several people all at once. Sleuth sometimes even gets serious. We ask for the money back if any legal action follows. @mcrsleuth
MORE MAD'NESS FOR NQ
Sleuth was walking down Nicolas Croft (the bit that joins High Street with Shudehill) this week and spotted a new application in for 5 Nicholas Croft in Basil Chambers - the empty glass-fronted corner unit on Back Turner Street. The former-textile merchant and failed coffee shop sits by Custom Tattoo - where Sleuth recently got a Manchester bee inked on his jacksie (all the kids are doing it, Sleuth's told) - and has lain empty for a good two years or so. The restaurant and bar operator behind the application is MAD Ltd (Mark Andrew Developments) - the Northern Quarter-based operator behind Hula, Walrus, Tusk, Rosylee and The Fitzgerald. MAD aren't giving much away here, but needless to say we're looking at A3 use. More to follow...
SPIRIT FOLLOWS FANTASY
Remember Fantasy Bar on Deansgate? No, no, of course you don't... neither does Sleuth... Coyote Sexy? Never heard of it...
So the Spirit Pub Co. - the Burton-upon-Trent-based hospitality behemoth with over 750 branches across the UK and valued at over £1.2bn knicker - is currently ripping out the former-Fantasy at 140 Deansgate (sandwiched between the Sawyers Arms and The Lost Dene) and has applied to the council for a new premises licence with a number of proposed variations, including those that 'relate to striptease' - see here.
Spirit are yet to unveil what they have planned for the space, but have reduced trading hours from 9am-4am to 9am-2.30am. Early night then.
IS THIS THE BAREST BAR REFURBISHMENT EVER?
Piccadilly Tap has opened on Piccadilly Approach. It’s part of the same group of beer addicts as Euston Tap. Looks a bit different though, an elaborate railway building in London and an empty shop unit in Manchester. It appears no expense has been spared. None. Strip lighting, thin veneer panelling, bare concrete ceiling and...er...a bit of seventies wall-cladding. Fortunately there are something like seventeen kegs and seven cask ales. And nothing else. At all.
MANCHESTER HOTEL BREAKTHROUGH
Sleuth can’t believe it. Maybe the penny has dropped. But a slap on the back and plaudits all round for Doubletree by Hilton Manchester at Piccadilly. Sleuth and Confidential has said this a million times but the nonsense of hotels in Manchester serving only ‘Continental’ lagers has been a food and drink scandal for years. It’s lazy. And bad for Manchester. There are over forty breweries in Greater Manchester. Would a French hotel sell its local wines or just Chilean? Local of course. That would be nonsense. It would be bad for tourism. Doubletree by Hilton has changed this...
SPREADING THE BEERY LOVE
Sleuth knows tourists want to feel they’re in a city with a sense of identity and with products that reflect that identity. Overseas visitors and people from other UK regions want to see what the place they’re visiting tastes like. Doubletree by Hilton has a cask ale in from Radcliffe-brewer Brightside and it has about seven local bottled beers as well. In a couple of months they’ll have eight more (I think that’s what the food and beverage manager, Chris, said). Well done indeed. Shows pride. And loyalty to the city and region. It’s over to you the other hotels in Manchester. And remember as the barman at Doubletree told me, “We sell far more of the Manchester ale than any other of the beers and lagers.”
CANNED DELIGHTS
“Boquerones,” someone shouted in Iberica Spinningfields. “Same to you,” Sleuth shouted back. We’re talking anchovies darling. Sleuth has discovered the best tinned fish ever, as distinctive and tasty as fresh produce, but with that extra tang of oil. Marcos, a boss of Iberica, explained the loving care with which the Don Bocarte company in Santona, Cantabria, looks after its products, about the timing of the catch and the timing of the preparation. Then we had some from the small Iberica deli. Genius folks. Along with equally lovely tuna. Read about the products herein very individual English.
MANC MERCY
Sleuth was in the Old Trafford Supporters Club at the new Hotel Football on Sunday to watch the United vs Liverpool game; and as you'd expect, the United fans compassion for Stevey 'Gone in 40 seconds' Gerrard was touching...
STILL IN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB...
Sleuth: "Do you have anything but pies?"
Pieman: "What do you think..."
Sleuth: "Fair point."
