MANCHESTER’s tallest bar? Easy. It wails for attention every time the wind gets up. But here’s one for you… where would you find Manchester’s deepest bar? No, put down the doobie, not deep as in ‘deep, man’, or deep as in ‘deep house’, but deep as in subterranean.
17 Below is a new new 80s-themed arcade, pool and cocktail bar
There’s a few contenders: Temple? Gas Lamp? Guilty? Corbieres? Corridor? 2022? Hold Fast? Sub101? They’re all up there… or down there, as the case may be.
Well, we reckon we’ve found it, the most underground of all Manchester’s underground bars; it’s new, it's on Bow Lane, and it's a wet dream wonderland for pool sharks and joystick jockeys.
It's called 17 Below (which is actually 60 odd feet below street level, but beneath no.17, you there?), and is a new 80s-themed arcade, pool and cocktail bar from the chaps behind Bow Lane's Dogs n Dough.
Press start to see our gallery below:
The brainchild of retro gaming boffin and Dogs n Dough co-owner Ian Morgan, 17 Below features two full-size American pool tables (bigger balls, bigger pockets), six pristine (free to play) arcade machines and a serious looking wet-list courtesy of business partner James Black.
"Years ago we used to visit Riley's pool hall," explains Morgan. "We'd while away an afternoon, taking it easy and shooting American pool.... problem was the drinks were crap and they'd never clean the beer lines."
"My mantra has always been to open a place I'd like to drink in, and there's nowhere in Manchester with American pool tables, retro arcade machines and great drinks... so we opened one."
They certainly haven't scrimped either, each one of the newly-built retro machines - including 80's favourites Double Dragon, Pac Man and Track and Field - costs two thousand knicker, while Morgan insists the pool tables boast the 'finest cloth' and the 'best balls in the world'. Blimey.
"I'm less of a geek when it comes to the games," says Black, "but I know drinks and I know cool spaces." And these two have helped run a few, including: Socio Rehab, Corridor, Obsidian, the Establishment and Matt & Phred's.
"We'd never label ourselves a 'secret' or a 'speakeasy'," continues Black, "but we so want to keep 17 Below pretty low-key. There'll never be more than 50 people in here at a time because we want people to have room to breathe, somewhere to sit, to be able to get on the machines and on the tables."
"We wanted it to feel a little Goodfellas," says Morgan. "You walk in off the alley, down the stairs, through the restaurant, into a back door and down some more stairs..."
Though it's hard to imagine Ray Liotta's mafioso walking his doll through the back door of this hot dog gaff for an Arcade Cowboy (gin, peppermint and white chocolate) and a bash on Donkey Kong, there's few bars with such underground activitY.
You can find 17 Below beneath Dogs n Dough at 17 Bow Lane (just off Cross Street), Manchester M2 4FW - open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 5pm to 1am (2am Saturdays). 17 Below is also available for private bookings. Visit the website here.
