CityLife

Lass O'Gowrie

LOG

UNLIKE the rest of us who have only recently woken up and smelled the own-brand instant, tough times hit the pub trade a good while back.

Many trace it to the smoking ban, but wherever the blame lies landlords are having to work harder than ever to keep the punters coming through the doors.

Thankfully for that blowsy old lady of the city centre pub scene, Gareth Kavanagh of the Lass O’Gowrie must be one of the most hard-working of the lot.

Successful free comedy nights, a music showcase, book club, computer club (where gamers play retro games on ancient hardware, including six Eighties, sit-down arcaders), an open mic spot on Mondays and changing eclectic art on the walls.

A fistful of fingers in an oven-tray of pies, then. Which is an appropriate analogy for this traditional boozer which reckons it serves the “best pies in Manchester”.

A confident claim, but one with which I cannot disagree after tucking into a chicken, mushroom and tarragon one (£7.50), with proper, thick pastry, not a floating, tissue papery crust on a stew that you can easily find elsewhere. My companion’s luxurious steak and Black Sheep Ale variety, with mushrooms and thyme – also £7.50 – was also top notch.

Handsome pub

The handsome pub has focused on food recently, and there are also daily specials – like pork and leek sausages on a bed of bubble and squeak mash (£6.95) – and a number of veggie choices.

But Graham hasn’t forgotten the day job. Up to nine handpumps of cask ales adorn the compact bar, including a fine XX Mild from Greene King (a brewery to which The Lass is partially tied) and Hardy’s and Hanson’s Kimberley Best Bitter.

On man who sups them regularly is comic Johnny Vegas, when he is working at the BBC HQ nearby. He was the ‘royalty’ who cracked the champers on the Lass’s new smoking balcony over the River Medlock recently – a brass plaque commemorates the day with the inscription: “May Gawd bless those who tab and quaff on her.” True class.

I have to confess a personal reason for loving the Lass.

It was where I met and proposed to my wife (no, not on the same night).

The pub – which brewed its own beers in the bowels of the building until 2003 – had a fallow period just before and after the millennium and could easily have gone to the wall, but Graham at the helm of this great boozer seems to be another marriage made in heaven.

The Lass O’Gowrie, 36 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB (0161 273 6932, thelass.co.uk)