Top things to do in Manchester — week of 30 March

Manchester has been a bit quiet for a fortnight and then this week dropped a proper run of things worth your money. I have eaten and queued my way through most of it so you do not have to.

If you cannot be bothered reading the lot, the Manchester this-week page has every one of these saved already.

Monday: a pint at Port Street and an early night

Port Street Beer House is doing a small cask launch on the Monday and the lamb shoulder roast at the kitchen next door is still the best £14 in the NQ. Get in early, you are not at uni any more.

Tuesday: Soup Kitchen, the album launch

This is the headline of the week for me. The local band launching their second record have packed Soup Kitchen out for both nights of their warm-ups, and the Tuesday is the proper one with the strings and the brass. £12, doors at 7, support is also worth seeing.

Wednesday: Frog and Bucket new act night

£8, eight new comics, a host who does not let you off the hook. Sit at the back if you do not want to get picked on. The standard has been mad recently — two of the headliners on the spring circuit came through a Wednesday at Frog last year.

Thursday: Mackie Mayor late opening

They are now doing Thursday and Friday late, which is a quiet revolution for the area. The pasta stall is doing a chitarra special and the natural wine stand has a proper flight on for £15. Genuinly the easiest dinner in Ancoats.

Friday: NQ gallery late

A small gallery on Tib Street is doing one of those Friday late openings with cheap wine and a DJ. Free, walk-up, the art is decent and the room fills up by nine. Good if you have a date and you cannot face dinner being the whole evening.

Saturday: White Hotel, a proper one

White Hotel in Salford has its monthly Saturday and it is the booking I am most excited about. £18, late finish, the line-up is nasty in the best sense. Trains back into town are fine until 1am, taxi after that.

Sunday: Mackie Mayor brunch and a walk

Brunch at Mackie, then a walk along the canal towards Castlefield. The Castlefield bowl is doing a free Sunday session if it is dry — a couple of acoustic acts and a coffee van. Not earth-shattering, but a nice way to use a Sunday.

A quick plug for the free Manchester meetups list — there is one on Tuesday lunch I keep forgetting to mention and the food is included.

That is the week. Soup Kitchen Tuesday and White Hotel Saturday are the two I would not move. Everything else flexes around them. Eat at Mackie at least once, you will recieve a small pasta-shaped piece of joy.