GB Pizza Co to expand to Didsbury with franchise site

A Margate-based, wood-fired pizza restaurant is to open its first franchise site in Didsbury, south Manchester.

Founders of GB Pizza Co, Rachel Seed and Lisa Richards, have signed an agreement with franchisee Grant Ashdown to open the new site on Lapwing Lane next month.

Seed, a chef and former food writer, and Richards, a journalist, initially operated their wood-fired pizza business from the back of a 1974 VW Campervan, touring the UK at farmers' markets and festival before launching their Margate restaurant.

The Didsbury outlet will evoke the original restaurant's trademark style of dark grey and pink neon interiors, with an urban, industrial bent.

The pizzas will feature homemade, slow-cooked tomato sauce and British charcuterie from Cannon & Cannon. Toppings will include mushroom and truffle salami; pear and British blue cheese; peppers and Cheshire goats' curd; chorizo and fresh chilli.

Among seasonal specials there will be crab and samphire; asparagus, Parmesan and egg; and roasted butternut squash, local blue cheese and sage.

The beer list will include locally brewed ales, ciders and lagers, alongside local apple juice and coffee roasted on the Salford/Manchester border and brewed through a Marzocco machine, along with wine, Prosecco and DIY espresso martinis.

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