Manchester we LOVE you!
Part 1…
What can I say Manchester? You are now officially my second home (sorry Brighton, you are on hold for a while).
My sis and I have both been to Manchester before but didn’t feel that we had got to know it, so we had talked about going off for a cheeky sisterly weekend away. So, for her 50th I gave her a long weekend at Whitworth Locke , near Canal Street. It looked great from the website, so I had high expectations, and boy, did they deliver? It was such a beautiful building with funky colours and sleek design. We were immediately upgraded to a bigger apartment when we arrived (wish that happened everywhere I went!) and the staff could not have been more helpful.
I had booked the in-house Peruvian restaurant Peru Perdu for the first night as we got in early evening and couldn’t be bothered to go out. The food was outstanding, and the staff were so friendly. So far so good Manchester (keep it coming).
The next day we had the most enormous breakfast in the café downstairs Foundation Coffee House (see this is becoming like home already?). My pesto eggs on sourdough were so big (10 eggs I reckon) that I squealed when I saw it and claimed I would never finish. Of course, I did. Can’t waste good food can we now? Not sure my cholesterol levels will ever recover though.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
We went off to hunt down the Northern Quarter as I had never been before, and we knew it would be ‘our thing’. We did lots of charity/vintage shops and broke it up with good coffee and cake (it’s her 50th you see – we wouldn’t normally, really). We found the Manchester Craft and Design centre which was a full of artists’ studios/shops. I really wish there was somewhere in Birmingham like this. Being able to create and sell at the same time would be brilliant. If anyone knows anywhere, hit me up….
Later, we trudged through the rain to find a Middle Eastern restaurant that had been recommended on the Whitworth Locke website called MARAY . I can honestly say that it was some of the best food I’ve ever tasted. Their disco cauli was AMAZING! Sadly they had run out of pudding which we had a little weep about.
Anyway, moving on we headed back to the Northern Quarter for some cocktails. We made a couple of mistakes before finding our ‘place’. We hilariously went to Hula, ignored the curious looks from the bouncers and headed downstairs into the gloom, where the average age was about 16. We ducked out before anyone noticed our wrinkles lol.
Next we found the secret door to Science & Industry which is in another bar Cane And Grain . This is a speakeasy bar with the most amazing cocktails, not unlike our own Couch in Birmingham (nowhere quite beats Couch though). We spent a few happy hours drinking way strong little pots of nectar. Bliss.
Other noteworthy place we visited were Cottonopolis for exquisite Japanese influenced cocktails served by gorgeous boys in sparkles and a DJ making all the right noises.
Cottonpolis
On Sunday we were a bit at a loss as to how we spent our last hours. We happened to be passing MARAY , and it happened to be raining, and we happened to fall inside, so we may as well end our weekend on a high note by tasting the pudding that we didn’t get on Friday. We both opted for a chocolate thing that was so utterly rich that we couldn’t finish it! Absolutely divine.
Manchester, we will be back.