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 

 

WHERE ARE YU GOING?

Sneaky Sleuth now as Sleuth flips up the collar of his trench coat, lowers the brim of his fedora, and stalks restaurant operators and a property agent around Manchester. The operators in question were those behind Yu Chinese restaurants, including Yu and You in the Ribble Valley (which Gordo Ramsay named ‘Best UK Chinese Restaurant’) and the new Yu in Alderley Edge (reviewed here). Sleuth watched the trio spend a fair bit of time staring and gesturing towards Lincoln House on Deansgate, soon to be demolished and replaced by 125 Deansgate, which will feature a number of leisure and retail units on its ground floor, as it happens. They then took off towards King Street. Sleuth gave chase. 'Perhaps they're going to view the recently emptied Jaeger unit,' thought Sleuth, before the trio broke off for a pee-stop in Kendals. Sleuth thought better than to follow them into the lavs.

125 Deansgate125 Deansgate

THIS'N'THAT SPIC'N'SPAN 

Strange message to Sleuth this week from M+R Studio on Ducie Street. They wrote: ‘In the past weeks there has been a lot of MC coverage on big-budget restaurants, but (we) hope you are not neglecting small but interesting cafes such as This’n’ That’.

Odd that. They clearly haven’t read our Armenian Taverna review this week, or The Fat Loaf review the week before, or our first look around new indie tapas gaff, Tapeo, or the 22 similar stories on the Food and Drink homepage. Anyway, the studio has recently completed a refurb of the classic rice and three café, This’n’That on Soap Street in the Northern Quarter – which we last reviewed two years ago. The refurb, as shown here, retains the straightforward appeal of this excellent belly-filling Asian café. But what’s that? Ah yes, Hacienda hazard stripes. Bless the Hac, closed for twenty years and still quite the legend. But where are the Manchester bees, we ask?

ThisA tribute to the Hac, fancy that...

MORAR THAT

Sleuth sees, Mital Morar, the chap behind the very good but departed Superstore restaurant (now Evelyn's) on Northern Quarter's Tib Street, and the recently opened Ancoats Convenience Store & Coffee Bar, has latched onto another project in Salford, opposite Salford Central station. Morar has taken control of the former Nisa shop and has begun work to convert it into Salford General Store -  a convenience store championing local suppliers and indie producers. A rare thing indeed in the city centre. Sleuth recommends popping into the newly opened store in effervescent Ancoats and keeping an eye on the one in Salford. @ancoatsgs @salfordgs

 

A TRIBUTE

Sleuth was sad to hear the news that hospitality magnate, Tim Bacon, passed away last weekend following a long and noble battle with cancer. Aside from being perhaps the most sharp and meticulous professional  Sleuth has ever met, Bacon was also renowned for his effortless charm and wicked sense of humour, exhibited most wonderfully in this tale by Manchester property tycoon Morgan Leahy:

“It was Tim, so courteous, polite and helpful, who, on my first night in Manchester, directed me and a pal from his Living Room bar onto the next one. We were sent up Deansgate to the Locks, where two bouncers (who Tim had clearly briefed on our stumble down) packed us off in a taxi to The Village. We were then sent via Piccadilly Gardens, up Market Street and back onto Deansgate, returning to Tim’s place three miles and two hours later. Turned out the bar we were looking for was the one next door to Tim’s… the crafty bugger had made us. I nearly broke my bollocks laughing. That’s where my love affair with the city began. I bet the farm on Manchester the very next day. I was finally home…”

The bar is now a Botanist (another one of Tims)The bar is now a Botanist (another one of Tim's)

FORTRESS... UNLESS?

Sleuth was interested this week to learn that one local bar and restaurant had been turned into a ‘Fortress’. Yes Spinningfields’ plush contemporary Asian gaff, Tattu, has joined an elite group of global establishments to be welcomed into the ‘Fortess network’ of Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac – one of world’s most coveted and costly spirits, blended from 1,200 eaux-de-vie (that’s brandy to you and Sleuth), Kakapo beak and Kanye West’s toenails. A 25ml shot will set you back £150. Sleuth hears Tattu will join a select club of Fortresses, including Gleneagles Hotel, The Connaught and The Dorchester, and will become one of only two venues in Manchester to be named a Fortress, the other being... Wing’s Chinese.

Tattu is a fortressTattu is a fortress

PIZZA BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT 

Sleuth wishes that waiters and restaurant staff would not make things up to justify an error. Sleuth was in Ply in the Northern Quarter to sample the pizzas. They were good but would have been excellent if the temperature had been correct. “These pizzas carry good flavour,” said Sleuth to the waiter, “but they are lukewarm. You need to up the heat. It spoils them.” The waiter gave Sleuth a superior look and said, “We cook them exactly as they do in Italy and this is how they are.” Sleuth gave the waiter a superior look and said, “In October I was in Naples and never had a lukewarm or coldish pizza. It's ridiculous to think they cook them like that?” Fortunately a couple of nights later they were the right temperature but Sleuth noticed the superior waiter was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was in Italy on a training session.

ColdCold apPLYcation

SLEUTH’S NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT OF THE WEEK 

Sleuth and other incredibly attractive and influential citizens are being asked to follow new Twitter account MancLeftWriters. Funny. Sleuth is pretty sure in a city where to say, “Hello, I’m a Conservative,” is tantamount to saying, “Hello, I’m the Infernal God of Hell” there is unlikely to be a Twitter account created entitled MancRightWriters. Anyway Sleuth learns MancLeftWriters drill in a military style every morning in Parsonage Gardens, pens hoisted like rifles, chanting as they walk, “Left, Write, Left, Write…”

 

LADEN WITH LAUGHS

Sleuth hears the Knaive Theatre company are set to stage in Manchester a controversial play about the most notorious fugitive and pariah of a generation, Osama Bin Laden, following a successful stint at the Edinburgh Fringe. The twist? Bin Laden is 26-years-old, white, British and likes a hobnob. Risque indeed. But not as risky as the theatre company’s next production, in which they follow Republican presidential candidate Trump on the election campaign. The twist? Trump is a 17-year-old Pro-Choice Mexican Muslim single mother of three called Donaldicia.

Bin Laden:Bin Laden: The One Man Show

MANCHESTER’S FIRST DRUNKEN LANDLORD 

Robert Watson has taken some fine photos of the details in the nave roof in Manchester Cathedral. These details are often too high and small to see from floor level. One wooden carving shows a landlord tapping a barrel of ale. He looks like he’s enjoyed a few pints already. We don’t know his name but we do know he’s somewhere over 500-years-old. We also know he hasn’t got a beard. Ye Olde Hipster has yet to arrive. 

Give me more beerGive me more beer

SLEUTH'S A-BOARD OF THE WEEK

Sleuth was, against his better judgement, out with Confidential’s Gordo this week, when the pair stumbled by the latest incarnation of The Tank Bunker Bar in Spinningfields, The Club House.

“Now, I’m a pretty good salesman,” begins Gordo. “I’ve been involved in helping break the Net Book Agreement, Sky TV, Red Hot Dutch (don’t ask) and vertical net portals (don’t ask, again) - I sprinkled them all with Gordo Golden Dust.”

“With varying results, mind,” said Sleuth.

“So I feel…” continued Gordo, ignoring Sleuth, “that I need to give Mike (Ingall, Spinningfields chief) and James (Wrigley, Lawn Club boss) some sound advice on how to entice punters into this new ‘sports bar’... starting with that f**king board”

Spot the mistake.

AhAh

 

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