/WORLD COCKTAIL DAY
MAY 13 is World Cocktail day - which is good news for Manchester, thanks to its massive mixology scene.
The city is crammed with cocktail bars serving everything from reinvented classics to molecular madness.
Whether you’re faithful to your Old Fashioned or seeking something more inventive, there’s a bar - and a cocktail list - for everyone.
We’ve rounded up a few of our favourites, from secret speakeasies to stylish sky-high lounges. Science and Industry Thomas Street rum and ribs joint Cane and Grain’s hidden first floor bar is now a covert cocktail laboratory after a recent revamp. Renamed Science and Industry, it has its own chemistry workshop where award-winning cocktail maestro Massimo Zitti and his team are pushing the boundaries of molecular mixology in Manchester. Kitted out with equipment including a rotary evaporator and sous vide machines, it enables them to do everything from redistilling rum with fresh watermelon juice to go in a dry iced zombie to creating edible orange perfume to be spritzed on a negroni ristretto. Asha’s BolliBar Tucked away beneath plush Indian restaurant Asha’s on Peter Street is the intimate BolliBar, serving up a cocktail list designed by Manchester’s own mixology maestro Jamie Jones, along with Marian Blake from internationally renowned London bar Nightjar. We love their twist on an Old Fashioned (£10), made with spices, raisin and rum.
41 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 3NG / ashasuk.co.uk / 0161 832 5309 Apotheca Modelled on an old apothecary, you’ll find all manner of tinctures and treats in here, including a selection of sharing cocktails served in vintage bottles. Our favourite is the Root To Ruin (£25, enough for four to share), a heady mix of Tanqueray gin, triple sec, lemon, teapot bitters, beetroot and pressed apple juice.
17 Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1EU / apothecabar.co.uk / 0161 834 9411 Cloud 23 Views don’t come much better than at The Hilton hotel’s 23rd floor bar, halfway up the skyscraping Beetham Tower. The cocktails are equally impressive: try the Stratospheric (£23, to share), a boozy ode to the building itself, mixing Ciroc Red Berry, Tanqueray 10, hibiscus, raspberry, passionfruit, citrus and Dom Perignon champagne in a perilously high glass.
303 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4LQ / cloud23bar.com / 0161 870 1670 Be At One The London-based cocktail bar chain opened its first Manchester site earlier this year in what was the Circle Club, beneath Barton Arcade. Easily laying claim to the city’s biggest cocktail menu, there are 150 varieties to choose from, from its best-selling Pornstar Martinis to the ludicrously strong Ting Wray.
13 Barton Arcade, Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BB / beatone. co.uk/cocktail-bar/manchester / 0161 413 3462