With craft beer festivals like Indy Man Beer Con, Manchester Craft Beer Festival and Summer Beer Thing taking place in the city every year, Manchester is definitely a hotspot for craft beer. One notable name in the Manchester craft brewing world and beyond is Pomona Island Brew Co, who are opening up their very own pub in Manchester this October.
Stepping away Freight Island last year where they had been pulling thousands of pints, the brewery is embarking on a new venture. Many of the Pomona team have worked in hospitality for years, and two of the directors set up The Gas Lamp on Bridge Street, so they felt it natural to return to their first love.
Known as ‘North Westward Ho’, the pub’s name comes from the legendary old pub ship that was moored at Pomona Docks in the Seventies, however the Pomona Island version will be firmly on dry land. Taking over part of the former Chaophraya site on Chapel Walks and Pall Mall, right above Sam’s Chophouse, Pomona are renovating the beautiful building in a move they feel will bring something special to the area.
Credit: Pomona Island Beer Co
The Pomona Island pub, opening on October 5, has described the spot as a “proper pub…but with a little bit more” as punters can expect pints of lager, bitter and bags of crisps as well as 18 lines of their craft beer, five cask lines, four lines of natural wine and cider from the coincidentally named Little Pomona (no relation).
Add to this a huge range of German lagers, Belgian beers, English bottled cider, mixed fermentation ales, Italian spritzes, bitter cocktails, vermouth and amaro and a wide selection of exciting low and no alcohol drinks – what more could you want in a pub?
Describing the concept of North Westward Ho, the Pomona Island team said: “We want the space to feel like a pub, not a bar and we want all the good things that come with that. Pub spaces are for anyone, places where people come to commune, we need a bit of that right now. We want it to feel inclusive.
“This will be a, sort of, taproom for the brewery, but that on its own doesn’t really interest us. We like a venue with its own identity, where everyone’s welcome and catered for. This won’t just be a beer bar, it will have an incredible selection of drinks. It won’t just look like a bar, it will have that feel of a proper boozer. Something that will, hopefully, be around for years.”
North Westward Ho will open on October 5, 2023 at 19 Chapel Walks, M2 1HN.