Mary & Archie, Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester

Mary and Archie is a café bar on a corner plot with lots of seating on the paths down either side. The waist high railings and planters that border this seating and the plastic sheeting above and around makes this outside area feel like an extension of inside. This is handy because the inside isn’t very big. There’s a bar in the right front corner that supports four Shindigger products on keg. Can’t remember which one I had, but the lines could do with a clean. Craft cans and premium foreign bottled lagers are also available. I would feel a lot more comfortable sitting in the open plan seating if I was eating rather than just drinking as it’s not a very interesting place. It may be better when the advertised open mic is being hosted, but then maybe not. The food menu consists mainly of breakfast, wraps and burgers, the latter being priced around £11. The service was polite, but this place didn’t stand out amongst the many other bars in this area so I will of forgotten about it in a couple of weeks.

Visited on Saturday evening. This is a pretty small bar and it was heaving. A couple left as we were ordering at the bar so we did manage to pounce on their table, and in similar vain another couple pounced on it as soon as we got up to leave later. Four hand pulls at the bar, one of which was off at the time of my visit. We went for the 4-3-1 by Brighton Bier, two half pints of which set us back £4.00. The other two ales available were Blackjack Bitter and Blackjack Pub Ale. The bar is small with a sign advising there is no service at one end of it, which makes the other end of the bar crowded. Despite there being three members of staff behind the bar, there was no room in the designated serving area for them all to be serving customers at the same time. The bar was pretty noisy, partly due to the large crowd in such a small space, and partly due to the DJ blasting out his tunes from the small gap between the end of the bar and the window. The DJ looked a bit like an Aussie surf dude, there was a guy wandering round with a scruffy beard and wearing pyjama bottoms, and several genderfluid looking types. This is peak Chorlton, and a swift half and moving on was enough for me.

Very much a cafe and then bar. That said it does have 4 handpumps which all were on dispensing 2 Blackjack beers, a Dark Star Antares beer and one I've forgotten. The place is only small and very yellow. I assume Bob 'dale will be down quick smart to approve or not.