The Rose & Monkey Hotel, Manchester

Paid a visit on Saturday night, and was pleased to find it was open to the general public. Four hand pulls at the bar, two were off and the other two were offering Titanic Plum Porter and Dark Star Hophead. Bizarrely my Hophead was served in something that resembled a jam jar. My drinking accomplice had the Theakston Barista Stout on keg which was smooth, creamy and coffee like - almost like a dessert. The pub itself has a front room with the bar, then a short corridor leading to a further opened out room, with a doorway leading to the toilets and the outside drinking area. It's not somewhere that's going to become a regular haunt but it looks a lot more welcoming now than it did as the Burton Arms.

I never made it in the Burton Arms so was looking forward to giving it a go under its new name and new management. Unfortunately last night it was closed for a tickets only music event. Perhaps worth checking before you make a special trip.

Repeat visit - and I didn't recognise the place from last time. It was formerly the barton arms - as per the photo here. Its now got a new name - I'd need to check my on line banking but I think its the Monkey and Rose. Bartons Arms still displayed in the porch area. Smart bar - with fools gold by bootleg brewery. Very nice outside patio area - complete with TVs showing Glastonbury. At last, we've found a place with a beer garden in the city that isnt mobbed.