Pigeon Beer Wanderer

Is the humble pigeon undergoing a renaissance worthy of the Medicis or, say, “indie sleaze”? Alongside appearances on countless fine-dining menus over recent years, it’s also given its name to one of the city’s best indie pubs (albeit paired with a creature who won’t be appearing on the cover of Cute Creatures Monthly anytime soon). And now this: Pigeon Beer Wanderer, a carefully put-together ale house from beer boffin Joshua Lightfoot. 

You’ll find it down the road from Piccadilly Train Station, right by Track, Cloudwater, Balance and Sureshot in what some observers are calling Manchester’s “Beermuda Triangle”. Me, I’m not so sure. As someone who lived through the 80s, that name makes me think of getting lost, bad puns and unfashionable shorts. And guys, MediaCityUK already exists. 

Joshua Lightfoot comes via The Hop Emporium, and believes beer deserves the same level of ceremony as wine – provenance, mood-appropriate glassware, the lot.

The space itself splits in two: an indoor parlour-slash-bottle shop for the serious beer browser, and a terrace built for the kind of long hot Manchester summer that we’re enduring right now. Eye for details? This is for you: the glass changes with the beer, tasting pours sit next to full serves, and it all takes itself a little bit more seriously than the average unit-inhabiting ale house, in a good way. 

Not too seriously, mind. The logo is a pigeon smoking a delicious cig, which isn’t something you see much of these days, as we close in on 20 years since the UK smoking ban (though it could feasibly be a nicotine-free vape if the fun police come a-knocking).