Sleuth is a sideways glance at the city every week, it's the truth, but Sleuth's truth. He's several people all at once. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious @mcrsleuth
WEST DIDSBURY FOOD AND DRINK RIOT
Sleuth stopped to look at his phone on Burton Road in West Didsbury the other day and a man asked him where he wanted to sit and did he want a menu. A restaurant had formed around Sleuth. It happens all the time in Westy Diddles. The George Charles opens today (4 September), the Rose Garden re-opened yesterday (3 September) and Violet Hour is reinvented as Saison on 11 September. One’s a British pub-restaurant, the other’s a refined restaurant-restaurant and the third is a bar-restaurant with a French accent. To underline all this activity, Westfest, takes place on Saturday and Sunday, 4-5 September. Crikey, slow down folks.
George Charles about to open in West Didsbury
Saison soon to open as wellHEATON MOOR, PLEASE
Sleuth's also been to the opening of a new bar in Heaton Moor (yes there's more to Heaton Moor than Damson) this week and was surprised to find another effervescent little food and drink scene taking hold along Shaw Road. When Sleuth last visited this drag, around the back end of 2014, Sleuth was struck by the disproportionate number of shutters and takeaways (they're still there). This week, however, around 9pm, Sleuth was surprised to find: a packed out, diddy new beer shop and bar called Bottle; a packed out new bar restaurant called Time & Place; and a busy little brasserie called Brassica - ran by former Zinc and Chop House head chef Paul Faulkner. Sleuth was a bit surprised, however, to find Solita hasn't opened there - yet.
BrassicaHOMELESS PROTEST BECOMES NAUGHTY
Sleuth gets the police reports. On Thursday he got this one: ‘At around 3am on Tuesday 2 September 2015, two people smashed their way into a branch of Frankie and Benny's restaurant in the city centre and stole a large quantity of alcohol from the premises. Later that day the alcohol was seized from a tent within the homeless protest camp on King Street in Manchester city centre. Chief Inspector Gareth Parkin of GMP's North Manchester division said: "We always respect everyone's right to peaceful and democratic protest. However, anyone found to be engaging in criminal activity will be prosecuted."’ Frankie and Benny’s is about fifty metres from the camp. Had the two people in question already been drinking, or had they just not thought it through? Leglessness won't do their cause much good either way.
The damage
The beer tentsDRAWING THE LINE
Sleuth feels the workers on Barton Square in the city centre weren’t paying attention. Maybe they'd been helping the homeless drinkers empty some bottles.
Something's not quite right KIERAN FEST 2015 (5-6 SEPT)
Serious Sleuth. Chorlton teenager Kieran Crump Raiswell was murdered in an unprovoked knife attack in January 2013 and since then his parents have been working to raise money for the Manchester charity 42nd Street, which works with young people under stress. Every year there's a main fundraiser in Chorlton with a gig night on the Saturday and a whole fun day and cricket match at South West Manchester Cricket Club on the Sunday. It's a great cause, Sleuth thinks, and one worthy of huge support. For info and tickets click here.
Kieran Crump Raiswell - a young life celebrated SLEUTH'S BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD EVER
Sleuth loves the Trafford Centre, he loves its interminable ornateness, those chirpy, water-spitting fibre glass dolphins and the subtle flicker of the faux-flames on the rooftop. It's all so very tasteful - as tasteful as a gangster's palace in Marbella. So Sleuth was pleased to find this corker in his inbox this week:
'TripAdvisor and Yelp recognise intu Trafford Centre as one of the world’s top destinations.'
Yep, that's 'one of the world's top destinations'. According to the blurb, TripAdvisor's 2015 Certificate of Excellence - recently award to the shopping centre - is awarded 'only to the top 10% of businesses globally'. Now, considering TripAdvisor lists over 5.2 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions, that puts the Trafford Centre in the top 520,000 globally. World beating I'm sure you'll agree.
Trafford Centre: 'one of the world's top destinations'THE REAL ROCKET FUEL
Sleuth was passing one of his fave coffee shops Lupo on Chapel Street in Salford. This is run by the energetic charmer Nico and his gorgeous chef Ornella. Nico has now come up with a chilled filter coffee drink in a nifty bottle for around £3. It's strong. Red Bull isn't a patch on this additive-free caffeine rocket fuel. Sleuth took one sip and suddenly decided to sprint the half mile to the office, write three articles one after the other, answer all the 7,000 emails lurking in his inbox including the ones from Russian ladies who seem to have fallen in love with him, post ten ridiculous tweets, make five ludicrous jokes then totter to the boardroom and fall asleep on the table while Gordo was conducting a meeting. It took him fifteen minutes to do it all. The name of the drink is Lupo Brew. Lupo is Latin for wolf, and this caffeine blast really makes you howl.
Lupo Brew
Nico and OrnellaSLEUTH'S BEST PIZZA
Sleuth think it's about time Manchester stopped tarting about with sourdough and followed the example of Dom's on Deansgate. Yes Dom's. The new'ish Italian on the site of a thousand forgotten half-arsed Italians in the ground floor of the Renaissance Hotel on Deansgate's Concrete Corner with Blackfriar's Road. Dom's, in Sleuth's opinion, are currently doing some of the best pizze in the city: simple, sloppy, cheesy joy for less than £7. And not a waxy-tache in sight...
Doms Margherita - keeping it simpleSLEUTH'S PROBABLY NOT BANKSY OF THE WEEK...
Banksy's latest project, DisMancLand. Probably not...
