The Crown & Kettle

The ornate plaster ceiling is the thing people photograph, but the bar is why they stay: a long row of cask pumps and keg fonts that changes constantly, heavy on Northern breweries. One of the best-kept cask cellars in the city, in a building that was a Victorian gin palace.

Pies, a beer garden on the corner of Great Ancoats Street, and the team that went on to open the Rat & Pigeon and the Badger.