Cloud 23 Cocktail Bar

You're stepping out of the lift into something that feels properly special—floor-to-ceiling windows wrap around this place, and Manchester spreads out beneath you like someone's finally turned the lights on. Cloud 23 sits atop the Deansgate Hotel, so you're getting that vertiginous buzz without the stuffiness. The cocktails are taken seriously here; the bartenders aren't throwing together sugary nonsense, they're making considered drinks that taste like they cost what they cost. It's the kind of place where you actually want to sit at the bar and watch someone work, or grab a corner booth and pretend you're more important than you are.