Whatever anyone says about British cuisine, you really can’t beat a
large creamy chicken pie or tender steak pie with thick gravy  on a
wintery day. It’s comfort food at its best, and if made from scratch it
isn’t as unhealthy as a store-bought second rate effort.

Nexus on Dale Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter serves Pieminister’s
offering, as does Cup round the corner, which is not a bad thing but if
more places in the Northern Quarter hop aboard this pie train there
won’t be much variation. There is a really good article from the Telegraph
from January 2008, charting the success of this small company from
touting their wares at Glastonbury to supplying pubs and cafes all over
the UK. Like any forward-thinking food company, they use only quality
ingredients such as free-range meat and no hydrogenated fats.

Their combination of a caring approach to their food, good marketing and branding and gastro pub-style fillings have made a great company. The thick flaky pastry tastes homemade (mainly because it is) and goes hand in hand with unique fillings such as Thai chook pie, Wild mushroom and asparagus pie, Matador pie and Mr Porky pie.

The Thai chook pie (£4) I scoffed at Nexus was a lovely creamy blend of free range British chicken, green Thai curry, sweet potato and lime and a perfect filling for a good stout pastry receptacle. All the unusual fillings just bring the good solid pie up to date with our modern eating tastes. A side order of mash is £1, and gravy 50p in Nexus. Shame it brings it up to £5.50 for all three, I’d chuck the gravy in for free, I think.

Nexus is a basement cafe is on Dale Street right next to a shop called Junk. It is funded by the Methodist Church and works with Sanctus1 which is a city centre church funded by the Church of England – but do not let that put you off, non-religious people. The art cafe is a not-for-profit organisation serving fair trade goods and says it works towards “building community and celebrating creativity in the Northern Quarter’ which should, of course, be applauded.

The whole menu looks great, and is enough to induce changing of mind several times. My friend ordered the sausage sandwich, which came with feta cheese, sunny dried tomatoes, wholegrain mustard, served on granary for £3.60. This is a seriously pimped-up sausage buttie.

On another visit, I tried the Tuna mix up (£3.40), which was another genuis sandwich combination where the tuna was mixed up with feta cheese, chunky olives, onion and mayo, and served on warm granary bread.

They also offer free wi-fi, a selection of newspapers as well as home baked cakes and TeaPigs tea, so pay them a visit. Oh and last time I popped in there was an art event called 40 days of Public Solitude where a bloke was sitting in the window bit when you walk down the stairs. Quite odd, but interesting all the same.

MORE INFO

See also the Mancubist blog for more information on Nexus.

Nexus Art Cafe, Dale Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M1 1JW.
Open 10am to 7pm every day of the week.
E: info@nexusartcafe.com

W: www.nexusonline.org.uk

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Manchester’s finest Twitterati met up to test out the Bay Horses’s pie and a pint deal this week. Except I didn’t have a pint, and there
was a discussion about whether the pie actually constituted a pie. But let’s start from the beginning.

Taste of Manchester is a new website run by Manchester Food and Drink Festival, which is absolutely full of news and reviews about eating, and you guessed it, drinking, in the rainy city.

They’ve also pulled together some of the best offers out there, and will even email them to you if you sign up to the mailing list. I spotted an offer for a pie and a pint at The Bay Horse in the Northern Quarter for £5.50, which seems like a tempting lunch time offer. You can buy the pie on its own for £3.95 if you don’t fancy a pint, and for £4.95 you can get a pie, peas and gravy.

The only pie on offer was the bacon, bubble and squeak so it was five of those all round. Arriving in a small dish with mash on top, a discussion ensued as to whether the lack of pastry meant it wasn’t a pie. Feel free to discuss among yourselves as I don’t think we came to any conclusion.

This was real home cooked hearty food, but maybe just had too many flavours going on for it to gel. The bacon was tasty, if a little salty, and there was also rosemary and a big spoonful of grainy mustard thrown in there for some extra tang. The mash on top was beautifully creamy and plenty of cheese was slathered on and melted. It was enjoyable but I’m still not sure if it worked – but it wouldn’t stop me from going back to try other flavours.

Next week is also British Pie Week so we were doing our bit for the national celebrations. How honourable. There’s also another pie review coming up very shortly, which will also coincide with this  national event. But it’s also an excuse for me to eat more pies, one might say.

I’ve only ever been to the Bay Horse in the evening before, when it gets really busy and plays very loud music, so it was good to find it’s a rather chilled lunchtime venue. Run by Yvonne Goldsmith-Rybka, this is a real boozer, but with a cool NQ twist with big comfy sofas and chic arty stuff on the walls. Yvonne and business partner, Nicky Rybka-Goldsmith, also run the very successful Soup Kitchen and more recently Cord. Their unusual surname situation is because they are best friends who took each other’s name by deed poll at university and kept it.

A quick look at the drinks menu shows good prices and a wide selection of wine and draught and bottled beers. And they also do a bottle of wine for £6, Monday to Friday from 5-7pm. The food menu has a nice simple selection of toasted sandwiches, salads and light bites – all really good prices.

INFO
The Bay Horse, 35-37 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1NA.
T: 0161 661 1041
E: info@thebayhorsepub.co.uk
W: www.thebayhorsepub.co.uk

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