SleuthSleuth is a sideways glance at the city every week, it's the truth, but Sleuth's truth. He's several people all at once. We give £25 for every story/rumour and piece of absurdity you find for us to publish. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious. We ask for the money back if any legal action follows. Follow Sleuth on twitter @mcrsleuth
Mr Martini's New Deansgate Restaurant
Sleuth got wind this week of a change on Deansgate. A friend in the industry told Sleuth that Don Marco, the Italian restaurant on Liverpool Road in Castlefield, had got its hands on a small cafe unit by Great Northern on Deangate and was to install a mini-Marco with 20 seats. Sleuth called the Don to check. "Oh no," said the manager. "That's not us." "Then who has got it?" asked Sleuth. "That's our friend... Mr Martini." The news shook Sleuth, and stirred him too.
Mr Martini... probably
Another Week Another New NQ Bar
New Northern Quarter bar announcements are like Sleuth's weekly call from his mother. Sleuth's never sure exactly when in the week it'll come, but Sleuth's 100% sure it will come. So another week and another NQ bar has been announced. Eleska will open on 20 September at 58-60 Dale Street, just past the trendy new'ish kids on the block (El Capo, Takk, Kosmonaut). Details are currently scarce, but Sleuth has a hunch there'll be exposed brick and ceiling piping, distressed dark wooden flooring, hanging caged lighting pendants, red neons, 'bespoke' cocktails, sharing platters and a guy behind the bar that 'lives for craft beer, man'.
Big Pancho's For Oxford Road
Sleuth loves a burrito. Sleuth loves any food that fills him like a fat lady's sock. Pancho's Burritos, the affordable Mexican double-header of Arndale Markets fame, has got hold of a unit at the Quadrangle on Chester Street (by Zouk just off Oxford Road) and currently has a premises licence under review. Sleuth's pleased. Greedy students will be pleased. Chango's Burrito down the road... probably not so much.
Pancho's Burritos - a boulder of food
Man With Cross Not Cross
Sleuth wandered along Mount Street to Albert Square and looking up saw a man frowning down. “You ok?” called up Sleuth. “I am indeed,” said St Andrew from his lofty spot on the old (1872) Scottish Widows Assurance Building. “I thought I was going to have to pack my bags and take the bus north but after the right result in my homeland I still feel very welcome here.” "But you don't look very happy," said Sleuth. "I can't help how the sculptor set my face," replied the old saint, "a bit like Gordon Brown can't help his, but inside I'm delighted."
Vote X for No
Burnham On The Hill
Sleuth was at the Blackley and Broughton Labour Party gathering on Thursday at Saffron Lounge in the former Town Hall on Cheetham Hill Road. Local MP and Confidential correspondent Graham Stringer was being superbly supported by Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham. Good speaker, good brain, witty. “I’m the MP for Leigh,” he quipped, “I’ve never seen a restaurant with tablecloths before.” Then he was mobbed by people wanting pics with him, including the editor's son - main pic above.
Andy Burnham And Labour Election Strategy
Burnham will be speaking at the Labour Party Conference this week and he was explicit on the policy direction Labour will take before the next election. “We’re going to make the NHS the focus of the campaign. We want to create an NHS for the whole person, health issues yes but also social well-being. People before profit. We want a Labour Party that rediscovers the courage of its convictions.” Sleuth thinks The Labour Party best shed Ed Miliband first though, Burnham is way more impressive.
Stringer and Burnham at the meeting
Sleuth's Coffee House Of The Week - Smoothly Does It
GrindsmithA Sleuth fave has just opened on Deansgate. Grindsmith, the elegant coffeehouse shed just over from the Cathedral, is now giving him fine caffeine boosts in the Great Northern complex. Sleuth loves the flat white.
Sleuth is compiling a list. On the west side of the city centre he now has Grindsmith, Caffeine and Co, Salvi’s and the excellent Fruit Exchange to run to when he needs to speed his brain up. No need for the bitter burnt misery of Starbucks, Costa or Nero.
Grindsmith
It's A Generational Thing
Sleuth was on the Cheetham Hill Faith Tour last Sunday. The tour visited a Sikh Temple, a mosque, a synagogue, a C of E church and the Ukranian Catholic church. Sleuth isn’t a man of faith but he’s fascinated by its pulling powers on others. The tour party were a mixture of young and old and numbered almost fifty. In the Sikh Temple a young man was helping out sporting a United shirt – the game between United and QPR was due to start at Old Trafford. An old couple turned to him at one point and had a generation gap moment, “You speak very good English.” The lad replied with a smile, “Not surprising really. I was born round the corner. I’m British.”
In the temple
Black Pudding Champ
Thwaites are official brewery sponsors for Manchester Food and Drink Festival. Sleuth is happy to partake of their festival ale, malt loaf in liquid form apparently, but just wishes it was accompanied by the high jinks of another target of Thwaites sponsorship – chucking black puddings. Here’s a picture of John Barrett outside The Oaks pub on Bridge Street, Ramsbottom, probably the oldest winner of the World Black Pudding Championships. Competitors throw black puddings in an attempt to dislodge a stack of giant Yorkshire puddings from a twenty foot high plinth. David managed 10. Why Ramsbottom has not been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status, we’d like to know.
The 175th Black Pudding Championships At The Oakes Pub In Ramsbottom
DB9 Fine
Sleuth came across a gathered crowd outside Essy's Cafe in Manchester's Square With No Name this week. Being a nosey bugger Sleuth wanted to know what the crowd were all sniggering about. Jostling to the front, Sleuth soon saw the root of the laughs. Mind you, Sleuth imagines the owner can afford the £100 tow fee.
Aston Martin DB9
Dirty Lazy Smokers Of The Week
This is the second floor window of The Moon Under Water, Wetherspoons pub on Deansgate. People smoke by the window and instead of getting rid of the butts leave them in a pile on the window sill. It's the perfect illustration of dirty lazy smoker habits. Or maybe its the pigeons. Manchester's famous smoking pigeons.
Dirty lazy smokers
Wetherspoons second floor smoking area
