Time for an update to my biog/blatant sales pitch. Partly because I have sold a company and launched a new one, and partly because I'm a year older. Got any potential projects or opportunities? Please DM me. @LandingLight_ can guide you through culture and hospitality.

It feels like you are in a safe space, cossetted and insulated from the chaos beyond it's walls, and that you might even absorb some of that reassuring sense of permanence and warm resilience by osmosis. Pubs, I love 'em. And I love The Jolly Gardeners.

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I find the more precarious, uncertain and ephemeral life feels, the more I find sanctuary retreating into historical, hospitable, human environments like The Jolly Gardeners. It's deeply reassuring to relax into a space which has welcomed, fed and watered people for centuries.

The food was great - well thought out, well sourced, and well cooked - but what set my heart a-flutter was the all-encompassing pub experience. Friendly service and cosy corners, great food with proper pints, all wrapped in dark wood, glowing in the light through those *windows*.

And those desserts - treacle tart, and jam steamed sponge with custard; and those wines - all intelligently chosen small producers, leaning towards low intervention, and topped by the dreamily-oaked Viognier from Lismore; and again, those *windows*!

The menu is start-to-finish winners, with safe landing spots for the more traditional diner - burgers and pies - but plenty to reward napkin-sniffing foodies - lamb neck, and bavette and poussin instead of more generic steak and chicken options.

The pub is now owned and run by Ben and Joe, the Cestrian brothers behind Porta in Chester and its fellow outposts in Salford, Altrincham and West Didsbury. I love Porta, but God I hope they also do more pubs in future, and ideally in Manchester.

The next chapter of my ongoing love affair with pubs of all shapes, sizes, and characters - the newly reopened The Jolly Gardeners in Chester. Look at that food; look at that interior; look at those *windows*!

Have you always wondered where your favourite restaurant got that heritage lighting, or the local bar sourced that incredible mid century seating? It'll probably be here.

The most incredible collection of architectural salvage, antique interior design features, and oddments and object d' art you'd struggle to even define. Endlessly fascinating; step through the doors and you'll be lost for hours.

I first started shopping with In Situ about a quarter century ago, and I can't believe that I hadn't popped in for so long. It's grown into its iconic Castlefield site, occupying a warren of interconnected rooms across three stories.

One of my favourite shops in the city, and the trade secret of almost every local hospitality operator of note - In Situ.

More from House of Social, including that crumpet toast!

First visit to House of Social on First St today. Very impressive fit-out, and Victor Yu's sweet and sour chicken hit the spot. Plus dumplings, and prawn crumpets - yes, "crumpets"! - too.

And now I'm eating produce-led British small plates and drinking small-lot Burgundian style wines from cult producers. I love the breadth and depth of all of the above, but what a time to be alive for a born and (in)bred Glossopian food nerd.

. currant backstone oven bottoms from the Muffin Stall, chip barms from Glossop Fish Bar, meat and potato pies from Mettrick's, and triangular white bread sandwiches at halftime in the football at The Queen's.

Fifty two years of Glossopian eating and drinking, which has involved custard tarts and traffic light cakes from Bruckshaw's Bakery, pizza and pasta from Firenze, cans of Breaker at The Norfolk, 'tata hash with red cabbage from the Curly Cornet, bottles of K at Sylvester's.

A shout out too to a wonderful Hunter Glenn Sonoma Chardonnay, moon-yellow in the glass and almost butterscotchy on the palate, and a bang-on negroni, which I think is my first ever negroni in my home town.

Other dishes were equally good if a little less photogenic, though the mutton fat bread (basically a fried slice à la sheep) with za'atar was a stand out as a £4 snack and thus earns a place on the grid.

My extended birthday weekend starts here, at Almanac. A magnificent rump steak, rested to the point that you'd suspect it had been on a 'thermal journey' at a high class hotel spa, led the way, and who knew that sweetcorn and girolles would work beautifully as accompaniments.

Pip gets a lovely review from @jayrayner1 in today's @FT. They've had an amazing run of write-ups.