A Manchester Catch-Up - With Friends
I am - quite possibly - the worst person I know in terms of losing touch with people. Life moves on etc. Work, family, just ….. stuff seems to happen and - before you know it, you’ve not seen people you care about in, well, literally years.
At my age (getting seriously close to retirement), I’ve started to feel that my attitude to many things needs some serious attention, one of those things being to keep in touch with former colleagues. To some people, colleagues are just workmates, people you share an office, shop, or factory floor with. But, to me, these are people who (some anyway) have been on the frontline of steering me through the darkness. Helping me to see that there was sunshine out there. If only I’d look up.
The last few months - on a personal level - have been a bit bleak - so, when I spoke to one of my work heroes (my colleague Phil) about getting my old Boss (Mick) out, I was delighted that he took the reins and organised it (he can take ISBF on if he likes, he’s WAY better organised than me!). Anyway, a couple more colleagues (1 current) fancied it so we found ourselves, on pay day, on Liverpool Road, just off Deansgate in Manchester….
Cask - Liverpool Road, Manchester
Phil noticed me walking in and I was quickly furnished with a pint of Knack (Mild) by Thornbridge. Lightly roasty, creamy and smooth with ever such a light chocolatey note, it was a beautiful reminder that it doesn’t take a old family brewer to brew heritage styles. I love Mild. And I don’t think that Thornbridge get nearly enough garlands for the way in which they execute styles exceptionally and consistently.
One of the UKs finest breweries.
Mick, Dave & Chris showed up and we got to catching up. The conversation was a delight, reminiscing on old work times, stuff we did, hearing - and sharing - news (both good and profoundly sad) about other former colleagues. I’m at that time where I joined teams with people 20 or more years older than I (“back in the day”) and many of those people have (in a phrase I keep hearing) “crossed the Rainbow Bridge”.
It is profoundly depressing to realise that you are so lazy at this stuff (keeping in touch) that the only times that you see colleagues is at funerals. That has to change.
Enough of that darkness. This was a lovely day.
Cask is one of many pubs in Manchester that just doesn’t get the flowers it merits. This may be down to location, sparse Social Media interaction (The Ancoats outlet being more proactive on that front), but, over many years, it has maintained a consistently excellent bar, with exceptionally well kept cask beer and with some fabulous keg too (as I was about to see….)
It also is the custodian of one of the finest Jukeboxes around. So much so that - until about five years ago - I never passed the bar into the larger seating area!
In essence, Cask is “open plan”. In reality, there are two distinct seating areas with (just to the left of the above image) doors to access a nice sized outside seating area - one of very few in central Manchester.
Staying on for another beer, I noticed - with more than a little joy - that there was a Table Beer on the keg lines. By none other than The Kernel. My heart sang. My favourite beer style, brewed by one of my favourite breweries. YAY!
Predictably hoppy. Predictably refreshing. Predictably delicious. Nothing more to say really!
This wasn’t a “crawl” as such. But I fancied visiting two other old favourites nearby. So exiting Cask and walking towards Deansgate, then crossing onto Great Bridgewater Street….to….
The Britons Protection - Great Bridgewater Street
Operated by the same people who run another Manchester icon (The City Arms on Kennedy Street), this pub has been here since before The Peterloo Massacre, possibly the darkest day in Mancunian History. There are indeed stories that some of the injured were brought into the pub to be treated.
Located at the junctions of Lower Mosley, Great Bridgewater and Albion Streets, this was the spot, in the early 80s, where the queue to get into the Hacienda would reach by the time we were ready to go. But I should never have walked past. Because this Pub is, quite simply, stunning.
A true Manchester Classic.
A pint of Happy by Cloudwater in hand - delicious, hoppy and refreshing BTW - we set back to chatting, reminiscing, talking about future plans. Again, these four humans have - outside of my immediate family and circle - had some of the greatest impacts on my time on this here rock, something I’ll always appreciate.
I even got to remind Dave about the time he loaned me some albums by Husker Du and I handed them back because they were too noisy! Only to circle back - almost two decades later - realising how exceptional and influential they were. (I had gotten into Sugar by that point and have seen Bob Mould live a few times since)
A brief conversation with the guy behind the bar (about the proposed tower block development) revealed something that I simply hadn’t realised. That the BP could potentially be obliterated in order to build YET ANOTHER anonymous tower block!
A beautiful Listed building, rich in Manchester History. To go?
We simply can’t keep losing our history and heritage to concrete and glass. Do Manchester City Council really need so many new Council Tax payers that they are prepared to wipe our historical Treasures from the map?
I’ll stop ranting.
With one last stop to go, we girded our loins for the final stroll. Of one minute. Turn right from the entrance of the Britons, cross the road and follow the curve until you see……
The Peveril of The Peak - Chepstow Street
The place where my attitude to beer changed. I was with a friend Martin, we were going to see Pigbag in (I think February ‘82. And I was drinking Carlsberg. He passed me a glass with this amber/brown stuff in it. And it tasted like joy. It was Wilson’s Bitter, on cask. I put the Carlsberg down and bought a pint. I was 16. Drinking Bitter.
I’ve always have had a soft spot for “The Pev”. 3 rooms. A pool table. A Bar Football table. An intimate little room where you can chat in relative quiet (with a real fire I think). And it is simply beautiful. A local treasure.
And Millstone “True Grit”. On cask. By the GODS that pint was absolute bitter nectar.
Sobriety was certainly at issue by this point and one of the group had left. But there was still time for more chatter and fond memories. And another pint of True Grit. Because it was that delicious.
Pubs like The Britons & The Pev don’t need the latest DIPAs or Impys on draught. They just don’t. They are beautiful historical pubs that IMHO EVERYONE should visit. At least once. There are so many pubs like these in this fabulous city.
My friends and I have chatted about planning a “Pub” Crawl. One where the beauty of the pubs and the friendships are what matter. Not the pub. The beer won’t be fancy, but it will be well kept.
It’s time to get that plan going. Because, for me, there are likely 3 such crawls - at least. And this needs sorting. Because, do you know what? People matter. Far more than beer.
That, for me, was the point of this afternoon. Reaching out. Talking. Keeping in touch with people who matter. Looking out for each other.
Do it.
Back soon.
Jx