MANCHESTER's got a new bar. No great surprise there, of course, only that it opened last week, sans hype, before anybody knew a bleedin' thing. No mean feat considering you can barely open a fridge without the local Twitterati going ballistic.

This is a bar that's happy to be just that, a bar

The bar's called Wood & Company and comes from the folks behind two of Northern Quarter’s most popular venues, NoHo and Dusk ‘Til Pawn on Stevenson Square. It's located within the former Braai Steakhouse and 39 Steps site on South King Street - the narrow throughfare wedged between King Street and John Dalton Street.

Now we could go on about the venue's concept, vibe and how it's cost several million knicker, tell you the bar's carved of Elk Mountain Yule marble and the back bar of Samuel Johnson's mahoghany bookcase, how the drink's menu, inspired by Tolstoy's Letter To A Hindu, is printed on penguin belly leather, or how you can only gain access to the bar through an Einstein–Rosen bridge portal... on a Wednesday.

But we're not going to, because this is a bar that's happy to be just that, a bar (and because it's Friday afternoon and we should be in the pub). So instead we'll tell you this is a bar with no pretense, no bellicose bouncers or soddin' Desperate Housewives, but a bar of comfortable seating, chirpy staff and bloody good tilework.

There are five well-considered beers, three wines of each colour (labelled as 'Decent', 'Good' and 'Great') and a solid but not impenetrable list of cocktails - all costing seven quid. There's one piece of wall art (which is probably only there because it was too tough to budge), three toilets and a big ole' kitchen - which they intend never to use except for storing blue roll and napping.

Here's how she looks, sometimes there's even punters...

@WoodandCo 39 South King Street, Manchester

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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