A Walk On The (Not So) Wild Side....

I was back over the Pennines to Manchester to meet up with some old friends the other Saturday. And along the way we took in a couple of taprooms and a few bars, based in a part of the city that not so long ago you would have hesitated to visit during the day, let alone at night. But as we drank beer and ate pizza, it was all very relaxed and convivial....

Was it almost a year since we'd last caught up? I could have sworn we'd had a meet up back in the autumn but all the evidence seemed to point to it having been last June, on the Thursday bank holiday we'd been granted for the Platinum Jubilee. We'd certainly talked about doing it in our WhatsApp group but as often is the case, it hadn't come to fruition, and so this was in essence our de facto annual catch-up, coincidentally on a day when another royal event was taking place, an event which had been succinctly summed up on the cover of the current edition of Private Eye as 'Man In Hat Sits On Chair'.

There had been some talk of the guys, who are all based in Greater Manchester, coming over to this side of the Pennines for once, but in the end we settled on our usual location of Manchester, which suited me just fine, as I'd spent a lot of time in Halifax over the previous week. But, despite being more local than me, they always ask me to sort out where to go, so I decided to take them to some places I was pretty sure none of them would have visited before!

And so, rather than meeting at the usual spot of the Lower Turk's Head on Shudehill, I suggested we met at the Piccadilly Tap, on the approach to Piccadilly Station, for a change, as it was a good starting point for the route I'd got in mind. I got there after a tram ride from Victoria, breaking my journey with a stop at Fopp Records on Brown Street. It was busy at 12.30, with plenty of the outdoor tables already taken, and there were a lot of folk inside too, many wearing Man City shirts, enjoying a pre-match pint or two before heading over to the Etihad to see their team take on Leeds United in an important match for both clubs. I heard someone call my name. It was Fil, the first of the gang to arrive, down in the city from his hideout in Diggle, perched on on one of the high stools by the door. I went to the bar for a pint, all the cask ales were from Yorkshire, and so I opted for a DDH Citra from Saltaire, which was OK, and we repaired to one of the outside tables to await the others. A few minutes later, the North Manchester guys, Jason and JC appeared. Handshakes, hugs, then another pint before Ryan sidled down the concourse to meet us after being delayed by having to sort out the kids in Stockport.

We downed our beers and we were off. Back through the station, and down the escalators to where the taxis wait alongside Fairfield Street. We walked along below the station passing Escape to Freight Island on the other side of the road, then turned left opposite the Star and Garter, and up the road to the home of a couple of breweries. First to the Track taproom, which is probably my favourite one in Manchester, situated on the industrial estate they share with Screwfix, Toolstation, and, oh, another brewery whose name you may have come across before. 

Track Brewing Co; top taproom

It was fairly busy; groups of guys, couples, City fans, hipsters, geeks, the odd family group, a slice of typical taproom life. We ordered the obligatory pint of cask Sonoma, only to be told it wasn't on. Straight on to the kegs, but as I was chatting and didn't make any notes I can't remember what we had, but I remember thinking it was pretty good. The lack of much available seating indoors led to us heading out to a similar-sized space outside which houses a pleasant beer garden. We found somewhere to sit at one of the bench-style tables, not deterred by the odd spot of rain which every now and again made its presence known. It didn't deter us from getting another beer. A great taproom as I have said before; good atmosphere, friendly staff, and some excellent beer.

We repaired to 'the other' taproom on the estate, which situated amongst a number of units they have acquired there in these parts belongs to Cloudwater. Up the stairs and we were there, not too busy, steady away. Like Track, it was my 3rd visit here, and whilst I find it a little claustrophobic compared to the space and airiness across the road, the staff were friendly and welcoming. I ordered pints of Happy, their 3.5% easy-drinking IPA, which was also on keg, and which went down well with the guys as we chatted about this and that. At one time when we caught up most of our conversation would keep veering back towards our times working together, but over the years, particularly as we've now all left, our former place of employment only gets a mention here and there over the course of the day, with more immediate events, family stuff, and football taking over.

The boys: happy drinking Happy

The introduction of taprooms seemed to be going down well with the guys, but there were other places to go. We left Cloudwater and turned right off the estate and a few yards further on, amongst a stretch of roadworks, we turned left on to Great Ancoats Street. This part of Manchester, like many others in the city, is undergoing great change with brand new shiny buildings shooting up, changing the character of what had been in the 19th century an industrial area with mills spinning cotton and silk surrounded by streets of overcrowded slums. The slums, which had been home to many immigrants particularly from Ireland and Italy, were later cleared leaving odd pockets of houses and mills, particularly around the Ashton and Rochdale Canals. The area remained tough, uncompromising, and gritty, and a friend who worked at United Utilities told me that it wasn't that long ago that for safety reasons they'd never send anyone into the Ancoats area to do a job on their own. Whilst it might be an exaggeration to say that the wild side here has been completely tamed, as we headed back towards the city centre passing groups of students and the odd bag-laden shopper it was all very calm and normal. And with many of the old mills now converted to apartment blocks and trendy bars and restaurants popping up in the area, Ancoats is now classed as one of the coolest and trendiest parts of Manchester.

The changing face of Ancoats, Manchester

We passed the empty and overgrown site of a former retail park and shortly afterwards turned right off Great Ancoats Street and on to Blossom Street, where a couple of the guys were already standing outside the Edinburgh Castle (opening image) waiting for us slower walkers. We had been talking about getting food, but nobody objected to popping in here for another pint, all opting for a nice, hazy pale from Mobberley Brewhouse. The pub originally opened in 1811, but this former Whitbread house re-opened in 2019 following a major refurbishment after being closed for many years. It features an impressive long marble-topped bar opposite where you go in, and large mirrors are featured behind the bar and in the somewhat secluded room beyond. Fine dining is available in an upstairs restaurant. All in all, it is a pretty classy but nonetheless a relaxing place to call in for a pint, with stools at the bar and at several high tables catering for those who just want a drink.

Food was calling, so we headed round the corner to Rudy's Neapolitan Pizzeria on Cotton Street, a place I have been to several times over the years, and whose pizzas I think are absolutely wonderful. Although Manchester-based, Rudy's follow the traditional methods used by the pizza makers of Naples, paying particular attention to the lightness of the dough made using a special pizza flour. Ingredients are authentically Italian, with for example the tomatoes being grown in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius, which overlooks the Bay of Naples, and the pizza ovens and other equipment are imported direct from Italy. Having once been home to a thriving Italian community, it made sense for Rudy's to open their first pizzeria in Ancoats, with a growing number having now opened in other cities beyond Manchester such as Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and London. They were not surprisingly busy inside, but we were able to eat at a table in the square outside. Service was quick; little over half an hour later we had demolished 5 pizzas, my calabrese with the spicy n'duja sausage being as excellent as ever. Highly recommended.

Crown & Kettle, Ancoats (Image: Eat MCR)

From there, we moved on to the always-reliable Crown & Kettle, situated in a prominent position on the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road. A tall, rambling building with distinctively high ground floor windows dating from the early 19th century, with several separate rooms and a secluded beer garden, it has undergone several refurbishments over the years which have served to highlight the distinctive ceiling and exposed brickwork of the pub's stunning interior. A high central bar serves the main room and a separate room beyond. As is usually the case these days, it was busy, and with all the seating indoors occupied we grabbed our drinks and went and sat at one of the tables outside on the Oldham Road side, where more high buildings have shot up over the past few years and transformed the streetscape of this part of Manchester, although only a matter of yards away from the Crown & Kettle is a small surviving enclave of terraced housing that once made up so much of this area.

A surviving corner of old Ancoats

It was starting to rain a bit as we finished our beers, so we decided to move on for our next, and in some cases, our final drink of the afternoon. We crossed over at the busy junction, and made our way along Swan Street to the Smithfield Market Tavern in the Northern Quarter. This is another reliable spot for great beer, with the focus on beers from Blackjack Brewery, brewed a mile or so away in the so-called Green Quarter. We walked in and immediately I spotted and went over to see my friends Alex aka Quosh and Sarah who were enjoying a drink before she headed off to the Apollo to see Avril Lavigne. I rejoined the boys at the bar as they were deliberating over what to drink, and I think we all got a pint of Blackjack Session IPA, which was most enjoyable, and it rounded off an excellent afternoon catching up.

The Smithfield Market Tavern

I bade my farewells to those remaining, and set off back to Victoria accompanied by Fil, who had come out for some fresh air before going back to the pub to join Jason and Ryan, and JC, who was getting his tram back to Bury. It had been a great afternoon, good to catch up over some fine beers in a variety of different settings. It was interesting to wander via through a changing and changed part of Manchester, the route offering plenty of other options - Sureshot Taproom, Cask Ancoats, Port Street Beerhouse, The Castle, Bar Fringe, etc - had we fancied somewhere different. And so when we try and arrange our next trip be it later this year or probably next, we have plenty to go at....

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