Hotels

  • eXchange Food and Drink Lounge – call me ☎️

    It’s a rare day I pick up when my phone rings. It’s a hell freezes over day I call someone else. I’m not a monster, a social pariah, arrogance personified. I guess you could call me the ultimate screener. But it’s not through a sense of selecting who I want to talk to. It’s more

    Read more →

  • Bowled over by the Hilton

    Brought up by cricket-loving parents. I can boast that I was there at the infamous Headingley Test in 1981. I was barely stringing a sentence together given my young years what’s new? (Good one, me. Who just wrote that too. About me) … but I was there. And so with that grounding, I had no

    Read more →

  • Fall fork first into autumn at Malmaison

    After a summer of outdoor activities, beer gardens and sun terraces (yes, even in Manchester, naysayers), October heralds a time for taking it back indoors . Personally happy to see the back of light summer salads, all I can see ahead is a series of extended Sunday lunches with friends and family and delicious decadent dinners. Autumn

    Read more →

  • Brasserie Abode – bringing it home.

    It was on a balmy night in Manchester when Brasserie Abode threw open its doors, banged on its bongos and welcomed Manchester into its loving, refurbished arms. If the recently rebranded bar and restaurant is anything like its welcome party, us mancs (born and honorary) are in for a treat. Last Thursday I got a

    Read more →

  • Palace Hotel – put on the red light 

    The clock tower and red neon is synonymous with sweeping camera shots of Manchester. It used to be, anyway. Whistling Beetham Tower has taken over. And soon, its sister. Its massive sister. In fact red neon adorned buildings used to be the thing. My old employer and first love Granada TV and its lettering used

    Read more →