Fringe Food & Drink

the Saturday edition of The Guardian has been running a pull out section on Food - eat & drink better etc - for the third & final week they published a directory of where ro get your good supplies. Four stores in Chorlton got a look in - not bad at all. You don't know how lucky you are - you could be living five miles from here and have nothing but a KFC & a boring supermarket with 40 types of breakfast cereal ( five types of grains, a lot of sugar and heavy adverts that pretend to be real choice for the modern lifestyle ). Entries that made it, and it's always a pretty arbitary affair with journalists, were Barbakan, Unicorn, Carringtons, Chorlton Wholefoods. Still people think a three mile drive to Sainsbury's or Tesco is getting the big shop in. It's on your doorstep. At this point I dismount from the hobby horse.

Looks like a pint of Timothy Taylor's in The Beech taken with a picture phone [ Panasonic GD87e ] - the future of blogging. News direct from where you are stood. Now why did I send this picture when I took some better one's & one's with more glamour.

The expanding Unicorn have set Tuesday 15th July for the opening of the new store. If you've never visited 89 Albany Road then you need to get out a bit more.

bread101_mix the ultimate until i find another bread making site. Too many facts too many tips. Don't you find that bread has been reduced to sandwiches? Bread was invented to be part of a main meal. Sandwiches were invented to be an 18th century snack for card players but are now a staple for 21st century office workers.

If you thought it quaint that Chorlton still has a half day closing on a Wednesday - not all the shops, and those who do close make a full day of it. But, Mondays traditionally the day of for restaurants now extends to bars - The Nose, a wine beer-off - Carringtons and not forgetting Unicorn Grocery who never open on a Mondays much to the surprise to the unwary. 24/7 not us - keep it 8/6 - even that's probably more than parts of Spain, France & Italy.

This grey looking new shell of a shop is to be a Domino takeaway pizza. What the picture doesn't show is a Pizza Hut takeaway on the left and Canadian Grill which also knocks out a takeaway pizza on the right. Across the road is another takaway pizza place. There are about another half dozen such establishments elsewhere in Chorlton. That's a lot of bland calorie consumption.

Unicorn Grocery held a bit of an open day to show off the building site next door. This is part of its expansion programme now it has acquired the whole site. We predict that this stretch of Manchester Road will be uplifted by having shop frontage in this part of Chorlton, and a busy shop like this. Maybe Idaho across the road will want to open during the day. Also many more people will discover Unicorn - even though it's been trading for 7 years many people in Chorlton don't know it exists at the top of Albany Road.

City Life gave the Lloyd's Hotel a good review in its latest edition - these reviews are not available online. But when we get around to making a review section of eating & drinking places - an area sadly neglected so far at this site, we'll copy it. Those burley men in bouncer outfits - black polyesters and white shirts - hanging about the door didn't get a mention. Pubs - Doormen - Door Policy..don't let it ruin your night out.

A new place to go, and after an initial visit we will definately return. Decor is well done, no smoking areas - at the bar and in alcoves, food eating area overlooking the bowling green, proper menu, Lees Brooklyn beer, and a big screen telly over at one end. A job well done though I would lose the slot machine and the music when the place gets full. It was full, will it remain that way with the competition from the smaller, cosier bars? They've also put the ceiling back in gone is that open gallery of the last incarnation.