CityLife

57 Thomas Street

Beer and chat are the main focus at 57 Thomas Street

57 Thomas Street
Northern Quarter
May 2010

Overall: 4/5

This week’s venue couldn’t be a more welcome break from the Northern Quarter’s increasingly saturated cocktail scene and it’s refreshing to see an operator make some bold decisions.

There are no wines, spirits or fizzy drinks at this real ale bar; instead manager Warren McCoubrey aims to educate with 57 beers (from £2.40 up to £9), as well as fruit juice, loose leaf tea, coffee and cold food.

The brightly-lit venue has a bar-cum-deli vibe and is the smallest in Manchester brewer Marble Arch Ltd’s stable, alongside Rochdale Road’s Marble Arch pub and Chorlton’s bar-cum-pub the Marble Beer House. With a lack of music unless it’s really quiet and just one big table to share (plus comfy lounge chairs), the proposition is clear: beer and chat.

In prime position are four barrels of Marble’s home-brewed beers (Pint, Brew No.14, Dobber and Lagonda IPA, ranging from £2.40-£3.40) – simply served under gravity pressure, so, contrary to popular belief, there should be no head or fizz.

The beers are concentrated from the top three beer countries in the world, Belgium, Germany and the UK.

But with probably the best selection of Lambic beers the city has ever seen, a bigger bottle range than their other venues, and everything from dark, light and wheat beers to flavoured options like chocolate and passion fruit, even non-beer drinkers will find something to their taste.

57 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1NA, (0161 832 0521)