retiredmartin

March 2025. Manchester.

Son Matt just messaged me asking for a smart pub recommendation in Hebden Bridge for Emma’s family.

I was tempted to say “Fox & Goose”, but we’re all getting on OK and I don’t want to ruin that, so Old Gate or Vocation then.

A week ago he was looking at a pub to take Mrs RM while I was at the Etihad, and I realised she’d never been to North Westward Ho.

A classy Pomona place, apart from the occasional p****d up old bloke, with a scary range of strong keg for Mrs RM.

I stopped for the low ABV from Sureshot (“3.3 ? What’s the point of that!” asks one of our group),

and Matt had a Keller Bier.

I’m never entirely sure whether Matt’s occasional forays into cask are purely performative, and I’m always slightly embarrassed when real ale is presented without the coolness and crispness you hope for. Sorry, CAMRA, attracting the youth is a hard ask.

But the NWO is a gorgeous looking pub,

and Mrs RM stayed for a second while I tried the pork pie. In some ways, it’s Manchester’s version of Cambridge’s Pint Shop.

Quietish on a Saturday lunchtime, its trade is very definitely the office post-work crowd,

and it’s not a place your football crowd, whether City or Albion, would stumble on. Matt and I both forgot where it was, but we’d never admit that.

Anyway, here’s some football fans taking selfies at the Etihad.

Hopefully they’ll still be plastic City fans like me after the verdict comes out.