Neil Sowerby
It was love at first sight a quarter of a century ago when Neil Sowerby discovered the delights of the re-opened Marble Arch. Over the years, thanks to the development of its own micro-brewery the ale there just got better and better. Now thereâs food to match. Just donât dare call it a gastropub...
MARBLE owner Jan Rogers was a delightful â and delightfully forthright â participant at the recent North West Food Summit. As part of the panel discussing the future of the great British pub, she gave the impression it was at least safe in her hands. But with our hostelries going out of business at the rate of 50 a week, it is always going to be the ones that offer something special that prosper.
And Marble is something special â an expanding yet quality-conscious brewery delivering powerfully flavoured brews that even tick organic and vegan boxes; a trio of outlets, two in cool Chorlton and the Northern Quarter that feel like Modern British takes on continental beer bars; and the original Victorian pub the only real reason for a drinker to make the thirsty walk beyond The Angel up Rochdale Road.
Iâm old enough to remember when the Marble Arch was another boarded-up old pub in a wasteland that only in recent years has been repopulated with ranks of apartments.
Itâs not just today that pubs are being abandoned. This one, though had also been treated cruelly. Previous owners (letâs call them the Arch Villains!) had covered up the narrow 1880s buildingâs many architectural beauties.
Only when its rescuers (the Arch Angels!) arrived circe 1983 and stripped away the chipboard was the vandalism righted. As a young sports hack on the Mirror down Shudehill at Maxwell House, now Printworks, it was the destination for many a well-earned break.
Over the years, especially since the arrival of creative brewers such as James Campbell and Dominic Driscoll, it has gone from strength to strength
The back room is merely functional, but the main is a marvel. A sloping mosaic floor flecked with red rose motifs, up on the tiled walls, the names of drinks, âwineâ, âporterâ and ârumâ are picked out in faience.
The bar, once down the side of the narrow main room was long ago shifted to the back. Chocolate, Ginger, Dobber, Pint, Laguna and many other Marble brews crowd the pump clips with guest beers vainly fighting their corner.
On shelves at the back the breweryâs powerful strong brews in wax-sealed 75cl bottles dare you to take them on â the Imperial Russian Stout called Decadence and Marble Special, the 10.7 ABV barley wine. There is a small well-chosen wine selection (the Grenache-based Spanish red Borsao, at only £4.50 a 250cl glass, the pick), but youâd be mad not to sample the beer â Marble Bar in Chorlton and the new 57 Thomas Street only feature the fruit of the hop, never the vine.
We were ostensibly here to sample chef Ken Calderâs food but, hey after all, I did help pick the hoppy 5.5 per cent Dobber as the Best Beer Brewed in Greater Manchester last Food and Drink Festival and it does slide down deceptively easily. The Ginger, in contrast, which I took as an aperitif, was not quite at its best, though worldâs better than ghastly alcoholic ginger beers like the much-advertised Crabbieâs.
The food menu is chalked up on two floor to ceiling boards. Not hiding itself. It tickles me to recall bumping into Jan in Chorlton a few years back and her imploring me not to review the food at the Marble Arch because âwe donât want to be seen as a damned gastropub... we are providing simple food for folk coming to drinkâ?.
She has changed her tune in recent times, without The Arch in the slightest feeling like a foodie destination. And yet, it stands comparison now with many of the finest food pubs in the North West, which was obvious from the first taste of our starters to our clearing the plate of our puds.
Calder worked at The Connaught in London and Liverpoolâs excellent London Carriageworks, but heâs not doing obvious posh. It was apparent, though, in the finely tuned Thai spicing in my Thai mussels starter (£6.25) or the silky green, peppery freshness of Ms Aâs spinach and rocket soupe du jour (£4.95) heâs pitching it just right.
If the crackling on my companionâs pork belly (£14.50) could have been, well cracklier, it was a handsome cut, erring towards meat rather than fat slab. Perhaps a little expensive (though our side of green beans and carrots appeared to be complimentary).
I went for a breast of chicken on the bone in a prune sauce, for £11.50. Moist, richly sauced with fat chips to remind me I was in a pub, after all.
Puddings cost £4.50 and reassuringly itâs a tiny list. Creme brulee was cracklier than the pork and I relished some tart rhubarb (not rhubarb) tart in an uncloying strawberry soup.
Aficonados tell me rib-eye steak and fish and chips here are spot on, too. Stomach-liners for a session on the ale? No more than that, much more than that. This food is stupendous. Worth making the trip even if you were blind to its architectural glories â or didnât fancy the beer on offer. Youâd be mad not to try that also, all of them. Trust me.
The Marble Arch, 73 Rochdale Road, Manchester M4 4HY (0161 819 2694). The pub also supplies food to its sister bar, 57 Thomas Street. Potted rabbit the wow dish of choice there.