Guilty By Association

Hot, sweaty and packed with a mix of tunes, mainly erring on the side of r’n’b and grime (I’m a house/​trance lady myself) but free entry! Not bad for a Saturday night. I enjoyed it, but copious amounts og alcohol might have contributed. Thanks to the lady who bought me a shot, whoever you are!

Came here post gig last Friday. It really is fast becoming THE place for a cheeky late night boogey alongside Cane and Grain and El Capo in NQ. Admittedly having knocked back a fair few in Gullivers (Where the gig took place) spirits were high enough for us to end up anywhere and have a great time. Take nothing away from GBA though the atmosphere was incredible and so was the music.
A very large space with various tables dotted around, by the time we got there not many folk were sitting. The service was exceptional given the busy nature of the joint and the staff were polite and efficient. The large bar area and number of bar tenders meant that waiting to be served time was arguably the best anywhere in the city centre. Overall a great night was had and I’d love to return and refresh the review once I’ve ventured here in a less merry state not so late.

Had a brilliant night out here last Friday. The atmosphere is really relaxed, but has a great small club feel, rather than just a bar. Great DJ kept everyone on the dance floor, fast service at the bar, and the prices are very reasonable.

We love this place. Having followed the guys from Liquorice when they opened, the cocktails are equally as good, if not better and more fun!
Despite being a cavernous and a little sparse, it can be just what you’re looking for. Quiet and relaxed during the daytime but banging, sweaty and jumping with old school hip hop at the weekends.
I have to recommend a ‘Bonnie’s Breakfast cocktail, sweet and sickly but very moreish and one I’ll happily go back for!

I’ve been here a couple of times now and really enjoy the laid back feel that is definitely NQ cool but without being over the top.
Cocktails are really good and the menu is full of interesting choices with a few classics thrown in for good measure and the bonus is they’re on a 2 for £10 deal every day until 9pm! Like any decent bar they’ll happily make you something off menu if you ask.
It’s definitely not a cosy bar to while away the hours due to the stripped back warehouse feel but somewhere cool to hang with friends, listen to some decent tunes and play a bit of table football if you feel like it.

Was excited to go but it’s not got that buzz feel yet. Quite bland. Bit too much open space. Not very cosy feel. However bar staff are amazing. Very funny very good at drinks. Service was great. Cocktails fab. Will try again

Guilty by Association, or ‘GBA’ as it gets called by most is a bar that I have never visited, until Friday. And I am so very glad that I did.
Situated on the corner of Lever St in the NQ this underground bar, complete with stair lift (you can probably guess what that’s for!!) is your standard NQ club. Small, dark and kind of grungy but it’s great.
A table football table near the entrance get’s a lot of people going and some of the seating is made up from old car seats — quirky and cool.
The cocktails in here are really good. Especially the ‘Melons for Everyone’ a refreshing, sweet, watermelon liquor based cocktail that was right up my street.
The music on a Friday is 90’s and 00’s RnB and Hip Hop so the dance floor was packed.
I can imagine i’ll be going here again.

Great place for a Saturday night drink. The Bartender was fab at putting up with my awful indecisiveness, creating a bespoke cocktail which I lived on for the next couple of hours. Only downside were the toilets — too small for us ladies!

Having been to GBA on two occasions — once when it just opened and was an unsigned, mysterious corner bar and once last weekend where its popularity has obviously boomed since.
I preferred my original trip, where we could easily carve out an area of dance floor for a large group of us, with a good mixture of what I would consider ‘classic’ R&B and chart music.
With a popularity boom comes a much busier dance floor and much longer wait at the bar. We were happy to oblige as there was a good atmosphere, with friendly and efficient bar staff who could easily deal with the masses of people. The music, however, wasn’t that great — for around 10pm, it was verging on danceable, but never quite got there.
A good stopping off point but didn’t feel like it was worth hanging on for longer.

I enjoyed our trip to GBA but there was nothing massively blowing me away on this occasion — maybe because it was so empty and cavernous, the atmosphere around us was a little flat.
Visiting with my wife for a pre anniversary meal drink, we took advantage of the 2 cocktails for £10 before 9pm offer with my wife actually enjoying both the cocktails while I made a bee line to see what the craft beer situation was like. Unfortunately the pump selection is pretty poor with only lagers and the like — with the 13 Guns Thwaites being off (not a great start to my night as I wanted that first pint of decent beer…). So I went for a can of 13 Guns which was ok but still pretty expensive for what you got.
Other craft beer in bottles is standard NQ fair now. Extra star from me though for the excellent music on offer — a fantastic range of hiphop, just what I like about going into these sorts of bars. It could have just been busier on a Wednesday night as opposed to being like a ghost town.

Guilty by Association isn’t the easiest bar in the NQ to find as it’s tucked away on the corner of Stevenson Square. However it is worth seeking out as the vibe there is really good. The basement bar is industrial by design with long wooden benches and stools. They have an offer until 9pm where 2 cocktails cost £10. I can highly recommend the porn star martini and some of the more unusual offerings on their cocktail menu. The music is mainly charts/​cheese, not really my thing but good for dancing later on if that’s your thing.

Confusion. Some prison concept but with a bare brick wall industrial look and the most uncomfortable tall steel sheets; def. Not for short ppl. Then some random car seats thrown in the corner. how hip, ‘Not’. It’s not bad; just tries to hard and fails without a proper theme. Not recommended really, maybe just for a quick chat before heading elsewhere.
Good points: space, disabled toilets
Negs: no atmosphere, boring, some 80s music

This bar hides, you go down the stars from street level and you in a massive new bar.
I only had a cocktail and it was a lovely. I did like hanging out on the stools and I will be back when its busier so I can check out the cocktail menu some more. I think I need to try the cocktail my friends had, its came with a little slushy! Great staff.
The décor is interesting, industrial chic I think I would call it. I do like the use of old cars seats too. It has the edge that you look for in a good dark bar. I do like a dark bar and a strong drink.
Nice funky loos, the industrial chic continues in to them.

Rocking right up my favourite bars in Manchester list, am v grateful to the awesome Unilocalers who gave such great reviews of Guilty By Association.
It’s kind of a cross between 2022 and Dusk till Pawn in that it’s in a basement but serves delicious and reasonably priced cocktails. Like Dusk till Pawn there is also a green tea-​based cocktail which is outstanding, my girls liked their drinks too.
Where Guilty By Association was different from its above-​mentioned NQ brethren is that the music was much more chart/​cheese which led to some extra fun dancing.
Also, it has booths.
Highly recommended

Guilty By Association is on Lever Street on a corner off Stevenson Square, it really is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ type of place and I think you would struggle to see it unless you were specifically looking for it.
Down the stairs you will find an industrial interior with long benches and stools meaning it looks spacious and pretty empty when you first enter. There are lots of beers, ales and interesting wines on the menu as well as some decent cocktails to try. I had the Sassy Bitch (I’ll await the sniggers) which is wonderfully fruity without being overly sweet.
The staff are great and happy to create a cocktail of your choosing. There’s an impressive range of rum, gin and whiskey to work your way through too, what’s not to like? I visited mid week and it was really quiet, perfect for a chat with friends over a well shaken drink.

Heard about this place on Twitter so popped in for one when we were having a mini NQ crawl.
It’s on Lever Street on the corner and unless you knew it was there, you’d probably miss it.
It’s in the basement and has an industrial theme complete with some car seats around some of the tables. The décor reminded me very much of Brewdog!
It has a lot of cocktails on the menu but I’m a beer girl and was chuffed to see Warsteiner from Germany on tap so I went for that.
Although we only had one drink in there, it had a nice atmosphere and would be a good spot for a few drinks early on on a night out.

In a little corner of the Northern Quarter, down a set of stairs, lies a new bar.
Brought to you by those behind Liquorice (all the way over on King Street), and the Damson restaurants, Guilty By Association is a mite different, in both interior, drinks and character.
Playing on both an industrial and jail bird theme, it’s all a little rough around the edges, with benches, stools and car seat chairs I’m assured once I sit down in, I won’t want to get up from.
The wine list is looking pretty good — limited but with one or two names I recognised, as is the beer and cider selection, with a healthy number of bottles in the fridges alongside the taps. The gin selection is also showing signs of promise (a lovely 16 on offer currently), as is the whisky and bourbon, but of course, given Liquorice’s reputation for cocktails, this was where my tastebuds were going to wander.
I kicked off with a Rum Sazerac. Taking the original bourbon beauty, this uses soft sweet rum and an absinthe spritz, so that instead of the dry woody flavours of the original cocktail your nose is filled with the scent of aniseed and your palate flooded with soft sweet lingering brown sugar.
Daring to sample a second cocktail, I opted for the Ginger and Honey Old Fashioned. It is fabulous. Soft orange and cinnamon hit you on the nose from the garnish, then it’s all dry bourbon and sweet honey. Using the King’s Ginger liqueur is a great idea, it’s a very underrated liquor, sweet, but with a nice tickle of spice at the end. Think of it as the alcoholic version of a Jamaican ginger cake.
Though my visit was short (I did have a wedding to go to the next day and needed my beauty sleep), I’m already completely hooked. The staff are knowledgeable and the booze on offer is looking better by the day.