GUILTY By Association has opened sotto voce on the corner of Stevenson Square and Lever Street.
The new Northern Quarter bar comes from restaurateur Steve Pilling of the Damson restaurants, the Red Lion in High Lane and Liquorice on Pall Mall, which he co-owns with Guilty By Association bar partner, Mark Whyte.
"It's great to be part of the Northern Quarter. If you come to Guilty you're part of it and that's what it's all about."
It's the latest new opening for the once stagnant and stuttering Stevenson Square, buoyed in the past year by the opening of Rosylee Restaurant and Tearooms, The Fitzgerald and From Dusk til Pawn - now please someone do something about the Habib Bank.
Guilty By Association, which opens beneath another soon-to-open bar and diner, Ply (from the chaps behind NQ success story Kosmonaut), will be solely focussed on the wet trade. No scran.
Get Guilty
The drinks menu is centred around 'The Associates', a list of thirteen bouncy new cocktails including the Cookie Monster Mess and Melons For Everyone (from £6.50), alongside five 'Hardhitters', the usual suspects of Sazeracs and Old Fashioneds.
Beers are bountiful at Guilty, with four on draught: Guilty's Lager, Amstel, Warsteiner, Thwaites 13 Guns IPA (from £3.80 a pint) and fridges rammed so full with the bottled stuff that it's hard to take in. There's definitely a healthy selection from punk brewsters Brew Dog and Brutal Brewing in there, alongside some Goose Island, Anchor and Pacifico. There's Rekorderlig cider too, for those who like a sugar punch to the mouth.
There's also six whites, five reds and one rose (from £3.70, £14.95 a bottle) and one prosecco (£25 a bottle).
Guilty has been roughed around the edges, a more handsome and polished Twenty Twenty Two - for those in the Northern Quarter know. Brick peeks through the plaster as car seats huddle around huge wooden cable reels. A solitary AC/DC pinball machine battles a foosball table and a potted plant for attention in the corner.
Open 4pm till late Monday to Sunday, Confidential is told Guilty are soon to whip together a booth to host DJs well into the early hours. This is a welcome addition, Hula across the road has become overcrowded and door staff fussy (more than 3 blokes and you're shafted).
"It's great to be part of the Northern Quarter," said Guilty By Association and Liquorice co-owner Mark Whyte. "If you come to Guilty you're part of it and that's what it's all about." Short. Sweet. Cryptic.
Here's how it looks - we'll put up some better pics soon but we thought we best let you in from the get go.
Co-owner Steve Pilling and a friend
Guilty By Association, Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter, M1 1FB
