Restaurant chain expands to open first North West site

Vegan restaurant chain Purezza has opened a Manchester outlet.

The company, which already operates from sites in Brighton, London and Bristol, has taken a 10-year lease on Kamani Property’s 75-77 High Street in the Northern Quarter.

Purezza has taken the former Dough pizza restaurant and Apotheca bar, extending to more than 8,000 sq ft.

The sites had been previously been run by the same operator with the back of house area interconnected. The adjacent Apotheca, which fronts Thomas Street, has now been separated to create an independent bar.

This space has been sublet to Lonocove on a co-terminus lease. Lonocove, a cocktail bar, which originated in Chester, is scheduled to open this month.

Purezza was advised by Sixteen Real Estate, whose spokesperson Alex Haigh, said: “The brief from Purezza had been for a prominent site in a high footfall location which was ideally already trading as a restaurant – 75-77 High Street was identified as the ideal location with like minded operators in the vicinity.

“Purezza have completed an extensive refurbishment which looks excellent and have traded well since opening.”

Alex added: “Manchester was targeted as a key location for their latest restaurant due to the size and quality of the vegan food scene. They had received so many requests from existing customers to open in the city and they felt strongly that these could not be ignored.

“The whole property was too large for a pizza restaurant, but we were confident the cocktail bar element could be sublet quickly. We had a number of established operators who expressed interest in the space, but the design from Lonocove stood out as being highly impressive.”

Purezza was originally founded in 2015 with its first site opening in Brighton five years ago, and became the first vegan pizzeria in Europe.

It has since won a variety of awards including Best Vegan Pizza in 2019 and Best Vegan Restaurant in 2020. Purezza is a family-run business that has successfully expanded using a careful growth plan.

One of the owners, Tim Barclay, said: “Manchester has been on our agenda for years now.

“We’ve had more requests to open in Manchester than any other city in the UK, and it’s truly a pleasure to honour those requests and to finally make it happen. We’re really excited to be here, and look forward to welcoming you through our doors.”