A Guide to the Best Pubs in Manchester's Northern Quarter (and elsewhere)
Apologies for the quality of the above map (crap scanner!). To get your bearings Piccadilly rail station is just off the top right of the map, and Victoria railstation is at the bottom of Miller St.
Obviously everyone has different tastes when it comes to pubs, however these are the places where you will find good beer, good food and a friendly welcome...and probably me!
But it's Manchester, and what does Manchester do better than the rest of the whole, god damn world? Beer, Beer, more Beer and a decent friendly pub to drink the stuff in!
Manchester's Northern Quarter offers the chance to get seriously pissed without having to venture more than a hundred yards!
The Beer House - Angel Street (Off Rochdale Rd). Position 1 on the map. 0161 839 7019
Probably one of the best and finest range of beers to be found anywhere - not just Manchester! It's a busy and friendly pub run by Idy and Sal, catering for all types - from suits to bikers. On tap there is always a minimum of 12 real ales, 1 mild, two "real" ciders, three Belgian ales, lagers, Guinness and a wide range of bottled foreign beers. A regular bitter is always on tap and is currently Thwaites bitter retailing at £1.10 a pint!! My own little poison at the minute is Hoegaarden Wit beer (I had to give up drinking the Kriek as it makes me go blind in the left eye!) - every Sunday it's only £1.50/pint... BARGAIN!
Beware the Kriek - it makes you go blind in one eye (the left one in my case)!
Food is good, wholesome and excellently priced and special offers on food are available virtually every day of the week... for example Monday is half price menu, Wednesday 5-6p.m. is free chip buttys and Thursday is Rice'n'Three curry night. Vegetarian food is always available. Beer garden, sky TV, dog, cat and function room all available for free.
If you ever see a gibbering fool slumped over the bar hatchway, then that's probably SHALLOW himself...
We've recently set up the Beer House IPOT (Instant Party on Tour) club a.k.a. "Drinking With In-Tent", "Angel Meadow Camping Club", "Gay Jewish Bikers on Tour" - photos can be found in the SHALLOW galleries. Various trips are planned for 1999 and I'm sure the gallery will have to expand to accomodate further embarassing photos!
Beware of the CAMRA lot in the Beer House - sporting straggly beards and elbow patches, usually clutching a 1960's sports bag, full of beermats, bottle tops, half eaten cheese sandwiches, train timetables and probably a severed head...or something equally unsavoury! AND AND AND they never drink pints - just girly halves!
And the last bus home is 23:13!!!! (no matter what anyone else says!) That's if you can find the bloody bus stop. It's all a conspiracy if you ask me!
Bar Fringe - Swan Street. Position 2 on the map. 0161 835 3815
A relatively new comer to the pubs of the Northern Quarter. Formerly the Old White Bear and then Polars Bar (Jeeezzz!), however John & Carmen have done a magnificent job in refurbishing the place. Look out for the "hidden" motorbike! SHALLOW can often be found getting his weekly exercise on the pinball.
Bar Fringe is now specialising in Belgian and German beers, having some 7 or 8 on draught plus the usual lagers, Murphys etc. A couple of real ales are usually available + a real cider (or perry). Food is very good and excellently priced.
Smithfield Hotel - Swan Street. Position 3 on the map.
Another fine range of real ales on tap + food that is good value. Keenly priced B&B rooms are available for those who can't manage to get home! Just a few doors down from the Band On The Wall. Pool table, occasional karaoke and sky TV available.
Castle Hotel - Oldham Street. Position 4 on the map. 0161 236 2945
Robinson's only city centre pub serving the whole of their range! Usually has a lively, friendly customer base - especially when live music is playing in the back room (usually Thursday nights). A word of warning: if the band BACKLASH are playing listen to them from the pub across the road! Watch out for my BACKLASH tribute page...
Centro Bar - Tib Street. Position 5 on the map. Look for the burning gas lamp outside!
New bar in town - with another nice and relaxed Belgian theme. A few Belgian beers on tap, different offers on each night - for example try the Hoegardden submarine...A pint of Hoe with a shot glass of vodka slowly sunk into it. A bit of a mind blower! Also serving Absinthe for the foolhardy!
Food is also excellent, again with a Belgian theme running through it. Downstairs has a 2.00a.m. licence at weekend for those who've not drunk enough by then! Nice selection of bar staff too!
Marble Arch - Rochdale Road. Position 6 on the map. 0161 832 5914
Unusual layout for a boozer - featuring a victorian tiled interior wall, with a floor sloping down to the bar. The Marble has recently started brewing its own range of beers utilising a brewery installed and designed by the infamous Brendan Dobbin, and can be viewed through the glass panels in the back room. The IPA brew is an excellent pint and well worth visiting the Marble for a taste! Other beers include Totally Marbled, Dobber and Ginger Ale.
The Queens Arms - Honey St/Red Bank. Position 7 on the map (virtually on the left hand edge of the map)
Another real ale drinkers paradise (Batemans, Timmy Taylors, Oak beers) - plus another (different) range of European beers on tap, and Westons Traditional cider on tap. Good crowd of people and good value, home cooked food. Large beer garden with children's licence + regular barbies, where a whole carcass of some beast or other can often be seen slowly turning on a spit...
It also sports a pinball table, a bar billiards table, and a quiz night on a Tuesday with "beer" prizes!
The Pot of Beer - New Mount Street. Position 8 on the map. 0161 834 8579
Formerly the Harp and Shamrock, it was to be made surplus to Marston's requirements a few years ago and was subsequently sold and totally refurbished. Quite a small pub, but tastefully renovated and providing a costy atmosphere. Real ales on tap, plus quite a unique cooled stillage at the back of the bar for one or two beers straight from the barrel. Specialising in Polish food.
Some Other Pubs Around The World That Have Taken The Fancy Of SHALLOW
Brodies Bar (Crazy Eddies) - Evesham Road, Headless Cross (Redditch), Worcestershire. 01527 550448
Probably the only decent pub in Redditch (once voted Britain's most boring town). Usually only a couple of real ales on, however they have been brewed specifically for the pub - one of which is aptly named Plonker. Prices are a bit steep for our meager Manchester salaries, but hey, they can afford it down there!
The bar is decked out in a quite staggering array of what can onyl be dscribed as "junk" - road signs, traffic bollards, sit in a bath in the pub window and quietly sip your pint, ogle the fit barstaff or just try and get into some solicitor's knickers... whatever takes your fancy!
New Delight Inn - Jacks Bridge, in the hills above Hebden Bridge, West Yorks
A pub where the Beer House IPOT club decended upon in Nov '98. A few real ales on tap, good food, pool table, friendly locals and a B&B room above the pub that sleeps 8. Beware of the guard dog that resides next to the door and don't throw someone elses socks into its compound - YOU might have to go and retrieve them...
Tipsy Gent - Cherrywood Rd (just off B4128), Bordsley Green, West Midlands. 0121 772 1858
Excellent ever changing range of beers in this two roomed pub. Walls are covered with footy memorabilia - probably because just about everyone in there is a Birmingham City fan. Even so, visiting supports are made very welcome - especially us Shakers fans when we're playing down there! Sky TV and beer garden are all I can remember in the "extras" dept.
The place is absolutely full of barking mad people - some infamous! I must have a trip down in the near future (since I've been updated on certain details about a certain person who frequents the place fnnnr fnnnr). Ever meet someone called Alan - just ask him "what's that stuck to the sole of your shoe...?"
New Hampton Inn - Riches Street (off A41), Wolverhampton. 01902 745773
Varied selection of real ales and good food. Popular pub with Wolves fans when playing at home - again, friendly place for visiting fans. The pub is a busy, corner pub (four roomed) with a wide clientele. Large garden, bowling green, function room with regular live music.
The Vine - Somewhere near West Brom's Ground... Ah just found it in the book... Roebuck St, West Bromwich, near M5 jct 1. 0121 553 2866
Another excellent extended corner pub down in the Midlands. Good range of beer, away footy fans made welcome, and the best bit - it has an infamous dedicated kebab/barbeque room! Well worth a visit, however get your mate to go for the kebabs (unless you actually enjoy queues of forty people).
The Grog & Gruel - 66 High Street, Fort William, Scotland. 01397 705078
Varied range of beer on handpump - some of which run out within hours on being put on. Some very nice "historic ales of Scotland" - brewed by Heather Ale:
Grozet - gooseberry and wheat beer: 5% pale golden beer with a fruit aroma.
Ebulum - elderberry black ale: 6.5% rich dark ale with fruit aroma.
Alba - scots pine ale: 7.5% brown (seriously) strong ale wth a spruce aroma (honest - it even tastes like a goddam christmas tree!)
Fraoch - Heather beer: 5% - light amber ale that tastes like you've fell face first into a peat bog...
Also does a good range of cheap, but good big portions, of texmex fodder.
Morte Subit - Brussels centre - somewhere near the Theatre de la Monnaie.
Excellent olde worlde bar serving the infamous Mort Subite beers on draught - quite a rarity! The bar is all wood panelled, revolving door,antique mirrors, posters and stained glass everywhere to be seen. Typical surly waiters who can be slow to serve - but the beers are well worth the wait! No smoking area in the front half of the bar (miserable bastards...)
A La Becasse - Brussels centre - somewhere off Rue au Beurre (next to an old run down church/holy thingy).
A bar that is hidden away down a tiled alley (bit like entering a public toilet!) just a two minute walk from the Grande Place. Specialises in Gueze/lambic beers served from earthenware jugs. Beware of ordering a litre of Kriek for everyone at the table... you'll end up seriously pissed and totally ruin your touristy plans (and your underwear...).
The James Joyce - Couple of miles out of Brussels (by the Berlemonte EC building). Rue de Archimede. (come out of the Joyce, trip up, fall backwards, and there up above you is Shallow's old penthouse!)
Irish theme bar, often busy with young Irish/English/scottish expats. I lived facing the place for a while and life has never been quite the same since! The Export strength Guinness has an amazing ability to get you seriously pissed - to the extent that the legs of your bed quite often vanish into thin air...
Rudies Bar - New York (somewhere in the Hell's Kitchen district)
Absolutely barking bar in an area that used to be known as Hell's kitchen. Famous for its blues juke box, surly bar staff and free hotdogs day and night! An amazing assortment of people frequent the place - bog standard drunks during the day, trendy young things in the evening. Quite a selection of "out of the ordinary" cold fizzy yanky beers - but at the price of $5.00 for a four pint pitcher, no one's complaining! Dont expect every third pitcher free (known as buybacks) but from our experience...
Rock and Blues Cafe - 1102 W. Evelyn Ave, Sunnyvale (outskirts of South SF), California. Phone 408 739 7939
A recent discovery for SHALLOW - this place has excellent music almgost every night of the week. A typical blues club serving the usual selection of cold fizzy beer and spirits. No smoking, as is the general policy in CA nowadays, but standing outside on the freezing cold patio is a great way to meet the locals! Clientele varies from bikers, suits, leaf blowers and the occasional beautiful young thing playing in a local band - see Stone Gypsy's website for a typical example. SHALLOW is now an honorary member of the Sunnyvale Mexican mafia as a result of frequenting this basr far too long...
Probably more to come as I explore the world of beer on behalf of mankind!