Inside Petisco, the brand new Portuguese-inspired restaurant that’s paving the way for Sale’s food revolution
Opened by four friends who've all known each other since childhood, newcomer Petisco more than holds its own against Stanley Squares more established new residents
The town’s once-sad, brutalist concrete shopping complex is being transformed into a thriving food and drink hub – tempting local residents to stay in their local area, rather than hawking off to Altrincham or into town.
Developers are welcoming in established eateries like Sugo Pasta Kitchen, Zumu Sushi and Green’s, but amongst the ranks is a surprise new entrant that sits cut and thrust alongside the rest.
Called Petisco, it’s a Portuguese-inspired restaurant that’s been opened inside a former Greenhalgh’s bakery by four friends – Johnny and Sam Nolan, Rowland Thatcher and Paul Kiely – who’ve all grown up in the area and known each other since childhood.
New potatoes, tomato with caramelised onion aioli. / Image: The Manc Eats
Grilled flat iron steak drizzled with motho cru (meaning raw sauce, similar to chimichurri). / Image: The Manc Eats
The name, loosely translated, equates to a sort of Portuguese tapas – small versions of larger plates, which you order a lot of in order to taste more dishes
So popular is this style of eating in Portugal that petisco is also a verb, petiscar, used not just to describe eating but the general act of going out for friends for food and drinks.
Three of its four owners have their feet firmly in the corporate world, with Johnny the cheffing talent behind the menu – which borrows from the wider Iberian tradition, as well as taking heavy inspiration from Portugal itself.
Inspired in more ways than one, nearly everything here is cooked entirely from scratch with just a few items, like the salt cod, natas and sourdough bread, bought in from local suppliers. Their fishmonger, for instance, is a literal stone’s throw away.
You’ll find the usual tapas suspects – salt cod croquettes, Padron peppers, meatballs and patatas bravas – side by side with rich tomato rice loaded with slow-roasted green heritage tomatoes, saffron-poached octopus salad, short rib pica pau, and battered fried runner beans drenched in peri-peri salsa (a surprise hero dish).
Batterd fried runner beans with peri-peri salsa, aioli. / Image: The Manc Eats
Tomato rice, slow roasted green tomato, tomato crisp, salsa verdi. / Image; The Manc Eats
Clams, whiter wine, parsley garlic oil, coriander bubbles at Petisco. / Image: The Manc Eats
Seafood includes shell-on green peri-peri prawns and big bowls of clams with white wine, parsley and garlic oil covered in coriander bubbles, served with a healthy portion of thick sourdough bread to mop up all the delicious juices.
Wines, meanwhile. are mostly imported from Portugal, with a few exceptions – one Spanish cava, a French rose and a handful of English sparkling wines also make the list.
As for beers, there are only two taps on, supplied by local brewery BlackJack, and a handful of Mediterranean spirits beind the bar.
All four owners have a clear passion for good food and wine, and have spent many years holidaying together around the regions that have inspired Petisco – but it’s Johnny who brings the hospitality experience, having worked in kitchens since he left school at sixteen.
His friends, we hear, have spoken for years about opening something to show off his talents – and at last that moment has come.
A Portuguese voureiro vinho verde, beautifully crisp with high acidity. / Image: The Manc Eats A Brazilian-inspired chicken and broad bean cosinha, chilli verdi. / Image: The Manc Eats
From washing pots at Manchester City, he’s worked his way up to the very top of the trade, spending his career (up until now, at least) cheffing for high-end corporate hospitality catering to the most exclusive director’s boxes.
At Manchester City for fourteen years, then at United for nine, he went on to chef at Aintree racecourse before being flown out to work at the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.
Now back in Manchester and living just around the corner from the restaurant, it doesn’t sound like he actually sleeps – so committed are some of his processes.
We hear how one standout dish, a stunning combination of earthy artichoke puree, pork belly, pork cheek and pork ‘quaver’, takes him nearly three days to make (and still we get the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg).
Inside Petisco, designed by Joanne Thatcher of Northern Styling MCR. Image: The Manc Eats
For the pork quaver alone, pigskin is poached for 24 hours in a water bath, dehydrated for the same amount of time, then the fat cleaned up before it’s deep-fried to sit jauntily atop a pile of glistening, beautifully tender meat that falls apart under your fork.
All four have poured their heart and soul into the new opening, which they essentially built themselves from scratch, right down to the table we’re sat on.
Rowland tells us it was ‘a lot of long hours, [coming from my] full-time job, and then straight to the unit in the evenings to do the graft on building it and getting it ready for opening.”
With a little help from sister-in-law Joanne Thatcher, who put together the design of space for them, it’s been a real family affair from start to finish – and the passion shows in everything they do.
Image; The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Marrying Mancunian industrial elements like exposed brick and copper detailing with blue and white ikat tiling, black and white photos of famous parts of Portgual and exposed filament bulbs hanging from the ceiling, just like the menu itself there’s a real mix of Mancunian and Mediterranean influences.
Open for just over a week now, unless you come at bang-on 4pm when they open Petisco is already nearly booked up until March – a testament to how great the concept is.
The old dears of Sale may not have been chuffed to lose their Greenhalgh’s at first (we hear there was a bit of grumbling on the community Facebook groups), but it seems they’re already coming around. As well they should.
To find out more about Petisco and book, visit the website here. The restaurant’s menus change weekly depending on produce.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Food & Drink
The first new tenant of the old Debenhams department store on Market Street has been confirmed
Danny Jones
The first new resident of the Rylands Building on Market Street in central Manchester has been revealed, and it’s a foodie one.
Set to be the maiden opening inside the old Debenhams department store, which closed after more than three decades back in 2021, Rylands’ debut won’t be for another year or so, but it will soon welcome Mancs with an increasingly popular food hall operator making its way up north.
Simply called Market Place, the ever-growing brand is fast becoming a well-established name, with four venues in the capital already and a fifth coming soon.
Rylands will be their first location outside of London, and with 1,300 sqm of space at their disposal, Market Place Manchester is set to make a significant splash on the high street.
A look at Market Place Peckham.A rough idea of what the Manchester branch could look like.
Developers managed to green-light plans for the Grade II-listed building last November, sharing the first details and glimpses of their vision for the instantly recognisable city centre spot, including a whole new rooftop terrace.
Currently earmarked for a late 2026 launch, the former department store (previously Paulden’s) consisted of seven floors but is now set for a four-storey extension that promises to be a massive and varied retail, leisure and business destination that makes the most of the expansive structure.
Not to be confused with the famous John Rylands Library – a much older, more gothic, historic and hallowed hall over on Deansgate – this task of ‘revitalising a Manchester icon’, to quote property firm AM ALPHA, is a huge undertaking.
In charge of the redevelopment since 2023, the group have been outlining a pretty complete overhaul, with plans to convert the upper floors into premium office space, and the creation of a retail arcade at ground level, on which Market Place Manchester will sit.
This particular Manc corner was a bustling food, drink and shopping complex for the longest time, but has been derelict and covered up by boards for what feels like forever, with urban explorers even roaming the large, abandoned building.
Credit: Supplied
Now, though, the new long-term 15-year lease agreement will see the latest food hall kick off a new era for Rylands, delivering socially focused venues and the range of flavourful, vibrant choices of scran that Market Place have become known for.
With sites in St Paul’s, Vauxhall, Peckham, Harrow and soon Baker Street – as well as their eventual Manchester outpost, of course – the chain is getting bigger and better, meaning its arrival in the North West is an exciting one.
AM ALPHA manager Paul Hodgkiss said in an official statement: “Manchester is a city with a vibrant cultural scene – the perfect environment for forward-thinking concepts like Market Place Food Hall…
“The early commitment to Rylands is no coincidence: it reflects the strength of our strategic and forward-looking approach to development. We are not just creating high-quality space – we are setting new standards for urban mixed-use concepts. Interest from further prospective tenants is strong.”
It was only last week that Greater Manchester’s latest market hall, Campfield Studios, said hello to the general public and with House of Social also opening this summer, among several other similar projects, soon you won’t be able to move for more social hospitality scenes like this:
Drake-backed fried chicken brand Dave’s Hot Chicken is opening in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
The huge LA-based fried chicken brand backed by Drake is heading to Manchester for the very first time this summer.
Dave’s Hot Chicken is set to open in the Printworks this August – the first UK branch outside of London and Birmingham.
The cult chicken brand has said that its new venue will feature an ‘industrial design inspired by Manchester’s rave scene’ (if we had a pound every time a new venue used that design style, we’d be as rich as Drake…).
Dave’s Hot Chicken is famed for its signature Nashville-style hot chicken, which is served in seven different spice levels from No Spice to Reaper.
Expect sliders, tenders, ‘next-level’ top-loaded shakes and slushes.
It’s grown so quickly that in 2021, it caught the eye of none other than rapper Drake, who is a ‘significant investor’ in the brand.
The fried chicken spot will be moving into the large corner unit at Printworks, which has previously been Busaba Thai, and Floripa, with 139 covers.
Dave’s Hot Chicken is coming to Manchester
Inside, it will feature towering ceilings, exposed steelwork, and laser lights, claiming to be a ‘full-on sensory trip, where music, light and fried chicken will come together to create a high-voltage experience’.
There will also be custom graffiti inspired by L.A.-based street artists Splatterhaus and Dehm.
Dave’s Hot Chicken still has hour-long queues down in London, several months after opening on Shaftesbury Avenue – next up will be a Birmingham branch in July before Manchester opens later this summer.
And this is just the start of a nationwide expansion.
Jim Attwood, Managing Director of Dave’s Hot Chicken UK, said: “Printworks Manchester is the ideal setting for our next UK site – right at the heart of one of the country’s most exciting cities.
“The new restaurant pays homage to Manchester’s legendary warehouse rave scene, with an industrial-inspired design and bold, high-energy atmosphere to match our signature flavours.
“We can’t wait to bring something fresh to this iconic venue and its vibrant mix of entertainment, food and culture.”
Dave’s Hot Chicken will open at Printworks Manchester on 8 August.