One of Manchester’s newest cocktail bars has swooped into the prestigious Top 50 Cocktail Bars list just six months after it opened.
Blinker, which is on Spring Gardens, said it was ‘thrilled’ and also ‘taken by surprise’ to receive the recognition so early on.
The gorgeous bar was opened in May by ex-Gordon Ramsay bars boss Dan Berger, and has gone from strength to strength.
It features an entire menu of martinis, plus another of old fashioneds, while the rest of the cocktail offering changes seasonally to champion local ingredients.
Where Blinker has placed in The Top 50 Cocktail Bars list will be unveiled at a glittering event in February, but the bars have begun to be notified of their entries into the prestigious guide.
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Blinker’s cocktails. Credit: The Manc GroupBlinker. Credit: The Manc Group
In recent years, Manchester’s bar scene has really elbowed its way into the top 50, with both Speak in Code (10th place) and Schofield’s bar (16th) making the 2022 list.
Last year’s top spot was nabbed by Lab 22 in Glasgow, with London and Edinburgh dominating most of the rest of the top 10.
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On receiving its award, Blinker wrote: “We are thrilled to receive this after only existing for 6 months! To be included in the top 50 cocktail bars for the UK has taken us by surprise and we thank everyone who believes and supports us! Excited for the event in London come February!”
When The Manc Eatspopped down to Blinker during its opening week, we were blown away by the martini offering and by the bar’s signature cocktail, a deliciously strong Prohibition-era cocktail called the Blinker, which fell out of favour when whiskey sours surged in popularity.
Our review said: “A combination of raspberry, grapefruit, and rye, it blends winter citrus and corn whisky in perfect harmony and will do much to appease Pornstar martini fans once they realise their passionfruit favourite is nowhere to be found.
“And if that doesn’t do it, Blinker’s Champagne martini certainly will.
“Unable to resist that particular section, we dove straight in with a classic Martinez – which seemed fitting, being the direct precursor to the martini – before moving on to sample a dry Vesper martini and a sweet Champagne martini, both viscously ice-cold.
“We try other things too: a sharp and frothy rhubarb sour, a fiery ginger and rhubarb drink, a tropical old-fashioned, and a Southside fizz, but after leaving I just can’t stop thinking about the martinis.”
Featured image: The Manc Group
Eats
Manchester’s Cat Café is set to reopen four years after its closure
Danny Jones
Feline fans, rejoice, because Cat Café Manchester looks like it is reopening more than four whole years after its unfortunate closure.
The city centre’s much-loved cat café – the only one of its kind in Greater Manchester and among just a small handful in the North West – closed back in 2021 following unavoidable economic struggles brought about by the pandemic
Despite being hugely popular before having to shut its doors, the business was unable to reach an agreement with their landlord at the time and the owners were left with no other choice than to close permanently – or so we thought…
Seemingly back from the dead and published their first post since 11 January 2021, the official Instagram page shared just one line along with a picture of their soon-to-be new premises.
Briefly teasing fans ahead of an official announcement, the post reads: “Manchester we’ve missed you! There’s only one thing this place needs…”
The shot taken across the road from Manchester’s historic Barton Arcade shows the large shopfront unit on the main Deansgate strip where the original Classic Football Shirts store used to be.
As you can see, although the vintage footy kit reseller’s brand and decals still remain plastered on the windows, the two-storey location has been vacant since October 2023 when CFS moved their flagship Manchester branch to Dale Street in the Northern Quarter.
We’ve personally been wondering what might take the old venue’s place for a while now, with the rest of the Grade II-listed Victorian shopping arcade populated by food and drink spaces, a barbershop and fashion retailers like The R Store, but after all this time the last thing we expect was the Cat Café.
This will no doubt come as wonderful news to the countless fans who were gutted to see it disappear just a few short years ago.
At the time, a fundraiser was set up in an attempt to rescue it and the pet-forward coffee shop format also paved the way for similar ventures like this one over Salford.
Although we’re still yet to hear any more details regarding a possible reopening date, we can safely assume their four-year hiatus will be coming to an end sometime in 2025.
When they were still up and running, the café had 10 resident cats at their original site on the edge of NQ, now home to one of two Gooeys in Manchester.
It is worth noting that there were some concerns raised around hygiene and animal welfare, though we’re sure steps have been taken to address these issues in the interim.
The Didsbury Dozen loses one of its best as The Dockyard confirms closure
Danny Jones
The Didsbury Dozen has lost one of its strongest stops as the much-loved Dockyard sadly closed for good this past weekend.
A favourite among those taking on the popular Greater Manchester pub crawl and a busy bar in its own right along the main Didsbury Village strip, The Dockyard has been a staple of South Manchester boozing for some time.
However, it’s time as part of the Dozen and in the heart of the community has come to an end, with the staff having completed their final service on Sunday, 19 January.
Sharing a short but heartfelt goodbye on social media, they welcomed customers to join them one last time “to raise a glass and say cheers!”.
An unreal beer garden too. (Credit: The Manc Group)
The post begins: “Right Didsbury… Thank you so much for your welcome and custom when we arrived here in the village, but the time has now come to say goodbye. We have had a blast over the last four years and we hope you have too!”
Although many relatively new to the area or at least its drinking scene will only know it as The Dockyard, the venue has actually been under a lot of names over the years.
Originally known as Times Square, it was then refurbished into a branch of O’Neills in 1996 before going on to re-open as The Stokers Arms in 2014.
Nevertheless, it maintained a regular and loyal following as The Dockyard and many will be “sorry to see it go”; one person commented: “Oh no! We had a fab time in here over Christmas and [were] hoping to return soon. Sorry to see you go and I will be visiting your other sites.
Thankfully, they did go on to confirm that the remaining pubs in Salford Quays and Northwich will remain open – as is the Left Bank location in Spinningfields overlooking the River Irwell. Better still, the building itself will still remain a pub and we already know what’s taking its place:
Although there is still no news on when we can expect to see The Salmon’s second venture launch, if it’s anything like the success the Northern Quarter one has seen then we’re in for a treat.
So don’t worry, The Didsbury Dozen may have taken a hit but it’s still intact and there are plenty of other pubs you can work into the crawl in the meantime.
For now, though, all we can say is rest in peace to The Dockyard Didsbury, you were a real one – we’ll always have the memories.
Daisy Jackson -
14th December 2022 
