POST-INDYMAN – WALKING DOWN THE WILMSLOW ROAD

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Thank you Tim Horton

I’d always planned a long walk after IndyMan, but as I left the Victoria Baths as light drizzle set in (not as common in Manchester as Southerners believe) I started to doubt my sanity.

Didsbury

First priority after that last 11.5% sour was strong coffee and somewhere to recharge my phone. So if you were in Café Nero or the Ford Madox Brown on Friday afternoon and wondered what the Old Bloke was doing on all fours looking for sockets, you know now.

I found power, and strong black coffee and mini donuts in Tim Hortons, a Canadian chain probably owned by Russ. Unlike most independent coffee houses whose flat whites and filters are tepid within a minute, Tim’s coffee was of Twin Peaks standards.

Few people walk down Wilmslow Road, except ruffians rushing to Rusholme on Friday night, and when I subsequently found out the Magic Bus to Didsbury costs a quid I felt a bit miffed. But on foot you get to see the delights of Fallowfield and Withington up close, and you realise;

  • It’s a bit dull isn’t it ?
  • Isn’t the Christie big ?
  • You know virtually all the pubs on this 3 miles route.  Friendship, Victoria, Ford Madox; all your Hydes and Spoons favourites.

At least the GBG entry is new, even if the wall art seems strangely familiar.

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Yes, another shop conversion in a little parade, very north Cheshire, very Wilmslow.

The Wine & Wallop is “intended for a mature audience” says WhatPub, which excludes BRAPA and me for a start.

But with some decent Americana playing in the background, really pleasant service and a nice murky beer below 10%, I warmed to it.

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Yes, more wine bar than micro, but proper seating and an experimental beer that was cool and tasty and somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5.

As usual I was first in, but by 4.30 it was filling up with the sort of young professionals like Cooking Lager who choose their own working hours.

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Not going to compete with the Boar’s Head for banter, but I liked it.  And you warm to a place where people park their babies outside while they pop in for a pint.

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And then, into Burnage…

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

20 thoughts on “POST-INDYMAN – WALKING DOWN THE WILMSLOW ROAD”

    1. ” Tim Horton coffee is to keep you awake through a Canadian winter. Or a hockey game, whichever is more debilitatiing. ”
      I wonder if it works when you’re in for the long haul wading through some of Russ’s responses ….

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      3. Doffs hat to PPT. 😎

        To be honest I find their coffee a tad strong*, but I’m not a fan of Starbucks either. 😉

        *(my wife is partial to their double double when driving long distances)

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Many’s the time, that I’ve walked from Oxford Road, and down the Curry Mile. You used to come to a nice, tiled, Hyde’s pub, the Albert, on Walmer Street to the right. Sadly, I gather that it no longer does cask, because I remember many a cracking pre-feast pint there.

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    1. Yes, I used to drink in there regularly myself twenty years ago when a couple of my mates lived in Moss Side. It went downhill pretty fast after Jimmy, the Irish landlord, retired and went to live in Australia (he’d let us in to his Friday night lock-ins after we’d been drinking in town). City leaving Maine Road and moving to east Manchester can’t have helped as it was always rammed pre-match on a Saturday when they were at home, and pretty busy after the match too. There was some talk at the time of running minibuses from the pub to the new ground, but I don’t think anything ever came of it.

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  5. “ruffians rushing to Rusholme” –I’d have thought this was a reference to The Smiths, but I’m pretty sure you don’t like them?

    But Martin, when you start writing things like “somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5” I think you need to go ahead and admit you want to have the option of rating something a 3.27. 😉

    Tim Hortons made quite a swift invasion of the USA about 20 years ago or so, prior to that entirely unknown. Are they a common sight in the UK?

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    1. Smiths faded quickly, rather like Oasis. Saw them twice, not really a live band.

      Yes, I want a 3.2753.

      There’s ten or so Tim Hortons in UK, outside centre of big cities. If I’d seen them I hadn’t noticed. Really liked the coffee.

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  6. “Thank you Tim Horton”

    Is that in the UK or are you over here in Canada now?
    (scratch that, I see it on the map)

    “and somewhere to recharge my phone.”

    Get one of those self charger thingies.

    https://preview.tinyurl.com/y96mp3z8

    “a Canadian chain probably owned by Russ.”

    It was started by a hockey player, Tim Horton, in 1964. He died in a car crash in 1974. Rumour has it the “timbits” were partly named for that. 😉

    “which excludes BRAPA and me for a start.”

    #MeToo 🙂

    “but by 4.30 it was filling up with the sort of young professionals like Cooking Lager who choose their own working hours.”

    Pfft. If they choose their own working hours why are they waiting till 4.30 to pop in for a drink?

    Cheers

    PS – Back home but knackered. Bit of family drama (on my wife’s side) whilst in Victoria, and we had barely gotten home when one of the tires went flat. Plus, her portable debit machine is acting up. Worked yesterday morning but not in the afternoon and today it decided to reverse and wouldn’t work in the morning but was fine in the afternoon. Consequently we have 20 people “comped” who will (hopefully) pay up when the machine works in their vicinity.

    Oh and my wife had hot lunch catering for 20 today and right after that, hot lunch for 182 school kids!

    It’s going to take me a few days to catch up with blog reading.

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      1. “Sorry about your misfortunes, but thanks for sharing. I’m sure Simon can work them into future blogs.”

        Not to worry, more inconveniences vice out and out misfortune.

        As for Simon… my dream is to one day be one of his ‘weirdos’ he finds in a pub. 🙂

        Cheers

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