Here's a tour around a number of Manchester pubs and bars in the network of streets between Piccadilly and Great Ancoats Street, including a couple that are settling into life under new ownership....
It had been over two months since I had last been to Manchester so with a spare day I off I decided to go over one of my favourite cities and check out a couple of new bars that had opened recently under new guises. One of them was the Rat & Pigeon, a re-working of a previous pub, Mother Mac's, the other a takeover of the former Pelican bar by new owners, Fell.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it can certainly be a source of frustration too. I thought I knew where the Rat & Pigeon would be, and to be fair I do know Manchester pretty well. But I should really have checked the address before I set off towards Piccadilly. I walked amongst and out beyond the seething masses of Piccadilly Gardens and then looked to where I thought the pub should be...but it wasn't! There was a pub there, but what I'd thought would be the Rat & Pigeon was actually The Waldorf. So much for my local knowledge! Slightly flummoxed, I decided to seek comfort, get my bearings, and decide next actions at the nearby Piccadilly Tap.
The Tap is on the concourse approaching Piccadilly Station, situated amongst numerous food outlets. It was pretty quiet for once, with a few people dotted around the room. I surveyed the beer board. Whilst I like the bar I often find the beer choice here is somewhat conservative, and often featuring beers from Yorkshire. I'm not being funny, but I'm not travelling 30 miles to pay £4.50-plus for Farmer's Blonde when I can get it locally at the Dusty Miller at Hove Edge for less money and it will likely be at least as good. In the end I opted for a half of Woodlands, a 5.5% amber ale with added pumpkins from Thornbridge, priced according to the board at £4.70 a pint. I went to pay for it by card, which then irked me on two fronts. "That'll be £2.65", said the smiling girl as she held the card machine towards me. Now by my calculations it should have been £2.35, so that works out at 30p a half pint premium, or 60p a pint. Cheeky, should only be allowed to be rounded up to the nearest 10p where the price of a pint isn't divisible by 2. And then she said "Just decide which of the options and then tap the top." I got my glasses out. My options were a menu of tips of various amounts. I tapped the no tip option and then paid. Why am I going to pay a tip? I've just walked in, you've just ripped me off, and you think I'll pay a tip before I've even had chance to try my beer? I'll pay a tip if I want after I've enjoyed a meal, but this insidious approach in many pubs these days is a pain. However, all that said, my beer was delicious, cool and well-balanced and in excellent condition (NBSS 4). Calming down, I drank it sat by the window overlooking the concourse and the Manchester skyline, and found the location of the Rat & Pigeon on Google Maps.
 |
| The view from the Piccadilly Tap |
I finished my drink and set off for the Rat & Pigeon. However as I passed the Waldorf across the way it occurred to me that I'd never been in, and so I decided I might as well give it a go. It has an intriguing exterior which it presents to the Piccadilly side, a mural with two fingers approaching with the inscription On the 6th day God created Manchester, whilst in a fenced off bit of rough ground in front of it was a 55-plate red Smart car with black spots as if it were a Ladybird, as opposed to a Beetle. Despite the quirky exterior it was a pretty typical chain pub with wooden floors, TV screens showing live sport, and menus on every table. There were 4 hand pumps on the bar with beers from Taylors and Wainwright Amber, but I went for half of the Kirkstall Three Swords. A group containing at least two Americans were loudly discussing some event or another in what was otherwise a pretty quiet pub, so I headed to the other side of the room to mitigate their impact. The beer was acceptable enough (NBSS 3), and to be fair in many towns and cities across our land the Waldorf would get more recognition, but here in Manchester it is inevitable that it will tend to get overlooked because of the competition.
 |
| The mural on the wall of the Waldorf |
Next up it was off to The Rat & Pigeon. It is situated on Back Piccadilly at the junction with Little Lever Street, which like China Lane and Faraday Street are examples of those narrow streets that criss-cross the larger roads like Dale Street and Newton Street in the section of the Northern Quarter between Piccadilly and Great Ancoats Street. This is still the preserve of many of the old warehouse buildings that grew up around here to support the cotton and clothing industries. Today many have been adapted for other uses but in keeping with the area's roots a couple of large clothing-based companies have their headquarters within this small patch of the city centre; online fast-fashion brand Boohoo PLC are based on Dale Street, whilst the mail order fashion group N Brown are situated on Lever Street.
The Rat & Pigeon is a striking three-storey building with a black painted exterior and a crenelated-effect roof courtesy of a stack of chimneys on the edge of the building. It has been taken on by the people behind the award-winning Crown & Kettle on the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road. It has been opened up as a pub first and foremost, but with events like music and comedy nights alongside traditional pub activities such as darts and pinball. Inside it's all tastefully done out with wooden floors and dark grey painted walls with subdued lighting (opening image). There were three hand pumps on the bar, with the beers on this occasion being Bread & Butter and Heart & Soul from Vocation (what is this obsession of Manchester pubs with offering Yorkshire beers?), plus one from Cumbrian brewers Fell, whose beers I was expecting to come across in the next bar. So I opted instead for a half of the 4.2% Shindigger Session Pale off the taps and sat at one of the tables arranged around the perimeter of the room and chilled to a some good tunes coming from the speakers. And so what did I think of the Rat & Pigeon after all the trouble getting there? It was fine, it is worth a visit, but I suspect it will be one of those places I call in sometimes rather than on every visit to the city. Like the name and the vibe, but on this visit the beer choice was a bit dull. Although regarding the name, as I sat drinking my beer I suddenly started singing in my head There's the Rat and the Pigeon, what am I going to do? which has annoyingly kept coming back into it ever since....
From there it was a few minutes walk away to the new Fell bar on Dale Street, housed in the scaffolding-clad former home of both the now defunct Beatnikz Republic and the now Moorhouses-brewed Squawk, when it was the Pelican. It has been taken on by Flookburgh's Fell Brewery, and joins their other bar a mile or two away in Chorlton, plus bars in Kendal, Penrith, and Cartmel in their native Cumbria. The brewery started out in 2013 and since then they have grown steadily but have tended to be more low-key than many of their contemporaries. With 3 core cask beers, plus various specials and a number of keg beers they have become a more regular sight on the bars of free houses in recent years. I walked in, there were a few people sat around, with a guy sat at the bar busy on his phone, which gave me time to survey the beer board on the back of the bar. The first thing that struck me was that there were a lot of beers from Deya, and when the guy realised I was there, he confirmed that there was a tap takeover from them, after apologising for keeping me waiting (it really was no problem). He also confirmed that they had been open for a couple of weeks, after a bit of a makeover in which they had tried to soften the rather bright interior they had taken over. And with some of the walls repainted in sage green, a few pictures, and more greenery in the way of plants, it does seem cosier whilst still retaining the refectory-style layout.
Anyway, back to the beer. I decided to first of all try a pint from neither Fell nor Deya, but from Neptune, which was Forecast Bitter, which I'd not had for a while. And I wasn't disappointed, this 3.9% ABV brown beer was fruity and moreish (NBSS 3.5). As the place got busier as the post-work crowd began to drift in, I tried a couple of halves off the keg lines; firstly Fell's own nitro stout, the 4.2% Dry Cumbrian Stout, which was cool and delicious, and then one from Deya, the interestingly-named Bang Bang Bang from the Bass, a 5.8% pale featuring Azacca, Citra, and Strata hops which gave it some juicy tropical flavours. I like this latest incarnation of this building, and I am sure it will become a regular port of call for many when in this part of town.
 |
I headed down Tarriff Street, passing but not stopping at the Northern Monk Refectory, heading in a Port Street-ward direction. As I approached the corner I noticed that the pub on the corner of Hilton Street and Port Street had had something of a makeover, although the original tiling and impressive Chesters lettering were still there. And so, continuing in the spirit of trying out new places, I decided to go in to the Crown & Anchor. I had been here years before, but I couldn't remember anything about it. I spotted a solitary hand pump on the bar serving Taylors Landlord amidst a stack of taps, so I ordered a half. A guy at the side of me got chatting, he was originally from Derby, now lived in Spain, but worked in Manchester and rented a flat in Ancoats. The lad who'd served me joined the conversation, he was a business student at the university from Jersey, and for 20 minutes we had a really good natter about this and that, and whilst the Landlord was decent enough (NBSS 3), the main take away from here was the sense of being in a local pub with a friendly atmosphere, rather unexpected given the more aloof and hipster vibe in several of the places in the vicinity.
 |
| Friendly pub; the Crown & Anchor |
From there it was less than a minute's walk to the Port Street Beer House, an always-reliable source of good beer in this part of the city. Indeed last time I had been in I was in raptures over my first encounter with Sureshot's 3.9% session pale, Small Man's Wetsuit which was drinking particularly well that day. There was none of that on today, but I have to say that did enjoy my half of Running Pale, a 3.4% hazy and refreshing pale from Stockport brewers Runaway, which I felt was worth a NBSS 3.5 rating. The pub was doing a steady trade with people coming and going as I sat unusually for here on a stool in front of the bar, something I have never had the opportunity in all the years I have been visiting this excellent pub.
 |
| Port Street Beer House |
By now I was getting decidedly hungry, and so I went in search of rice and three. When Martin Taylor visited the Rat & Pigeon shortly after it opened, he had combined his visit with curry at Cafe Marhaba, which he had rated highly. I had walked past there myself, but that was a few hours ago, when I wasn't hungry. I also had to think about catching the train home, and to go back to Cafe Marhaba now would mean I was heading in the wrong direction, so it was off my old favourite This & That just a few minutes walk from Victoria. Here I enjoyed my rice accompanied by lamb and carrots, keema, and chicken curry, and as usual it really hit the spot, and set me up for the train journey home.
I had about 20 minutes to wait for my train, so I called in at the Victoria Tap for a quick half. I spotted a Shindigger beer on hand pump, and having only seen them on keg before, I ordered a half of this 4.5% pale. When I came to pay, the lady behind the bar didn't give me the option of tipping, unlike their sister bar at Piccadilly earlier in the day, which was fine by me! The beer was quite enjoyable and refreshing (NBSS 3), but my tastebuds were still in curry mode so it was probably not the best time to judge! And then it was off for the train after having had an excellent afternoon hopping around a number of different pubs and bars in the city, some that I had never or hardly visited before. It just shows once again that there's always plenty to discover in this fantastic city....
Follow me on twitter/X: @realalemusic
Comments
Post a Comment