The Geordie Tourist.

Ginger’s Comfort Emporium is an ice cream lover’s dream. Situated in Afflecks Palace in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, it’s the perfect place to stop by and chill for a while. (No pun intended.) That’s exactly what myself and my mam did when we paid a little visit on our trip to Manchester.

Ginger’s started off as an ice cream van for grown-ups, a place to sample top notch homemade ice cream in an array of different flavours. It’s been spotted around various festivals and things. Claire Kelsey is its owner and she’s even brought out her own book ‘Melt’ where  you can learn some of her recipes or just have a bit of an experiment.

This is how I first heard about Ginger’s Comfort Emporium to start with. I bought the book on a whim one day and ever since I’ve been stalking to find out where the van will be. I’m just so pleased there was an actual shop I could go to when I visited Manchester. I pretty much planned the rest of the trip around going to this place. (I’m dedicated that’s for sure.)

The place is rustic, yet vintage. It’s rough around the edges but still has delicate details here and there. I loved the high open ceilings, the massive windows. I loved Ginger’s sign lit up behind the bar area. The gorgeous dark burgundy and blues harmonising with each other. Kind of clashing with the old fashioned woods and the falling apart in places black and white checked floor.

Honestly it’s a place with so much character. It’s a place that is just cool without even trying. A nice inviting, come and sit with us, watch the Manchester street below, whilst sipping on a milkshake kind of place and I absolutely loved it.

We took the spot right next to the window, it had a little wooden board to rest our drinks on, high stools and a casual box of books to the side. It was just relaxed and pleasant. The lady that served us was lovely and friendly too.

We both went for the OMFG milkshakes which were made of vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and malt. I just need to take a second the remember the taste and appreciate it in all of its glory. It was a thing of glory too. It came in an enormous silver American style milkshake cup. The peanut butter was crunchy and every mouthful tasted like heaven. 

It's safe to say that neither of us could drink the full thing. I came a lot closer than my mam though. It was about six(ish) pound for the two of them which is really good considering the size and the quality of the ice cream. 

I love quirky little places and for me Ginger's ticks all of the boxes. If I ever find myself in Manchester I'll definitely go back for seconds. At least this time I'll know exactly where to go. For now though, I have the 'Melt' book to keep me company. I've got twitchy fingers thinking about what to make first.

Have any of you been to Ginger's Comfort Emporium?

Made any of the recipes from the 'Melt' book?

The second day my mam and myself spent most of it walking around the town. We spent another good chunk of it trying to find particular places. I’m a planner. When I know I’m going somewhere I hunt out places to go. We had booked to have afternoon tea at a place called Hey Little Cupcake. We spent a good twenty minutes following the maps on our phones to try and find it. I have a separate post on that so I’ll say more about that later.

We also went to The John Rylands Library. Think gorgeous Gothic building full of ancient books and rare manuscripts. I am a massive book nerd, and spending time walking around a huge, antique library makes me feel like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. (I wish) I love exploring places and just finding out something new. I didn’t even know Manchester had this big famous library. The outside looked gorgeous to start with and the inside was a cross between a cathedral and something else. The stained glass windows and the old wooden flooring were amazing. I took so many pictures.

After the library, I dragged my mam on a mission to find a place called Ginger’s Comfort Emporium. If I thought it was hard finding the cupcake place, it was nothing compared to this. It’s located in a place called Afflecks, (Manchester's Northern Quarter) which is basically a cooky, creative shopping centre type place that houses all of these different kinds of cool and eclectic businesses and shops. It took a while to find that. Then when we got inside we were walking around like lost sheep. Honestly we had almost given up until we spotted it poking out of a little corner.

I just knew that I couldn’t go to Manchester without paying a little visit to Ginger's Comfort Emporium and sampling something. Ever since I knew I was going that's the first place I wanted to go. Again, I’ve made a separate post about that so I won’t say too much. Just know that it was probably one of the best milkshakes that I’ve ever tasted and that even a few hours later I was still full after drinking it, and that it affected me when we went for afternoon tea. Boy did I struggle. 

In the evening we were supposed to be going to the Cornerhouse to see a play called Kafka's Monkey, but it got cancelled at the last minute. So instead Geoff (my mam's fiance) came to meet us and we went to the cinema instead.

We went to the Odeon in the Printworks to see Jurassic World. I thought the film was amazing and working at an Odeon myself, I now want to go to each one just once so I can see how different they all are. (Sad I know, but what can you do.)

You can check out the first part of my trip here.

Have any of you been to Manchester lately?
Have you see Jurassic World yet?