Hey kittens, today’s blog post is pretty huge, but with this being the last weekend of #DigTheCityMCR it pretty much just grew… (Plants, grew, geddit?) Dig The City is an annual festival that takes over the city of Manchester with horticultural events, stalls and displays. You can read my blog post about Dig The City in Manchester 2013 here, but in my opinion, this year’s festivities were even bigger and better. I love anything that reflects Manchester in positive light, and seeing the city centre streets lined with fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables growing amongst the shops and plants hanging from the lampshades was just a lovely thing to be able to witness as I dedicated my Saturday to seeing exactly what #DigTheCity ’14 had to offer.

My first stop of the day was at Plot, (see images above), where I was lucky enough to take the incredible photos above. Self-proclaimed as the UK’s first ‘on-demand garden’, it encourages the people of Manchester to take some time out of their busy day’s and book an hour of relaxation on this private city centre roof garden. I am dubious as to whether this is really the UK’s first and unfortunately I was only given half an hour slot, which is a shame as I really enjoyed my time up there. 

Situated on the top of the beautiful Barton Arcade, the tiny faux garden is totally sheltered from wind and noise – the sun even came out for us and we were able to enjoy a lovely picnic looking over the rooftops of Manchester. To continue the Dig The City theme, there were even phone charger slots popping out of plants and light sensors to show when the flowers needed watering. It was a quick half an hour, but a lovely little break from the rest of the world and I only wish I could have spent more time there. 

Secondly, I popped across the road from Barton Arcade to House of Fraser, on Deansgate. Here, I was invited to try some Dig The City inspired cocktails at Tom’s Champagne bar. Situated on the 3rd floor of the large department store, the bar was pretty busy but sitting inside the bar area, we were actually quite sheltered from the rest of the shop floor. 

Getting into the ‘bloom’ of the festivities (teehee), House of Fraser had created a special limited edition cocktail menu, of which I chose to try the Chocolate Treat – a deliciously creamy brandy cocktail – and a Manchester Garden Party, which was a contrast in taste with a brandy infused citrus bite. Being a specialist champagne bar, I was actually quite disappointed that the Chocolate Treat wouldn’t be continued onto the permanent menu; it was gorgeous! 

House of Fraser had also decorated the bar with astro turf, pot plants and the staff were wearing what I assume were meant to be ‘gardener’s clothes’. Having never had a drink at Tom’s Champagne Bar before, I was pleasantly surprised considering it’s location on the edge of a busy shop floor. I saw a lot of other customers having champagne afternoon tea and it looked delicious… Might have to pop back and try that!

Next, we took a little walk around town to enjoy the decorations that had popped up all Manchester. It also helped to walk off the cocktails a little! From King Street to the Cathedral, there were potted plants, horticultural exhibition stands and fresh crops growing everywhere. Along the boutique shops of King Street, there were children’s activities such as mini crazy golf and design your own garden competitions. 

In St Anne’s Square, there were food hubs, beehive demos and my favourite of the decorations was the way that real cotton plants had been placed in the square’s fountains, harking back to the industrial fashion history of Manchester. Finally, I walked along the designer studded steps of Cathedral Street amongist the high end stores, enjoying the live performances in a bean bag garden and beautiful decorations such as a piano covered in plants and flowers spouting (quite literally, ha!) from tea pots.

My last stop of the day took me to Selfridges, Exchange Square, who were also taking part in Dig The City themed fun. I finished my busy day on a high by hitting the luxurious restaurant, San Carlos Bottega on the second floor of the department store. I have previously dined at both San Carlos Ciccetti and at the main San Carlos restaurant on King Street when Mulberry visited for Vogue’s Fashion Night Out, but this was by far my best experience yet.

Sitting down at a beautiful window seat that overlooked Exchange Square, Manchester Cathedral and the Arndale Centre, we chose two cocktails. The orange coloured one (excuse my non-professional terms!) was a Pimms and Bombay Sapphire infused medley from the Dig The City specialist menu, with the lighter one being a lime daiquiri. At £7.50 and £9.50 each, I was so surprised at how reasonable these cocktails were – a pretty standard price for some extraordinarily special drinks. Just look at how big they were! And they tasted just as yummy as they looked.

As an added extra, the lovely staff of San Carlos Bottega even brought over a complimentary plate full of their fresh desserts, including almond cake, carrot cake and cheese cake. It was such a sweet (okay, I need to stop with the puns) touch and certainly went down very well with a washing of the best cocktails I have ever had – and that’s saying something! Nothing was too much trouble for the staff; they were highly attentive, polite and yet not even slightly overbearing. The service, seats and snacks were incredible and I am already planning a trip back to try the tapas style Italian dishes – when can you next book me in?!

Over all, I had a fantastically busy yet relaxing day exploring the Dig The City takeover of Manchester. I will look forward to it popping back again next year, as it seems it only gets better and it is a great, quirky addition to the city. I absolutely adore whenever festivals take over town and reflect all of the wonderful things our hometown has to offer, and #DigTheCity 2014 was no exception. Let’s water those seeds and hope the city blooms again next year!

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