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
OUT OLD, IN NEW
Sleuth sees work has begun to convert the old Circle Club into a new bar. The Barton Arcade site has been taken on by London cocktail outfit Be At One, which operate 26 bars across the UK. Sleuth's pal at the Barton Arcade reckons the new venue should open around mid-March and will appeal to the post-work happy hour boozers without 'all that mixology shite'.
Elsewhere, Sleuth hears Montpellier's in the Northern Quarter has changed hands and will soon call it a day. Sleuth's not surprised, the place only ever seemed to kick-in on match days, whilst Sleuth once waited 45 minutes for a salad there, only to be told it was his 'fault for being veggie'. All the more peculiar since Sleuth's not a veggie, never has been, and never even mentioned it. Anyway, Sleuth hears the venue will remain as is until someone inevitably throws pizza and craft beer at it.
STEAK OUT
Meanwhile, Sleuth hears representatives from Danish steak outfit MASH have been on a stake out of Manchester, having opened their first UK restaurant in Soho back in 2012. According to Sleuth's source, MASH intend to open a handful more sites in London before moving north, with Manchester the main priority. What with a planned steakhouse for Barton Arcade, alongside rumours of interest in Manchester from STK and the Orange Elephant steak groups, seems the steaks are nigh in 2016. Moo.
MASH steakhouse, LondonHEY RAYNER...
Interesting news that long-time Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner is to be the headline speaker at this year's Northern Restaurant and Bar Show at Manchester Central in March. Sleuth's sure a number of Manchester's restaurant folk will be lining up to welcome the big man, including: chef Simon Rogan, whose Mr Cooper's restaurant Rayner described as 'a grievous act of architectural vandalism'; the servers at Manchester House, who he told to 'sod off and leave us alone'; and the team behind Australasia, which Rayner called 'a snowfield of mediocrity'. Sleuth likes Rayner, he's a funny bloke rationalsing an industry that often takes itself too seriously, but Sleuth reckons the £66 NRB ticket price might be worth it just for the dust-up.
Rayner tooled up for ManchesterCHEADLE GETS BOUTIQUE HOTEL
Sleuth likes to get out to the suburbs occasionally. He particularly likes Bruntwood Park in Cheadle and the archery butts. Sleuth is well-known as the Robin Hood of the City Centre, his aim is unerring and his quiver always full. Ask anyone. So Sleuth is pleased that a boutique hotel is opening in the underused mansion at Bruntwood this summer. It’s from the Oddfellow Group who already have a hotel in Chester. The new place will have 22 bedrooms, 6 suites. ‘It will also play host to a destination restaurant’ - of course it will. The restaurant will be in the ballroom and have an open kitchen.
Set to the side of the hotel a separate building will house the statement 'salon de beaute', The Pigsty. ‘This is no pastiche of a Victorian Hall’ says the press release, so ‘instead of stag's heads, taxidermy will be interesting and modern’. That’s the only way Sleuth likes his taxidermy, modern, the rest can get stuffed. He wonders if Oddfellows will require some of his pigeons to fill and mount, the one’s he’s shot from his archer’s nest on the Town Hall balcony. He could do with getting rid of them, the other Confidential staff are beginning to complain about the smell.
Mansion at Bruntwood Park
Sleuth - hunting pigeons in Sackville GardensBUDGET MYSTERY
Sleuth, his Confidential colleagues, seven economics professors, that bloke from MoneySavingExpert and one massive abacus, were attempting to decipher Manchester City Council's extensive 1700 word budget proposal this week. This saving in particular caught Sleuth's attention:
Sleuth's condolences to the (possibly overpaid) individual who lost their post, but £100,000 on telephone surveys? What are these surveys for? How many calls are the council making? Are they calling North Korea? Odd. Elsewhere, the children's services are being stung for £9m, which is canny since they can't kick up a fuss...
SLEUTH’S SERVICE OF THE WEEK
Sleuth was in Piccadilly Station and hungry. So he went to Carluccios and had a beef stew with polenta toast for £14.95. Sleuth stared at it and calling a waiter over enquired whether the egg-cup of stew was all that was left or did he just have the starter. No that was it. The manager came over and Sleuth explained that he hadn’t eaten so small a main course that was defined as a stew since he was served it out of baby food jars and he was eighteen months old. The manager conceded that the centrally bought food was too small, doubled the portion and excelled himself by taking it off the bill. Sleuth, still in his Robin Hood outfit from the story above, awarded the manager the Piccadilly Service Award of Diamond Standard Excellence, the first such award ever granted in history. And maybe the last.
The double portionSLEUTH STATUE SUGGESTION
Sleuth hears there’s going to be a woman in the men’s club. Manchester’s Emmeline Pankhurst is going to have a statue erected in the city to add variety to Manchester’s collection of old dead Victorian males. She’ll be the only real female on a sculpture aside from Queen Victoria - the rest of the ladies are usually representations of some virtue or other. Pankhurst was the leader of the Suffragettes, of course - the Votes for Women union.
What’s curious about the award is the site for the statue has yet to be chosen. Sleuth has some ideas, he's torn between a site opposite lap dancing bar Long Legs in Chinatown with Emmeline represented shaking her fist, or to break down sexism in sport, shown in bronze in the penalty area at either the Etihad or Old Trafford nodding in a high cross. Of course this might get in the way.
...on me headSWEET SLEUTH
Sleuth adored Bowie's work and persona so was very moved when he heard the news of Bowie's death. He was moved again when a he found a few of Manchester's Diamond Dogs had created a memorial to him at the site of Pips nightclub in the Corn Exchange, which Sleuth's told in the late 70s was the place to be for 'the strange ones'.
Meanwhile, Sleuth knows Bowie's look changed considerably over the years, but Sleuth can't recall him every being this bloke...
