I was looking forward to telling you about City Bites, a new food and drink festival I spotted on the CityLife website (the two aren’t connected) earlier this week. I was reading about the 26 Manchester restaurants involved and trying to work out just how many I could cram into the festival’s 11 days (Jem&I, City Cafe and the Northern Quarter Restaurant appealed).

But now, when I try to look back at the City Bites Manchester site, it’s just a holding page. I guess with the festival launching tomorrow they’ll be hurriedly sorting it out. In the meantime, I’ve been looking at the background of organiser Gary Greenwood. According to How-Do, he’s the publisher of Manchester-based Twice Magazine, although that publication’s website is also currently down (PDF samples here). Nevertheless, I’ve tracked down some more information about City Bites here:

It’s time to fall in love with your city all over again… well, at least the food and drink!. The 2009 City Bites festival will take place January 11th-15th and January 18th-22nd and will showcase the Manchester dining scene as a hotbed of culinary activity and diverse dining options. A number of this year’s participating restaurants are in some of City Centres finest hotels, creating the ideal opportunity to explore all that the area has to offer by day, enjoy a fabulous three-course dinner with family and/or friends in the evening, and then stay the night.

While I can’t imagine too many locals would be willing do just that, the prospect of three-course meals for £7, £12 or £18 sounds much better. Each restaurant – Abode, Brasserie Blanc, Brasserie Gerrard, Livebait, Piccadilly Lounge, Dough, Chaophraya, Obsidian, label, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Space, Robbies, The New Samsi, The Metropolitan, Luso, Apotheca, Jem&I, Bacchanalia, The Market Restaurant, Second Floor Brasserie, City Cafe, Pau Brasil, The Northern Quarter Restaurant, Dilli and Zumar – will also offer a signature cocktail and suggested wine pairing.

Full details from the City Bites site – if/when now it’s back up.

You know you’re somewhere good when everyone who walks in asks their friends ‘so where did you hear about this place?’ That’s what happens whenever I visit Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street – visitor after visitor wondering why they’ve only just discovered the place.

The cafe is setting itself apart as somewhere nice, quiet and pretension-free to have a cup of tea in the city centre. There are loads of Teapigs flavours on offer, plus various non-tea-based drinks, and the food’s good too – last week’s spicy pumpkin soup was probably their best so far. It was recently shortlisted for the Food and Drink Festival’s Best Casual Dining award, eventually losing out to the Cup.

Nexus has plenty of space, flexible seating, great music (expect to hear the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian and Amiina), free wi-fi and very friendly staff – and it hosts regular days and nights of music and film, with changing art exhibitions too. I dropped in during one such event on Saturday afternoon and it was the busiest I’ve seen the place.

Until this week, Nexus Art Cafe has been open from 10am until 7pm on Tuesday through to Sunday. To celebrate its decision to open on Mondays as well, its promising free tea and coffee throughout today. If you haven’t already tried it, now’s the time to visit Nexus.

[Photo by Jess Higgins]

It’s a busy weekend for Manchester, so here are a few highlights I’ve spotted:

The return of New Islington Festival on Saturday at Old Mill Street, near the soon-to-be-closed Ilva. The event, which was a bit of a wash-out last year, features live music from The Jesse Rose Trip, The Mouse Outfit, personal favourites Tim & Sam’s Tim And The Sam Band and others, plus bloggers Jon and James DJing to promote their new clubnight, Dig for Victory! Spectangular will present a programme of Manchester-based short film and photography, while The King’s Arms Knitting Club will be holding a knitting circle, plus various other activities. It’s free.

The Spotlights Bar at the Library Theatre will host a wine fair on Friday, 6pm-9pm. You’re invited to try 50 top wines from around the world (plus some malt whiskys) with live entertainment also provided. Tickets are a very reasonable £10 and are available in advance from Oddbins on Fountain Street – call 228 0849 for more information. Any profits go to mental health charity Mind.

This Sunday is ‘First Sunday’ for the loiterers resistance movement over at the Nowhere Fest blog. To celebrate (?), they’re organising a walk ‘focused around the CCTV cameras which guard the people’s republic of Mancunia’. ‘We may lead you delightfully astray but we promise it’s all perfectly legal,’ they say, adding that the walk will probably be followed by music and refreshments. Meet at Cafe Pop, in the basement of Pop Boutique on Oldham Street, between 1pm and 2pm if you’re interested in some Channel Four-less Big Brother viewing. More info via loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or on 07974929589.

Plus Beck’s Fusions, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, at Castlefield Arena. Tickets for Friday and Saturday have been given away now but today, Thurday, is a free, non-ticketed event featuring interactive installations, DJs (Charlatan members, Dave Haslam and Simon’s Mobile Disco), short films, plus food and drink.

Have a good one!

Beck’s Fusions isn’t Manchester’s first corporate-sponsored arts festival, nor will it be the last. But this one is notable for the line-up the mediocre lager brand has assembled. Headlined by Massive Attack, the Bristol trip-hoppers who haven’t played in Manchester since 2003, other highlights include New York’s Hercules and Love Affair (minus Anthony ‘and the Johnsons’ Hegarty), Sydney’s the Presets and Philadelphia’s Santogold.

And while 13 bands (of varying degrees of fame) alone aren’t enough to sustain this three-day event, it’s beefed up by almost the same number of visual artists – including British collective United Visual Artists, who have worked with Massive Attack in the past, including at Meltdown Festival just last month.

Tickets are free but you inevitably need to subject yourself to future Beck’s marketing campaigns to qualify. With 17,000 tickets available for Friday 5 and Saturday 6 September, you’d have thought it would be easy enough to secure some – but just yesterday I received an email informing me that I still hadn’t been successful.

The deadline for applying is this Wednesday, 20 August, and you’ve got to be over 18 to be at the UK’s ‘biggest ever collaborative art and music event’.