“We want to be a Manchester institution for good wine and beer down here”
A brand new city centre pub has opened in the Northern Quarter(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
If there’s one thing that Manchester city centre has plenty of its pubs and bars. A pub that also doubles as a bar might be a slightly rarer breed though.
Enter The Morris, a new venue from the team behind one of Manchester’s best watering holes.
Headed up by ex-Gordon Ramsay bars boss Dan Berger, the new spot has taken over the unit previously occupied by Fierce Bar, which sadly closed in December last year.
Dan opened Blinker in May 2022 to critical acclaim, earning multiple award nominations and landing at number six in the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars list in 2024.
The bartender, who grew up in Heaton Mersey, has spent the bulk of his career working in some of the best cocktail bars in Melbourne and London, and now is turning his attention to his second Manchester venue – and he’s confident it will offer something very different to Blinker.
On the ground floor you’ll find a traditional-style pub(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Walk into the space and it very much feels like a proper boozer – think timber-clad walls, leather booths and Guinness wall signs. Take a second look though, and at the back of the room you’ll find a bold pink wall hinting that something else lies within.
While it’s ground floor is billed as a classic pub, take the stairs and you’ll find yourself immersed in a retro-style cocktail bar nodding to the 80s – a complete shift in vibe from downstairs.
“The Morris was always designed to be quirky. I wanted it to be fun, exciting and a little bit different,” says Dan ahead of the venue’s launch this week.
“Down here was very much traditional pub in terms of look and feel, but with a modern day offering. We’re championing local breweries and we want to be a Manchester institution for good wine and beer down here.
Head upstairs and the space turns into a retro-style cocktail bar with nostalgia-fuelled drinks (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“We want to help promote other Manchester independent businesses and lift those up by working together.”
Announced in January, it’s been a busy six months to get the hybrid pub-meets bar concept ready, with a few snags along the way, but as they prepare to open the doors, Dan says he’s confident in what they’re offering.
“I feel very positive going into it, the build was a totally different animal to my first bar though. At Blinker it was just a white box whereas here there’s multiple levels, lots of fire exits and fire zones to be aware of, so a lot more to consider in terms of the design run and flow.
“I wouldn’t have been able to bring it to life without Patrick and the team at Up North Architects though, they’ve supported me through the whole project. They took my weird and whacky idea and managed to get it down onto paper.
“With the back of the pub we wanted this pink wall so that’s where the intrigue starts and then you follow the neon up the stairs and then suddenly it’s like bang, you’re in another room, in a cocktail bar.
Dan Berger is behind The Morris, a brand new Northern Quarter pub and cocktail bar(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“The whole point of upstairs was to be fun and quirky, we just want people to enjoy themselves and the drinks. We want people to enjoy the bar without it being too rigid.”
The team’s laidback approach extends to their cocktails and drink list upstairs too, where the’re offering playful twists like the ‘Cheeky Vimto’, ‘Cream Soda’, and ‘Drumstick’ – and some are using a method that’s new for the city.
“Carbonated drinks are starting to become a big trend and someone had to do it first in Manchester,” adds Dan.
“It’s been big in London, big in New York, and globally it’s really taken off.
“It’s just fun to be able to pre-batch drinks, force carbonate it ourselves and then pull it through the draft system. The speed in service is beneficial but that wasn’t the main reason, it was to link up the tap wall in the pub to the cocktail bar upstairs.
“We’ve got the pink tap in the pub in a nod to upstairs too with the elderflower and grape spritz on. It’s more about bringing a different style of drink to Manchester too.
The upstairs cocktail bar nods to a number of Manchester institutions (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“It gives people down here a taste of what’s upstairs and when the sun’s out they can enjoy it outside on Thomas Street.”
“The fizzy drinks are the ones, we’ve also re-distil spirts on site too so we’ve got a cocktail with a drumstick lolly distillate in too, and then in the shaken section we have the Fruit Salad and we’ve distilled those sweets with gin and made a fruity banger.”
Split into ‘Fizzy’, ‘Shaken’, ‘Stirred’, ‘Sub Zero’, and ‘Sensible’ – the latter a selection of non-alcohol pours and mixes – the upstairs cocktail bar is meant to feel nostalgic and totally different to the team’s first bar Blinker, which is all about seasonality.
Downstairs, there’s a selection of beers including Manchester Union lager (£6), Wrexham lager (£6) and Guinness (£6.50), alongside a range of other breweries including Tiny Rebel, Cloudwater, Track, Weekend Project and Polly’s.
Downstairs pints of lager, Guinness and pale ale are served alongside bar snacks (Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“It’s nice to champion British beers more than anything else really and have a point of difference,” says Dan.
There’s a strong lineup of other beers and cans too, as well as highball and spritz cocktails and wines too.
Feeling peckish? Well there’s bacon and scampi fries, crisps, nuts, Pepperami, sweet chilli rice crackers and pork scratchings to fill that void too.
“I like drinking in pubs, cocktails are my thing professionally but I like going to the pub, and I suppose it was always a passion I wanted to pursue in owning a pub one day.
Some of the cocktails at The Morris are pre-batched, carbonated and pulled through the draft before being served from the lines behind the bar(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“Having the space down here to here to do a proper pub is great, but when I saw the space upstairs I thought this just screams cocktail bar.
“It will be completely different. I didn’t want people to walk in and think it was just like Blinker.
“This venue has nostalgia running through it so all the flavours of the cocktails upstairs have an element of that, so people will recognise flavours from back in the day.
“Blinker will stay the seasonal-focused bar, while The Morris will be our nostalgia cave.”
The Morris opens on Wednesday, May 28. 57 Thomas St, Manchester M4 1NA.