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Brewer Dan fuels the Spice Odyssey as Bundobust Brewery finally takes off

Time was there used to be a new brewery opening every month in Manchester with cosy taprooms hard on their heels. That torrent of craft has slowed to a trickle with the emphasis now on established operations upsizing to bigger premises. Track are shifting up to Piccadilly Trading Estate opposite Cloudwater while both Beatnikz Republic […]

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Five Manchester Food and Drink Festival star turns to sink your teeth into

The Manchester Food and Drink Festival kicks off on Thursday, September 16 with the full raucous backing at the Cathedral Gardens Hub of Mr Wilson’s Secondliners (above). As usual the Festival is packed with events and should profit from a huge public appetite for some kind of tasty ‘new normal’. Here is my choice of […]

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Featherblade – the official steak secret of Kala success

I love the shaded downstairs bar at Kala in Manchester. It’s a place of assignation. You just slip in off King Street and slide onto a tall stool. Open a copy of The Times at the obituaries section to signal you are here to the swarthy man in the Crombie three seats away. There is information to […]

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My Italian food trail: Fennel pollen

Finnochio’s, a San Francisco night club, famed for its drag queens, just failed to make it past the Millennium, having traded for decades on the Italian slang word for homosexual, rent boy even. Why the generic name for fennel took on queer connotations I have no idea; I’m just happy to pay upfront for the […]

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The UK’s most beautiful beer garden? Just let the Fog settle

Best kept secrets and hidden gems have a habit of finally exploding into the public domain. So Farm Trip may count as a wider coming of age for Rivington Brewing Co. Proof of the pudding? Tickets sold out in a flash for all five days of this craft beer ‘Woodstock’ with over 50 different guest […]

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