What a fantastic beery day we had in Manchester on Monday, starting off in The Marble Arch (Marble Brewery Tap) with a Manchester Bitter and Chocolate Marble. Such a great place, not at all what I was expecting, I don’t know the history of the Inn but the interior is stunning from floor to ceiling, definitely one to revisit. Lots of Marble beers available as you’d expect, well stocked bottle fridge and I’m led to believe good food to although we didn’t stay long enough to sample any.
The Marble Ach Inn interior, courtesy of Jeff Evans - http://insidebeer.com/
Onwards to The Fringe, another bar that has a hidden interior that is not mirrored by the slightly jaded exterior, very easy to walk past but once inside a good friendly pub with 5 guest ales, several Belgian beers, Cider & lagers on the font, topped off with a lovely bottled selection.
By now food was required to prepare for the the main event, the Magic Rock meet the brewer at Port Street later. The food venue 57 Thomas Street, another Marble Brewery venue but in a completely different style to Marble Arch. It’s very much a street cafe style with easy chairs, long tables and even a small on street area.
Inside 57 Tomas Street, pic courtesy of http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk
The food, a selection of four fine cheeses, crackers, warm bread, pickle and a lovely bowl of smoked mixed nuts. All washed down with a Mikkeller IPA of some description, the name of which now eludes me, oh and another beer from Marble too “Best”…
Time was a ticking on, but there was still time for a further cheeky half in the Soup Kitchen, Dark Star Winter Meltdown which went really well with the lingering taste of smoked nuts that remained for some time.
The Soup Kitchen is a weird place, part deli, part school canteen, part belgian Cafe with a hint of british pub thrown in for good measure. Definitely strange surroundings, but another for the revisit list.
Handily, all but the Marble Arch are within a five minute walk of Port Street, the MA maybe ten, so a great prelude to any “Meet the Brewer” events and such like, which is where we shot off to next, for a hot date with a Bearded Lady…
Beersay 
you missed out on the 12 cheese plate in the marble arch 😉
A couple of places there that I wasn’t aware of. The list of bars I want to drink at just increased….again. Can’t believe you had a session before the actual session…you crazy guys!
To be honest Steve, we were in a rush and only just managed to eat the four in 57, I reckon the 12 cheese needs the long leisurely approach? 😉
Always good to have options Dave and just call me Phil-y-Two-Sessions lol… 🙂
Planning to go over to Marble Arch in the new year to take care of a cheese board. It’ll be a slow painful death to the cheese 😉
I was defeated by the 12th piece…to be fair I did top up on bread and had already had three pints of beer! When I was there I did microbar, angel, marble and then port street beer house.
you missed out on a great pub on the walk from marble arch to fringe , the angel is one of the best and amongst their fine array of ever changing beers , you could try the ever present bobs ‘white lion’ a magnificent palest of ales.
Damn, the one that got away! I’ll definitely give that a try when next I go, seems to be a few more knocking around too. Cheers