One of Manchester’s best-loved pasta spots has changed its name following a legal trademarking dispute with a Scottish restaurant.
Popular Manchester pasta kitchen Sugo has been embroiled in a legal challenge with a restaurant of the same name in Glasgow, leading it to change its name.
Whilst Sugo in Glasgow only opened at the end of 2019, it has still managed to secure the trademark for the name – leaving Manchester bosses with no choice but to rebrand despite their restaurant group having been established for much longer.
Sharing the news on Instagram this morning, the Manchester restaurants account posted that from hereon out it would be known not as Sugo, but as Sud – which translates to ‘South’ in Italian:
Owners wrote: “Same us, same mission, same pasta kitchen. From today our new name will be Sud Pasta.
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“We’re aware that we can’t stop any speculation, however, all we’ll say is that our home is in the kitchen, not the boardroom.
“We love our new name. We love what it stands for. We love our ‘A Southern Italian Pasta Kitchen’
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“By the way, Sud means ‘south’ in Italian. More importantly, we’ve got a brand new menu format starting in March. The Sud pasta Spring menu.
“Love, light and appreciation. Michael and Alex.”
First opened in 2015 in Altrincham, Sugo Pasta Kitchen has long been a favourite amongst the city’s pasta lovers. In fact, the furore for its strozzapreti and orecchiette is so intense that its fans are even known, affectionately, by owners as their ‘Sugo Army’.
However, it appears that even its ranks of pasta-munching soldiers have been unable to save the Southern Italian pasta kitchen from a rebrand eight years on from its first opening.
Commenting on the post, one follower wrote: “What’s the betting that we’ll still be calling it Sugo for years to come. Manchester institutions tend to retain their name… I still refer to Manchester Central as GMEX!”
Another person said: “As long as House Sud (sugo) tastes the same you could be called Nasty Pasta for all I care. Love the new name. #forzasud“
A third added: “Is it going to now be called “House Sud” like panicking here.”
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It seems that the name conflict first came to light in 2019, after customers at the Glasgow restaurant mistakenly purchased vouchers for Sugo in Manchester, thinking that the two were connected.
In a Facebook post shared on 10 December 2019, Sugo shared a post in relation to this addressing their ‘brothers and sisters in Glasgow’:
The restaurant wrote at the time: “Beautiful people, epic city. Way too many of you peeps are landing on our website, looking at our menu, buying our vouchers and mistaking us for Sugo Pasta – unfortunately for you folk it isn’t us!
“We launched in Manchester back in 2015 so if you’re ever south of the border in our city come and check us out! The crazy thing here is your boys (the guys behind Paesano Pizza) are trying to sue us for using our own name, crazy world we live in eh!”
In a now-deleted post entitled ‘We’ve got beef’, the Glasgow restaurant responded – claiming that they had offered a ‘compromise’ to Manchester Sugo, offering them the chance to keep the name if they agreed to not open any further locations.
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The post also claimed that Manchester Sugo had opened their Ancoats branch after the agreement was made, a claim that is disputed by the Manchester restauranteurs.
The Manchester restaurant owners were also accused of failing to respond to legal correspondence, to which owners responded by revealing that they had been sent a letter asking them to remove their signage, hand over their website, and withdraw their own trademark application amongst other things.
By contrast, the most recent post from the Manchester restaurant seems very tame by comparison, although the comment from owners that ‘our home is in the kitchen, not the boardroom’ seems to speak volumes.
The Manc has approached Sud, formerly Sugo Pasta Kitchen, owner Mike De Martis for comment.
Feature image – Google Maps
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
13th February 2023 
