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
Miller & Carter Arrives In Shiny White King Street Beauty
In May, Mitchell & Butler brand, Miller & Carter Steakhouse, will arrive in the former Lloyd's Bank building on King Street. Recently restored this Charles Heathcote building from 1915 looks splendid once more.
Miller & Carter offer T-bones and Porterhouses, ribeyes and rumps. Also fish, lamb and things for kids - menus here. Mitchell & Butler also have All Bar One up the road. Nearby there are Sam's and Tom's Chop Houses, Browns and not far away Grill on the Alley, Restaurant Bar Grill and Gaucho. Sleuth reckons this area has got very meaty. The steaks are high... so to speak.
Miller & Carter arriving
Handsome building
Jack Spratt Makes Way For Some Splendid Sausage
A bangerSadly, round the corner on John Dalton Street, sweet Jack Spratt are closing down. Sleuth liked Jack Spratt. It was as though a Northern Quarter bar had gone for a stroll, got lost and settled down. It brought a splash of funky difference to the business districts. Now it's off for another stroll. The brothers who run it are taking a wander up to North Yorkshire and opening restaurants in Wetherby, Northallerton and Middlesborough. Sleuth loves a dramatic and interesting change of scene. Northallerton is a lovely town where a lost cow makes the headlines. He might take a trip up and try it out sometime. Jack Spratt closes Saturday 29 March.
Sleuth hears that Spratt will make way for sausage, The Splendid Sausage Company in fact. Confidential will be speaking with the owner soon. 'A sausage restaurant?' said Sleuth's chum, 'Not sure I'd go out just for a sausage.' 'Well...' said Sleuth with his smarmiest face, 'you could say the same about a burger, and they seem to be doing alright.' Sleuth's chum shut his trap quicker than you could say pork-to-the-fork.
Bye bye Jack Spratt
Manchester City Centre's Dullest Opening Of 2014
Sleuth was walking down Deansgate. He passed the Sainsbury's at the junction with Bridge Street, then North Face, then Forsyths music shop and saw a planning permission notice on the next unit where Staples shop used to be. It was for a YAFT - Yet Another Fucking Tesco. Yawn. Sigh. Boo. Sleuth would have much preferred a fishmongers or a tap shoe store or a sand dune representing a desert and the drying up of retail diversity.
Yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
United's Class Of '92 Show Class With Surprise Purchase
Sleuth loves how lots of football commentators in the know thought Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt were part of a consortium attempting to buy Manchester United for £2bn. Instead they've gone for Salford City FC in Kersal, capacity 1400, and a team for whom Rhodri Giggs, Ryan's brother used to play. Salford City are in the Northern Premier League and are presently 11th.
Giggs has said: "We want to engage the football community, use our football experience and knowledge to aspire and nurture young talent and being able to do that in Salford makes it even more exciting." Gary Neville: "Salford City represents those early years, the commitment, hunger, enthusiasm, desire and spirit of football and I'm very excited about this venture. For clarity, no name change, no ground change and the management and committee stay as before."
Sleuth loves these boys. With property purchasing in the region, new hotels in the offing and now this acquisition, they are investing in their area rather than taking their money elsewhere.
Salford City FC - Grass Roots Football
Paul Scholes' Side Project For Digital Festival
Paul Scholes was always Sleuth's favourite United footballer until he recently retired. He seemed very focussed on the game as with the investment in the story above, so Sleuth was delighted by the MEN piece (picture below - with Mr Scholes holding a black pudding) revealing he will be joining the Future Everything festival launched this Thursday. As you all know 'FutureEverything is an internationally recognised R&D hub for digital culture, presenting industry conferences, innovation projects, artworks and live experiences which showcase a digital future'.
Scholes told Sleuth: "I'm going to play a binary formation of 01110110101 with Tim Berners-Lee and Alan Turing out wide and Bill Gates as the holding midfielder. Steve Jobs will be handing out apples at half time."
Surprising career move
What Premier League Footballers Eat
Sleuth was in the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel on Peter Street last week as Fulham Football Club arrived for their game with Manchester City. After the team had registered, a trolley emerged from the coach with food in Tupperware and clingfilm - picture below. Fulham lost 5-0. They probably needed a proper full meal.
Fulham's unfilling food
Britannia Rules The Building
Every seven days or so Sleuth is asked by policemen, concierges, Paul Scholes, Millers, Carters, Jack Spratt, Fulham FC and all the steaks in Manchester: "Where can we find in Manchester the best representation of Britannia in the city?"
"Why," says Sleuth, "that would be on the former Lloyds Bank becoming the Miller & Carter steakhouse featured above. It was sculpted by Earp, Hobbs and Miller (no relation) in 1915 and shows Britannia on a boat, with a kneeling male figure representing Britain and a young boy representing the colonies. The boy is holding a steak."
And to prove this he showed the policemen, concierges, Paul Scholes, Millers, Carters, Jack Spratt, Fulham FC and all the steaks in Manchester this picture.
"Is he really holding a steak?" asked all the lovely people.
"No," said Sleuth.
Britannia rules the steaks...la,la,la,la
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