Midtown Happy Hour: A Lush’s Look at Manchester Pub

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

sign

Zach has written about Manchester Pub’s sandwich challenge entry, and Lunch’er Sir-Eats-a-Lot emailed us about a few of their newer menu items, but I thought it was about time this pub received an official once over from this lush. Manchester is pretty small on the inside and there are 3 seating options: the bar, the wobbly cocktail tables or a few long wooden tables set off to the left. On my latest visit I arrived at 5:30pm and I was lucky to snag one of the long tables.

bartenders

Right now the bar is decked out in Halloween decorations and the potpourri of restroom filled the air. The night I was there, the crowd was an interesting mixture of casually dressed regulars sitting at the bar, some hipsters, and also after work types in business attire occupying the tables. The atmosphere is upbeat, the female bartenders were perky and buybacks were passed around to the regulars. MP takes its beer seriously and features a nice selection of craft and microbreweries. On a monthly basis breweries like Southern Tier, Flying Dog, Rogue, Piraat, Lighthouse, Lagunitas, and the most recently, Shmaltz (maker of He’brew and Coney Island lager) host various events and tastings.

corporate crowd

Happy hour is from 4 to 7pm with $3 Bud and Coors and one dollar off select drafts like Guinness, Sierra Nevada, and Radeberger. Happy hour also includes a dollar off sandwiches but I’m a sucker for chicken and waffles so I fed my soul food craving. Sadly, the fried chicken was not as good as I expected, maybe even worse than the previous review.

The maple syrup was hard and chewy (how do you do that??) plus it tasted more like honey then maple. The waffle was unmemorable. The chicken was a bit like a McNugget on steroids, but there isn’t any of that crispy coating you’d usually get with this dish. I wasn’t expecting Roscoe’s or Amy Ruth’s but maybe Manchester needs to just stick to its burgers instead.

Despite that the music was good and kept just loud enough for conversation to flow easily and the service was excellent. My only other advice to the Manchester Pub’s owners- clean your bathrooms. With such a small space I could smell the loo from the bar. Even Dalton’s, with their old crumbling ceilings, and crowd to match, had a fresh and clean can.

THE +

  • Beer aficionados will like the selection and monthly events
  • Regardless of my take on the chicken and waffles, other items on the menu are good, greasy and available till late in the night
  • Manchester is small and neighborly, encouraging repartee with the bartenders and owners -that tend to hang out with the crowd

THE –

  • Oh man, I can smell the bathroom as soon as I stepped in, not exactly whetting my appetite
  • If you don’t get here early the regulars will take up any good seating
  • Larger parties can be a problem

Manchester Pub, 920 2nd Ave., 212-935-8901

Post and photos by Mamacita

5 Comments

  • No Boddingtons?…Manchester Bar?

    …also…right blonde….she’s flashing her left nippynibbleton.

    Also, may i add walking in with a liverpool football top on may add to the evenings ‘enjoyment’.

  • Now that was one fine post about what seems to be one fine establishment.

    That joint reminds me of some of my favorite pubs in Dublin (i.e., ‘cheap’, ‘smelling the loo from the bar’, the big-breasted bar lassies, etc.).

    Manchester is definitely on my list the next time my wife drags me, fighting and screaming, to the BA on one of her dreaded business trips.

  • By favorite pubs in Dublin, DocChuck means the pubs he reads about on Dublin-based food blogs that he ALSO infests with his presence

    By business trips, DocChuck means the annual christmas party for the prison workers at the maximum security prison where his wife Hogzilla works as a guard.

  • Yes, the Manchester Pub does so remind me of the King Laoghaire on Georges Street Upper (close to our clinic in Dubin). Photos of the KL are available on our website (to our ‘Friends’), of course, along with hundreds of other photos of our other UK adventures (to the plebes).

    And your post does refresh my pleasant memories of our evenings spent there. We will, of course, be returning to Dublin in early December (a tax write-off expense, you understand), and I am all fired-up about enjoying some bangers and mash, along with a pint or two.

    Thanks for reminding me (and my wife, Doctor Elizabeth) of our wonderful visits to the UK.

    It is indeed unfortunate that some folks posting on your wonderful website are so disturbed by the lack of similar experiences in their lonely lives.

    Oh, well.

  • One needs to remember that DocChuck goes to great lengths to portray himself as wealthy, educated, well-travelled, respected, and loved…..mostly because he is none of these things. It is much like someone actually saying …”and I know what I am talking about”….ie anyone who feels the need to add that bit to a statement — as a rule — does *not* know what they are talking about.

    Twisted minds like DocChuck’s love the web because with the virtual anonimity, you can pretend to be anyone. And he does.

    I think the attacks on all things NY-related is his way of getting extra attention, ie negative attention being in his mind better than no attention at all.

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