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More Excellent Coffee For Manchester
Sleuth loves this addition about to hit the coffee drinking scene. Two top rugby league players are set to show a brainy side to their brutal game at the Barton Arcade in the former Sirocco unit.
Jon Wilkin of St Helens RLFC and Great Britain and Mark Flanagan of St Helens, are teaming up to, as Wilkin told Sleuth, "contribute to the city coffee culture in a great city centre location."
The name of the new place is Pot Kettle Black and here's the website.
The unit in the Barton Arcade
Jon Wilkin"We'll be using Workshop Coffee from London as our primary source but we're also keen to guest local coffee roasters. We really want to show attention to detail in our coffee, in terms of sourcing and roasting, but also understanding the science behind coffee production, how it works with milk and so on," continued Wilkin.
"Pot Kettle Black will be open in October from 7am-7pm on weekdays and from 10am-5pm on weekends but there'll also be events and late night stuff. We'll have all the cakes and the accoutrements of coffee culture, plus healthy sandwiches and salads, beautiful breads and so on.
Flanagan: moody for coffee"We want to nail the coffee first and foremost though. We want to be talked about along with Takk, Grindsmith, and North Tea Power in the Northern Quarter but we wanted to be in a more traditional retail area."
Sleuth wishes the pair luck, Jon Wilkin is one of the more articulate men he's talked with in years.
Probably all that coffee helps the rugby star's vocal fluency, Sleuth hears it addles the brain less than his own booze-based diet.
Jon Wilkin in civvies
Meanwhile Other Things Are More Predictable
Another sportsman, Angel di Maria, arrived in Manchester after signing for Manchester United for £57.9m and went straight to San Carlo. Good restaurant San Carlo, we adore it, we advertise it, but sometimes you do wish for originality among football players. In the office we've been wondering if players get vouchers from United and City, £5 off every meal maybe, at San Carlo and Cicchetti. Being strapped for cash, players would obviously go for the deal and you never see them in any other restaurants.
I got five percent off with my vouchers - and stole Gareth Bale's heart
Own Gaal
Meanwhile Louis van Gaal, the new United manager, was spotted dining not in San Carlo. Amazing. Instead he was was in the very decent 47 King Street West. This sits eight metres over the road from San Carlo. Maybe he'd forgotten his £5 off vouchers.
Sleuth Has A Think And Makes An Offer To United And City
Confidential, through the services of qualified tour guides such as the editor, will offer footballers and their agents a comprehensive half day tour of the city - with refreshment breaks - underlining how good the city has become. They will see all the main monuments and sights, gain a good background knowledge of Manchester and its history, be shown its various quarters and all its best food and drink outlets, retailers, tattoo parlours and car dealerships. £5 off vouchers will be available, along with a guarantee that new players to the city and the UK will be able to enjoy their new city much better.
There is more to Manchester - but do the footy players ever really find out about the city
Sleuth's Customer Service Award Of The Week
This goes to the young woman in Smoak in the Malmaison who with great charm, good knowledge and a fine smile served Sleuth some oysters and loads of meat. Sleuth didn't catch her name but assumes it's Louise because that's the name on the receipt. So Louise, here is a hypothetical Service of the Week award. Unless you aren't Louise then Sleuth thinks you should fight her for it.
A big smile and some chips plus a small silver tub of thing
Sleuth's Overheard Conversation Of The Week: Part One
Sleuth on the tram. Nearby a girl talking to her boyfriend as they held hands.
"You know how bored with my job I am, well there's a BDM job (business development manager) come up at Australasia. We love that place don't we? Not sure whether to apply though."
Pause in the conversation.
"I'm not sure you're good-looking enough to work at Australasia, you know what they're like," said the boyfriend.
Sleuth was looking forward to the slap.
"You're probably right," said the girlfriend unconcerned. "What are we doing this weekend? Off to your mum's?"
Sleuth's Overheard Conversation Of The Week: Part Two
Sleuth was on Deansgate next to Manchester's worst sculpture, the Chopin work by Robert Sobocinski, when he heard this conversation.
Shocking Chopin by Robert Sobocinski
"What's this sculpture?" said the first person.
"It's...er...Chopin," said the second peering at a sign.
"Who was he?" asked the first.
"Dunno," said the second.
"I wonder who did it?" asked the first before continuing with, "Oh I see the name's there. It's by Bruntwood."
"Shame they didn't put his first name as well given all the effort," said the second as the pair wandered off.
Not the sculptor
Manchester's Most Recent Failure Of Imagination
Sleuth is sad. Sleuth is upset. The street variety of Manchester is becoming more and more homogenised. Ok the Labour Exchange on Aytoun Street looked forbidding but cleaned and re-imagined it could have been Manchester's best reimagined Bauhaus-like building.
Going, going...
As the editor has written previously: '(It's a plain building but plain) can also seem lean and fit. Or different. This is the only building of this type and scale from the post-War period in the city centre. British cities tend to offer variety, with different styles of structure next to each other – it’s their charm, a product of the way we do business and look at property.
'The Employment Exchange adds to that interest in Manchester. There’s also a lot of historic distinctiveness going on. How many buildings do we know which span, from conception to construction, the transition of Britain from an Imperial nation to just another European country? How many buildings span three monarchs and an abdication crisis: planned under George V, approved under Edward VIII, and built in the last year of George VI’s reign?'
But now it's gone. Sleuth is sad to have this element of distinctiveness transform into another personality free wall of bland glass.
Gone
Now where has Sleuth seen this before? Ah yes, Birmingham, Hamburg, Stockholm, Madrid, Milan, Bristol, Cracow, Budapest, Brussels and Lyons and on and on
