September 2024. Manchester.
Autumn brings back students to the cities, and with it gigs from visiting Americans and Australians, some of whom may secretly be hoping the new GBG drops (ugh) while they’re in Maidenhead or Manchester.
I’ve started a spreadsheet listing my slow progress towards ticking the Matthew Curtis guide since its October launch, and since no-one has yet been seen captured holding a completed book it’s still something to beat Blackpool Jane to.
The one downside of a rule “only pubs visited since the book came out is I have to revisit a lot of old favourites, but that’s not a hardship I can really moan about while Simon is having to tick Spoons in Dumfries, and besides I need lunch so the Piccadilly Gardens Bundobust is ideal. Always found the staff great and the veggie grub filling, and they ought to open up in Sheffield soon.
It’s the one you can’t see, tucked away next to Max’s photo shop,
down in the basement.
More upmarket canteen than pub, with long trestle tables and Bollywood memorabilia,
and a great soundtrack appealing as much to me as the groups of Asian families taking advantage of the lunch deal.
The beer board tells you where the emphasis lies,
and I feel a bit daft now not going for the ultra craft Schofferhoffer rather than the Blackjack.
I’d just made the Lunch express, just as well as Bundo pricing is often as ambitious as Brunning and Pricey,
but I can’t complain about a rich Blackjack (NBSS 3) for well under a fiver in central Manc,
and a filling plate of Bhajis and Chole Saag for a tenner.
That Blackjack is the only beer pulled, cask or keg, in the half hour I was there. But you’d guessed that.
Wait till the students get back for Freshers Week.
retiredmartin 