Society, Manchester

Society is the name of the canteen-style food hall set in a modern development of offices. The hall is set slightly below ground level and has a large number of long tables with bench seating both inside and outside. As you enter, the Vocation & Co. bar is directly opposite on the long wall. Various food outlets are off to the left-hand side, whilst there is another bar dispensing cocktails off to the right. Whether that is related to Vocation & Co, I'm not too sure. The lengthy Vocation & Co. bar has 4 or 5 handpulls. The only 2 clipped on my visit had their Bread & Butter and Heart & Soul. It seems that they may have guest beers from time to time. The keg beer range is much wider. Vocation & Co. beers were Pure Pilsner, Hebden Lager, Big Squeeze, Death By Cherries, Devil's Leap, Session IPA, Life & Death, Life & Death Gold, Cooler Shaker, Sunset Overdrive, Naughty & Nice Malted Honeycomb Milk Chocolate Stout, Naughty & Nice Whipped Nougat Milk Chocolate Stout, May Contain Sixpence & All Souls. There was also a Vocation/Funky Fluid collaboration beer called Tropical Sunset Ripple. Guests were Deya Kellerbier, Lil' Chu & Unmute Yourself, Newborn Pils, Hogan's Cider, Schoffenhoffer Grapefruit, Schneider Weisse Helle Weisse, Verdant There Will Be No Intervals & Even Sharks Need Water, Sureshot Up That Finnieston Crane All Night, 9th Overall 2013 & Grandmother Technique, Newborns Autumn Beer, Five Points Jupa & Jester King Vague Recollection (2021). The two cask beers were fine, but I wasn't overly impressed with the keg beers I tried. The May Contain Sixpence was strong (12.5%) and didn't contain a sixpence, whilst the Autumn Beer did contain 3 bar flies which probably gave it a little more flavour than it otherwise would have had. With many other decent real ale pubs and bars in Manchester, I'm surprised that this one has made it into the latest Good Beer Guide.

Heard about this place on a recent podcast that suggested it was one of the finest places to drink in Manchester. If you are after a new build, with interesting craft beers (mainly from Vocation but other available) and a choice of "street food", then I can see what you'd say that. Definitely high on variety. Food is ordered from an app - and a choice of many styles.

Situated in the old Pitcher & Piano, this is one of Vocation's latest ventures. Similar to Assembly Underground in Leeds, but smaller. The main bar is facing you as you enter with a smaller cocktail bar to the right. To the left are 5 street food stalls selling a selection of different cuisines. As is usual with these type of places the seating is mainly on long, shared tables, although there is a balcony area with standard table and chairs. Pleasantly buzzy on my Friday afternoon visit, without being too crowded. 3 cask ales available, all from Vocation. My choice was Assembled With Care, a beer I had tried a week before in their tap in Hebden Bridge, is was just as good here. I liked it in here, it's just the right size and hasn't been found by the Mackie Mayor users (yet).

No major change since my previous review, however you now order at the bar. The QR code on the table still works for viewing the menu, but you can no longer order through there and you have to do it the old fashioned way. The venue is an Untappd Verified Venue so if you are an Untappd user, this is another way of viewing the beer menu. Four cask ales and 30+ on keg, a combination of Vocation's own beers and guests. There are usually some nice strong beers on keg, and I find one of these makes a nice finisher for the evening before getting the train home.

Called in on Saturday night. I was a bit concerned it may be rammed with it being the first weekend of trading but there were a few tables available so no problem. There were plenty of people in, but this is a big space so it didn't feel too crowded. We were shown to a table, scanned the QR code to check in, hand sanitiser is available, and a further QR code on the table takes you to the beer menu and online ordering system. Ordering was efficient, and there was certainly plenty to go at with four cask options and over 20 on keg. On the cask side there were two from Vocation, one from Squawk and one from Marble. A wide variety of breweries and styles represented on keg, including two Vocation Imperial Stouts (Imperial Honeycomb and Imperial Black Forest Cherry Stout, both at 10%). We stayed for a couple of drinks and a member of the bar staff checked back to see if we were enjoying the Imperial Honeycomb, and indeed we were. This is a great addition to the area and I can see this becoming a popular venue. Well worth seeking out if you're in this part of town. In addition to the Vocation bar, Society houses a cocktail bar and a couple of food outlets with a shared seating area, which could be handy if you get peckish. One I shall definitely return to!