Font, Manchester

The Font is a double fronted café bar that has a large awning out the front that pulls down very low, so I had to duck under it to enter the seating area that it covers. In the left hand side on the left wall is a bar counter next to a small open kitchen for cooking flat bread pizza and other such foods. The bar supports five handpumps, but three were unused which left Redwillow Brewery’s Head Less as the cask ale option and Weston’s Vintage Draught as the cask cider option. Premium keg is also available from the friendly staff. Down the right had side is seating that runs to a curtain that has more seating behind it. This reminded me of first class on an Easy Jet flight. There was some background music playing during a recent midweek evening visit. I liked the atmosphere, which is probably better at the weekend. I’d have no issue revisiting.

Official site of Font - www.fontbar.com

Official site of Font - www.fontbar.com

Maybe Saturday afternoon was not the best time to come. No doubting the quality of the beers - cask, keg and bottle on. I had an unusual Belgian gueuze for £8 - which wasn't too outrageously priced. The problem was it was full of young professionals - yuppies, as they may have been know in London - complete with their feral kids in posh party clothes. They were enjoying the excellent wares and their kids were charging all over the shop. Inside, resembled a wacky warehouse creche. Relative tranquility on the outside seating.

Started a crawl of Chorlton at Font on Saturday evening. Eight hand pulls at the bar, one of which was off. Cask ale prices range from £3.90 to £5.00 a pint. Keg stuff is also available. It was pretty busy (especially considering we were in the middle of Storm Dennis) but this is a double fronted unit and has the benefit of being bigger than many of the Chorlton bars. We just managed to get a seat, and if we hadn't there would have been room to stand. My Hopfordian IPA (Thirst Class Ales) was good and slipped down nicely. A variety of beer styles available on cask at the time of my visit, so no complaints from me.

Large double fronted cafe bar, friendly, nice vibe, a bit hipsterish. The beer here is served slightly warm, but a good choice

This is another shop conversion. There is an area with a red tiled floor and a raised area with a wooden floor. The bar has six hand pumps which included Buxton Gold & Rednik Stout, Magic Rock High Wire and Track Mazama. I didn't note the other beers as I started choking after discovering that the Buxton Gold was £4.20 a pint. To make things worse after getting it topped up it still wasn't a full pint. The muzak soundtrack was dull and depressing including a Leonard Cohen song from centuries ago. I wish I had checked for CAMRA discounts before coming to Manchester as it is claimed that this place does 25% CAMRA discount. This would have reduced the cost to £3.15 but how is it fair that CAMRA members pay over a quid a pint less? I thought this place was pretty poor, the only good thing was the beer quality but unbelievably, worse was to come back in Central Manchester where I returned to having given up on Pi which I must have walked past.

Another new bar in Chorlton, it's the sister pub of The Font in Manchester City Centre. It's a thin bar that goes back quite a way and there is a raised area to the right. There are some interesting carvings and pictures around the place. The rear of the bar appears to be made of breeze blocks, so it may have been extended. At the front there is a beer patio. There are some comfy sofas and chairs on the raised area, the rest is mainly dining tables & chairs. The chatty, friendly, blonde barmaid asked if I was a CAMRA member and when I showed her my card I was given a fantastic 25% off my pint. I think this is the highest discount I've ever encountered and it's available all day every day. Out of the 8 handpumps serving ever changing guests I chose Magic Rock Curious, which was an excellent pint. They also serve in 1/3, 1/2 & 2/3 of a piunt measures, there's a good range of bottled beer as well. There was a small dog trotting around the place, I suspect he's a regular rather than the pub dog. If this place isn't in the running for next years CAMRA Good Beer Guide there's something going wrong. A top bar and one I'll return to again and again I suspect.