Jo Nightingale (1972)

The Northern Quarter is probably best known for its bars, which are now starting to spill over into the quieter zone behind Piccadilly. Open since early 2011, Port Street’s Beer House has attracted a loyal clientèle of ‘craft beer’ fans; who seem happy to wander off the beaten track to enjoy its cosy charms.

Painted in a pea soup green that oozes homeliness and tradition, Port Street convincingly evokes the Victorian beer house which was actually housed here in the 1860s.  It now consists of a ground floor bar, a small outside space and an upstairs lounge to which you can (carefully) carry your pint.

What its friendly and knowledgeable staff do serve, in abundance, is beer: from myriad bottled American options to the best Belgium, Germany and Denmark have to offer. Refreshingly, if you’ll pardon the pun, there are as many British beers on offer as there are Belgian; including Brewdog’s Punk IPA and Trashy Blonde and a comprehensive range of IPAs – including coffee – from Kernal.

Three resident breweries and four guests (all British) are offered from the cask, with around 12 further draught options. Wines, supplied by Manchester merchant Hanging Ditch, are also available by the glass and bottle, and there are short but good lists of cider and spirits. If you like a strong snifter, though, beer is still an option: Brewdog’s “uber” imperial stout, Tactical Nuclear Penguin, comes in at a radioactive 32% ABV.

Thai restaurants are commonplace in most city centres and Manchester’s no exception, but our best example is a little tricky to find. Tucked away in a first-floor location on Chinatown’s Faulkner Street, Try Thai first enticed me in with its extensive vegetarian menu; before proving to be a winning destination on all fronts.

Tastefully decorated, with nods to the opulent glamour that’s been fashionable in recent years, the restaurant’s most appealing seats are in a curtained-off gallery with striking oversized floral wallpaper. Staff are friendly and welcoming and just the right degree of attentive, and the relaxed atmosphere suggests they’re happy for you to linger.

The huge menu extends from stir fries and Thai curries to seafood specialities, and a vegetarian range that makes up at least a third of the options. If the choice is overwhelming there are veggie and meat-based banquets from £20 a head, including a very spicy vegetable salad on the former and belly pork with chilli and sweet basil on the latter. Each option I’ve tried has been amazingly tasty, suggesting top quality ingredients expertly cooked, and my dad once deemed a meal here the best he’d ever had.

Coffee or ice cream is included in the banquets but, if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, reach for the list of flowering teas – whose blooms blossom mesmerisingly in your glass. There’s also a tempting cocktail/mocktail menu, and with a Thai-style canopy bar downstairs you could easily spend a whole evening in this hitherto hidden gem.

These days we’re all multi-tasking mad, so it’s great to find a venue that can juggle more functions than my aged laptop can dream of yet feel totally chilled out. As the name suggests The Art of Tea is a cafe, but it’s a bar, venue, gallery and community-hub too; and its impossibly deep premises also house a second-hand bookshop and a picture-framer.

The cafe’s eclectic decor combines furniture and crockery from the Victorian age to the 70s. At least half the items are familiar from my own murky past, which for me adds to the homeliness, but if you’re from further afield and interested in British homestyle before 1980 a pit-stop here could be an education. Food ranges from breakfast pancakes to bagels, sandwiches, salads and soup, and of course there’s a comprehensive range of loose leaf teas as well as smoothies, shakes and coffees. The stand-out offering for me though has to be the home-made cakes – cranberry loaf and carrot, walnut & banana in huge, moist slabs – which I’m often unable to resist.

The cafe stages regular exhibitions by local artists, with all exhibits for sale, and in the evening is transformed into a cosy bar often hosting folk-centric and acoustic gigs. Beers from draft Mahou to bottled Estrella Damm, Vedett, Erdinder Weissebier and Rekorderlig fruit are offered alongside good wine and spirits ranges, and the monthly ‘Gesampt’ night gives you the chance to exhibit your own artworks, videos and soundtracks – for one night only.

At long last, the past couple of years have seen a surge of new Manchester venues for that stereotypically English activity, afternoon tea; from Patisserie Valerie and the Richmond Tea Rooms to a rash of ‘cupcakeries’ across the city. For me, though, the best atmosphere and edibles can be found at Sugar Junction, the Northern Quarter tea-shop where it always feels like VE Day.

Refreshments are served on vintage crockery at wooden tables set with fresh roses, with 40s-clad staff, wartime decor and strains of the Andrews Sisters to complete the mood. Food-wise, an assortment of menus fulfill every breakfast and lunch need, from eggs three ways and dainty sandwiches to soups and macaroni cheese.

Sugar Junction is really all about afternoon tea, though, be it Darjeeling and cream scones or the full, multi-course blow-out with its enticing sandwich-fillings, goosebury crumble, cakes and house fudge. Around five home-made cakes, including lemon drizzle and ginger and orange, are usually on offer, alongside an array of scones, Florentines, meringues and tarts.

The accompanying drinks can seem a bit pricey at over £ 3 each but Sugar Junction’s tea range is top drawer and 25-strong (including Spiced Orange, Pai Mu Tan and its own Northern Quarter blend), and the quality of my (huge) Americano was also beyond reproach. And if a little nostalgic indulgence has done you good there’s also a take-away option – with a restored vintage caravan available to hire.

Jostling with its Oldham Street neighbour Pop Boutique for the title of most appealing vintage stockist, Retro Rehab specialises in selecting the most wearable clothes and accessories from decades past. Yes, it’s another vintage store but in this part of town you can’t move for them, and surely you didn’t come to Manchester to visit the Gap?

In this modestly sized but packed outlet dresses and skirts from the 50s to the 80s sit alongside racks of knitwear, shoes, bags and jewellery. There’s a strong emphasis on prints, from the bold and quirky to more sedate florals, and RR’s enviable collection of scarves ensures there’s always something you can see yourself wearing.

Items are imported from around the world and, where necessary, “lovingly reworked” by the team, to ensure the style and cut hit the right notes for the 21st century fashionista. And, as with almost all Manchester’s vintagewear, the prices give the high street a serious run for its money – there’s really no excuse for dressing with the mainstream in this city.