Be at Be At One in Manchester

Behind Manchester's Barton Arcade a decade or so ago there was a club called Circle, popular at first with media types- BBC runners and Granada folk- and the odd celebrity (I saw Badly Drawn Boy in one of the VIP booths). It became a bit of a gangster's paradise over time, and the violence on the door resulted in the loss its license and it shut down at the end of 2013.

The unit has been vacant for some time, but London cocktail Group Be At One has pounced on the opportunity and opened their thirtieth branch, this time here in Manchester. I dropped in last night with Manchester Cool Bars. The new décor and atmos was lovely with great service and a combo of vintage and modern features. Even though it was quiet early doors there were already a handful of stunners inside.

The Manchester Evening News has more here. 

After this we checked out Taboo at Tiger Tiger. The standard student Tuesday event was replicated last night, only with queues about three times as long. We joined the line at 22:45 and waited while copious people cut in front of us and groups of chav girls tried to get arguments out of whoever was nearby. There was a lot of talent in the queue, in all fairness.

Over the road, the queue for the Voodoo event (usually a Wednesday thing) at The Birdcage was also outrageous. Don't let anyone tell you bank holidays are for staying local. You can if you want, but Manchester has more than enough busy places on longer weekends.

Anyway. We got in at 00:30, which is a pretty large chunk of the night spent queuing, and this was followed by further large queues at every bar inside, including three floors. There was a lot of grime music that I couldn't really get into.

I much prefer Taboo when it's on a Tuesday, and it's not so busy that it's hard to even move around. Anyway, the pics are due here. Be At One is well worth a revisit. More Cool Bars meetups on the horizon.