chance on Me, Great North Pie, Dim Sum Su, Wholesome Junkies, Honest Crust, and Triple B.
Ticket-holders for the main event are advised to download theIMBC app, which will act as a total guide to all the beers on offer and where to find them, and will also send out alerts for pop-ups and more surprises.
Tickets get you access to the festival and a festival class, with tokens inside priced at £25 for 10 or £2.70 each, with each token entitling you to one third of beer at any Indy Man bar.
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It’s a completely cashless event, and you’re encouraged to take your own vessel for water as, to minimise waste, there won’t be bottles on sale.
One of Manchester’s grandest restaurants has finally reopened TWO YEARS after fire
Daisy Jackson
One of the most historic restaurants in Manchester has reopened at last, two years after a fire forced its closure.
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar – which many of us may remember as Mr Cooper’s – stands within the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel.
The grand dining room dates all the way back to 1903, when it opened with the hotel as the Grill Room.
The restaurant was at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution and was frequented by railway travellers, perhaps best-known for hosting a lunch between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, who went on to form the world-famous Rolls-Royce brand.
The Midland’s restaurants has gone through several changes in the decades since, undergoing a major £14 million refurb in 2020 to relaunch as Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.
Its interiors are inspired by the hotel’s early 1900s art deco and railway heritage, with a menu that focuses on locally-sourced British produce.
But the restaurant has been shut since early 2024, when a fire damaged the entrance and trellising around its main entrance on Mount Street.
The beautiful bar areaA glimpse of the menu at Mount StreetCocktails and British food
The Midland has finally managed to get the restaurant back open again this month, with a new food and cocktail menus, which aims to offer refined but simple British dining.
Expect dishes like pork and black pudding bonbons, white onion soup with crispy potatoes, smoked British salmon with lemon gel and dill mascarpone, and slow cooked beef daube with confit garlic mash.
Plus desserts such as rice pudding with Anise glazed pearsand Bakewell pudding with cherry syrup.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen inside this beautiful, storied dining room – and it looks just as beautiful as we remember.
Daisy Jackson -
30th September 2022 
