Manchester

The Lounge
478 Wilbraham Road
Chorlton
Under new management this bar is now part of the expanding family owned Lounge Ventures group. They also own Abode on Wilbraham road and soon one more to add to the collection … which WHLN has exclusive news on. The place is much larger than you expect when you first walk in. Keep walking on down to the refurbished back room with its great leather sofas and nice lighting for social and chilled chats and beers. You can tell there is new management, and a ladies touch in the place as the whole vibe is much less ‘chav wanna be gangsta’ than before. Candles now make sense and lower lightening with more appropriate music. This much needed change is added to by the addition of a decent bar menu there. Finally, catering for people with good old fashioned taste and not all ‘bling bling’ and frozen turkey twisters. Home good comfort food, classic fayre, which is on all day, great pies and pastas, a steak and the works for £7, Chorlton quality but at a fine price point beautifully cooked by the ex head chef from the LIVING ROOM. Foreign beers and a good selection of drinks all round, but not at the Northern Quarter price point. Erdigner, Leffe, Negra modello (my favorite) along side polish beers with names I just can’t remember. But what I can remember is the great idea they have about catering for the night after the night before crowd with classic hangover cures ranging from eggs Benedict to properly made Bloody Marys as well as fresh fruit salads for the healthy (we are still in Chorlton remember) Saying this, aligned with Chorlton’s socialism we have Wednesday nights where people can bring in their own tunes and they have a local bands night which apparently goes down a storm. Whilst they are finally sorting out the weekend with new DJ’s and a meet and great scheme on the door to vet people and have the 21 year old+ people inside the Lounge know they are going to have a ‘safe’ time (manc pun weakly intended) Average age: 28 but with a strangely high number of attractive women for Chorlton Verdict: With the new management and security and style conscious measures in place (along with the new food menu) this Lounge will be one WHLN will definitely chill out in, in 2007. See you there for hangover cures and an all dayer sometime in the summer.
Modern bar

The North Pole Bar
Next to Urbis
City Centre
Here for only 8 weeks, a huge arctic-themed tent will host wintery drinks, food and revelry during the day and night.
Modern bar

Via Fossa
28-30 Canal Street
Gay Village

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Wave
35 Portland Street
City Centre

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Barca
Arch 8 & 9
Castlefield

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Brannigans
Albert Hall
Peter Street

Modern bar

M20
158 Burton Road
Didsbury
M20 is as M20 does. It’s a new upstart compared to the MET and four in hand, and other such bastions on Didsbury drinking but my god is it a refreshing change. Not just for the no nonsense party crowd who go there, spurred on my delicious cocktails and well chosen foreign beers but because the place is soooo 80’s it hurts, and it hurts in a good way. Ok to say so 80’s is a little harsh, but other drinking holes in Didsbury are painfully original and seem to lack soul and heart. They are bland and have no brand, M20, even if a little on the dark side, oozes someone’s personality, someone’s dream, you can tell someone somewhere wanted a bar. Bought one and is very happy about it. And well they might be – the place has smashed it. The drinks aren’t cheap, with bottles of beer at a price around £3.20 and cocktails (which are great to be fair) at £7.95 but the queue to get in after only just gone 11 shows most people of Didsbury don’t care. The drinks are well mixed and well served by two legends in the area, the RnR boys, with rumors that they might well move and start their own bar somewhere in town! Hurrah! You see the problem with M20 is that the place is so small it might as well be down a back street in Granada or in a funkier part of Lisbon. It’s so very small but this can add to the vibe of the place, as you have to squish past people and be very unbritish about touching, and get involved when getting served. It also has an tiny built for couples area behind the bar which is so dark that it’s almost a place ripe for un noticed unplanned under the table affection (those of you who know about dark rooms, alas for you, this is not one of them, shame thou) The crowd seems younger than Didsbury is used to but this could be the fact that everyone is enjoying themselves and the drinks are flowing and you cant hear the over loud talking about share prices and skiing holidays booked for next year…thank God. There are more than a few attractive ladies who vie for attention and dance for fun in the space where there are no tables, I would say dance floor but this isn’t true. However, this is a rarity, according to one regular there are usually many more men than women that go in there, and I believe her she goes there 3 times a week. A don’t know if its sad or genius to be fair, The music policy is simple but affective. Get people dancing, play what they love and mix it well enough for people to notice, but not to scratch their chins about. It’s a lively, no messing about vibe, drinking and dancing but with a VMSA feel to the place (very much strings attached, including past relationship near marriages and broken dreams of the late 20’s early 30’s career people) However to balance this out nicely there are more than a few couples, no bad thing at their / my age. However, this party vibe maybe changing, rumors of revolution is in the air, a change of guard of the staff means RIP Rich and Rob (who almost ran the place for a while, especially with the faithful followers) and so maybe M20 maybe MT
Modern bar