Eats

Some of Manchester’s best independent bars to sip a cocktail at this weekend

Fancy a cocktail this Bank Holiday weekend? Here's our picks for places to hit up.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 28th August 2020
Arcane

Manchester is a place full of independent bars on every corner and we’re lucky to call a city with such a vibrant variety our home.

If it’s a cocktail you’re after sipping in a socially-distanced setting this Bank Holiday weekend, then there’s plenty of local hangouts worth adding to your list.

The popular #EatOutToHelpOut scheme might be drawing to a close on Monday, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop supporting our city’s hardworking independent bars at a time when they still continue to need our help more than ever.

The list of places worth mentioning here is endless, but we’ve narrowed down a few of our favourites so, in no particular order, here’s our picks for some of the best independent bars to sip a cocktail at this weekend:

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Dusk Til Pawn

Northern Quarter

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Come on in, warm up and grab a drink. Here till 3am xo

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At first glance, Dusk Til Pawn might not be quite what you think it is, but hidden behind a pawn shop storefront in the heart of the Northern Quarter, this “prohibition-chic lounge” is serving up some of the best craft cocktails, wine and beer that the city has to offer.

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You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Dusk Til Pawn website here.

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Science & Industry

Northern Quarter

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Sitting on the first floor of popular Northern Quarter hangout Cane and Grain, Science & Industry is Manchester’s most “experimental” cocktail bar.

The focus of this eccentric hideaway is to provide customers with a new and exciting style drinking, and a dedicated drinks laboratory has been created within the bar for experimentation with flavour and scientific techniques, which allows it to develop unique cocktails.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Science & Industry website here.

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Arcane

South King Street

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It may be tucked away underground on South King Street – just off Deansgate’s main thoroughfare – but with an extensive menu of drinks and cocktails prepared by some of the city’s most-knowledgeable artisans, Arcane really isn’t one to be missed.

This is one of Manchester’s most eclectic, bold and inspired bars on the scene.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Arcane website here.

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Speak In Code

Jackson’s Row

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Speak In Code is an award-winning bar in the heart of the city centre that prides itself on focusing on quality, service and an imaginative offering of cocktails.

There also looks to have been quite a few new additions to the ever-expanding cocktail menu over this past month too – from martinis and negronis, to mojitos and gins – so there’s sure to be something for every taste if you’re heading down there over Bank Holiday weekend.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Speak In Code website here.

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Behind Closed Doors

Northern Quarter

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Behind Closed Doors is the home of “sex, rugs and funk ‘n’ soul”.

A good time is pretty much guaranteed at this self-proclaimed “debauched cocktail bar” in the heart of the Northern Quarter, playing boogie, soul and up-beat funk all night long, with an extensive and varied drinks menu that only adds to the fun.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Behind Closed Doors website here.

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Wood & Company

South King Street

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Another popular underground South King Street hangout, Wood & Company’s eclectic range of spirits are constantly being updated and added to, making it the perfect place to grab a cocktail in the city centre over this Bank Holiday weekend.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Wood & Company website here.

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Sammy’s

Ancoats

Fancy stepping back in time for a cocktail this weekend?

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If that answer to that was yes, then just a bit further out of the city centre in Ancoats is Sammy’s – a completely retro 1970s-themed cocktail bar. Sure, it might be hidden in plain sight with no on-street signage, but once you step inside, it isn’t somewhere you’re going to forget.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Sammy’s Cocktail Bar website here.

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Three Little Words

Great Northern

Three Little Words is more than just gin.

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Nestled in the historical arches beneath Manchester Central and sitting next to the Spirit of Manchester Distillery, Three Little Words is staffed by bartenders who “obsess over the perfect ingredients and yearn for a creative concoction”. You can settle in for an hour or an evening to enjoy immaculate drinks, intimate corners and an atmosphere you’ll want to “take home with you”.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Three Little Words website here.

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Alvarium

Northern Quarter

Alvarium is the neighbourhood bar with “Manchester at its roots”.

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Not only is this popular Northern Quarter hangout a real gem for cocktail lovers – with an extensive menu of both classic and signature tipples – but it should also be top of your list if you’re a dog-lover too as pups are always welcome here.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Alvarium website here.

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The Whisky Jar

Northern Quarter

The Whiskey Jar is a “whiskey bar with a cocktail focus” and it has undoubtedly become one of the Northern Quarter’s favourite spots.

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Currently stocking 350+ whiskies, this old textile mill has been beautifully restored with it’s upstairs bar playing host to a range of popular nights over the years, and the fully-functioning basement event space also complete with bar, seating and a fantastic sound system with DJ equipment.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via The Whiskey Jar website here.

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One Eight Six

Deansgate

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The ‘ Smokey Old Fashioned’ done properly…🥃

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One Eight Six is one of Manchester’s most exciting cocktail clubs, music venues and barbershops hidden away on the main stretch of Deansgate. Whether it’s a traditional cocktail you’re after, or something a little more unique, you’ll find it all on the menu here.

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You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the One Eight Six website here.

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Cottonopolis

Northern Quarter

Cottonopolis really knows what it’s doing when it comes to cocktails.

If the selection of drinks on offer wasn’t already as extensive enough as it is, there’s now a brand new summer cocktail menu just launched and it couldn’t be more perfect to try out this Bank Holiday weekend.

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You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Cottonopolis website here.

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Convenience Store

Northern Quarter

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Easy #CONstore

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Welcome to your “friendly neighbourhood convenience store”.

Convenience Store is another Northern Quarter gem where everything isn’t initially as it seems. Although it may not look like it, but masked inside this typical corner shop exterior is one of the city’s most original cocktail bars.

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You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Convenience Store website here.

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Wolf At The Door

Northern Quarter

Wolf At The Door is often top of the list for tacos in the city centre, but don’t discount its cocktail menu either, which features a selection of the classics and a couple of originals too.

There’s something for everyone.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Wolf At The Door website here.

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Affleck and Brown

Northern Quarter

Affleck and Brown really is one for cocktail lovers.

With an extensive menu boasting an array of signature cocktails, a collection of the classics, and even a full selection of different Espresso Martini variations too, you just can’t go wrong.

You can find drinks menus, booking details, opening times and more information via the Affleck and Brown website here.

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The COVID-19 pandemic may have taken its toll on industries of all shapes and sizes over these past few months, but supporting local/independent business has never been more important than it is right now.

Do your bit – support local.

The Manc is #BuzzingToBeBack – find out more about eats in Manchester here.

Eats

Two Greater Manchester restaurants have been named in Time Out’s 15 best restaurants in the UK

Danny Jones Danny Jones Time Out name two Greater Manchester restaurants among the 15 best in the UK

Not one but two restaurants in Greater Manchester have been named on Time Out‘s list of the 15 best restaurants in the UK.

The highly regarded lifestyle magazine is always pumping out these rankings across the board and with decades of pedigree behind them, it goes without saying that people still take their recommendations very seriously – ourselves included.

So, when we saw that a pair of local food spots were named on the most recent round-up, flying the flag for Manchester’s thriving culinary scene, we were obviously buzzing.

But what two places have they picked out?…

Erst – Ancoats

Erst Manchester best restaurants in the UK Time Out
erst manchester reviews
Erst leads the Manchester front on Time Out‘s best restaurants in UK (Credit: The Manc Eats)

In at number three on Time Out‘s list of the best restaurants in Britain was the ever-impressive Erst, which we can confidently vouch for serving up some of the best food in the city centre just off Cutting Room Square for over half a decade now.

It’s one of those places that feels like it should have a Michelin star even if doesn’t have one right now, building a glowing reputation around two core pillars: incredible natural wine and stunning small plates.

Genuinely not that expensive considering the sheer level of quality on show, the magazine writers Leonie Cooper and Lucas Oakeley spotlight offerings such as the Cantabrian anchovies that are “excellently sourced and devilishly salty” as well as “inventive plates” like the mussels in escabeche with Marinda tomatoes, lardo and sourdough. Hard agree.

Where The Light Gets In – Stockport

where the light gets in menu
michelin star restaurant stockport
Credit: Where The Light Gets In

Second up for Greater Manchester is going to annoy all those ‘it’s always been Cheshire’ die-hards but we’ll absolutely be claiming this one; it’s Where The Light Gets In tucked away on Rostron Brow, right near Stockport‘s historic market square.

Boasting a green star from Michelin and an incredible wine-pairing selection to compliment every course, this vegetable-driven dining experience is one of the very best we here The Manc Eats have ever enjoyed.

The menu changes every time you visit and the entire place feels like something special and bespoke. Time Out describes it as serving up “plates of food have nothing to hide and showcase the best ingredients from the farmers and fishermen that chef/owner Sam Buckley has spent years building an intimate relationship with”, summing it by adding, “Sustainability has never tasted so good”.

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We’re obviously biased but there are definitely a few more places around Greater Manchester that we’d throw in that for Time Out‘s list but, who knows, maybe they’ll make it on there next year?

Either way, we’re just happy to celebrate two absolutely top-tier eateries in two very distinct parts of the region – it’s not all just city centre spots and it never will be.

Are there any amazing Manc restaurants that you think should have made the list?

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group/Where The Light Gets In

Eats

The quirkiest pubs in Manchester, from wonky buildings to 7am pints to BYO chippy teas

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Pubs are an integral part of British culture, and nowhere does them better than Manchester – in our humble opinion.

We’ve got tiny ones, giant ones, shiny ones and ancient ones.

There are some that serve seriously fancy gastropub food and others that serve a whole menu of crisps – and one that just encourages you to bring a chippy tea in with you.

There are real ale pubs, craft beer pubs, taprooms, and pubs that also do pretty good cocktails.

Whatever your brief is for the perfect boozer, Manchester will have somewhere that fits the bill.

We’ve rounded up some of Manchester’s quirkiest pubs that offer something a little… unexpected.

Temple Bar, Oxford Road

It is always, always that trip to the toilets that makes you realise you’ve tipped over into inebriated – staring at yourself in the mirrors above the sinks thinking ‘Oh, yup, too many pints’.

Here in Manchester, it can also be a trip to the toilet that gets you sozzled in the first place.

The Temple – or Temple of Convenience to give it its full name – is a tiny subterranean drinking den that in the Victorian era, was actually a public toilet.

It’s so narrow you can almost reach wall-to-wall if you stand with your arms outstretched.

But down here you’ll also find a great selection of bottled beers, a jukebox, and bags of charm.

100 Great Bridgewater Street, M1 5JW

The Victoria Tap, Manchester Victoria

Victoria Tap is open in Manchester now
Victoria Tap is open in Manchester now
Inside Victoria Tap in Manchester
Inside Victoria Tap in Manchester

What makes The Victoria Tap such a little gem? For one, it’s taken what was a literal bin store and turned it into a genuinely beautiful drinking den.

For two, as it’s inside the train station, it’s got a departures board – the twist being that it tells you how many pints you can drink before your train leaves.

And to be honest, we’d quite like to use pints as a unit for measuring time forever more.

The new craft beer bar has also built a small beer garden on its far side, where trams slide past within inches of the boundary wall.

Victoria train station, M3 1WY

The Marble Arch, Rochdale Road

Come, venture slightly beyond your comfort zone of the city centre and Ancoats – for just beyond you’ll find one of Manchester’s very best pubs.

The Marble Arch building has been here since 1888, and to this day is one of the most impressive historic pubs in the UK.

Its tiled walls, ornate ceilings and mosaic floors, not to mention its roaring fire and its beautiful wooden bar, are just part of the charm.

One of the strangest experiences when visiting The Marble Arch is the way the bar seems to draw you in to it.

It’s all thanks to its gently sloping floor – some say it’s this way to make rolling barrels easier, others say it’s for cleaning, but out favourite theory is that it’s to encourage inebriated customers to totter back to the bar for another round.

73 Rochdale Road, M4 4HY

The Seven Oaks, Chinatown

Image: Geograph

By day, The Seven Oaks is a fairly normal pub – a lot of beer, a lot of sports, a lot of regulars.

But by night, it becomes the stuff of hospitality legend.

This is the pub for people who work in pubs, a place where the hospitality staff normally pouring drinks for everyone else can come and have their own after work – even if they happen to finish work at 4am.

Built for the people who work ‘the wrong 9-to-5’, if you’ve got proof of working in the hospitality industry, this Chinatown pub is the place to come for late night, or early morning, pints.

5 Nicholas Street, M1 4HL

Peveril of the Peak, Great Bridgewater Street

Image: Adam Pester

You cannot miss the Peveril of the Peak.

Not only is it clad all over in ceramic tiles in vibrant shades of chartreuse and mint green, but it also stands alone at the fork in a road.

Manchester’s only detached pub has been here since the early 19th century, with a jumble of cosy rooms arranged around a central bar.

Inside, there are all the best sorts of pub trimmings, like a jukebox and a dart board.

It’s also had the same landlady for 51 years – Nancy Swanick, 90, is pretty legendary in her own right.

127 Great Bridgewater Street, M1 5JQ

Circus Tavern, Portland Street

Image: Commons Wikimedia

In stark contrast to the Peveril of the Peak, The Circus Tavern is very much a pub you can miss.

This tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it drinking den is home to the smallest bar in Europe.

Don’t expect a massive selection of beers here – there simply isn’t room.

It’s the weeniest pub in Manchester and also one of its oldest, dating back to 1840 (though the building was here even earlier).

Back in the day, it used to be a regular haunt of circus performers (hence the name), and Manchester United players, including George Best.

86 Portland Street, M1 4GX

The Old Wellington Inn, Exchange Square

The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city's quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city’s quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city's quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group
The Old Wellington pub in Manchester is one of the city’s quirkiest. Credit: The Manc Group

When you’re nursing your drink in the Old Wellington, you’re surrounded by masses of history.

The city centre pub is the oldest building of its kind in Manchester, dating all the way back to 1552.

Back in those days, the walls, floors and ceilings were all wonky, and the ceiling beams were so low that punters had to duck when they were walking around. 

The pub might be ancient, but strangely, it hasn’t always been here on Exchange Square. 

The medieval building actually used to be about 70 metres down the road, and had to be moved bit by bit and piece by piece after the IRA bomb in 1996.

Over the course of two years, both the Old Wellington and Sinclair’s Oyster bar were completely rebuilt in their new home here, where they still stand as two of Manchester’s most amazing pubs – and pull some of the city’s cheapest pints. 

4 Cathedral Gates, M3 1SW

Mother Mac’s, Back Piccadilly

Mother Mac's, a historic pub in Manchester, has closed down
Mother Mac’s, a historic pub in Manchester, has closed down

Back Piccadilly in the city centre isn’t exactly a wholesome location as things stand – there’s a lot of graffiti, rows of bins, the occasional rat, and (if you’re really unlucky) human faeces.

But if you travel back in time to 1976, things get significantly more bleak. We’re talking mass murder bleak.

A previous landlord of the Mother Mac’s pub turned and killed his wife, then his three children, then the pub’s cleaner, before setting the building ablaze and killing himself.

Mother Mac’s has now actually closed, with plans to turn it into a new pub called the Rat & Pigeon – which is fitting, given that’s mostly what will be walking past.

33 Back Piccadilly, M1 1HP

The Shakespeare, Fountain Street

Image: Wikimedia Commons

If you’re a fan of a ghost story, this is the pub for you.

The Shakespeare on Fountain Street – directly across the road from Primark – has had plenty of paranormal activity, if we believe the reports of its customers (who, admittedly, are likely to have been worse for wear).

Punters have reported seeing a flaming ghost at the top of the stairs, believed to be the spirit of a young girl who accidentally set herself alight while lighting candles at the inn.

It’s also said to be haunted by a former chef who hung himself here – you can apparently still see the rope marks on one of the ceiling beams.

Spooky past aside, The Shakespeare is a good-value pub with a menu of typical pub fare.

16 Fountain Street, M2 2AA

Briton’s Protection, Great Bridgewater Street

The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group
The Britons Protection. Credit: The Manc Group

Famed for its Jack Daniel’s collection, the Briton’s Protection draws in whiskey fans from across the globe.

Every year the owners travel to Tennessee to make bespoke casks – and they’ve even created a Jack Daniel’s-themed room in a snug behind the bar.

Home to some exceedingly rare bottles, including one with an unaired Sinatra concert recording hidden in a tie clip, collectors pay thousands for bottles from the Manchester casks.

That’s not all, though. The pub’s history dates back to the Peterloo massacre, attested to by a mural in its hallway.

Not entirely historically accurate, look closely and you’ll spot some of the rebels bear a striking resemblance to famous Manchester footballers.

Apparently, the previous owner was a bit of a fan.

Great Bridgewater Street

Cask, Liverpool Road

This beautiful teal-fronted pub on Liverpool Road makes this list for a few reasons – the main one being that you can bring your chippy tea in with you.

Cask has become a firm favourite with Manchester beer-lovers in the two decades since it opened, boasting perhaps the most comprehensive selections in the city.

There are imports from across Europe, America and even further afield, plus a cracking selection of board games and a brilliant jukebox.

And yes, our favourite bit is nipping next door to The Fish Hut and bringing a chippy tea back to your table – you just have to agree to tidy up after yourself.

Liverpool Road, M3 4NQ

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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