Byrne-run restaurant lined up for Blackfriars

Manchester-based developer Salboy has signed up chef Aiden Byrne to open a restaurant within its Local Blackfriars residential development in Salford.

The restaurant, which will cost £2m and is being invested in by Salboy, will cover all three floors of the grade-two listed Black Friar pub on the corner of Blackfriars Road and Trinity Way. The pub was most recently used as a marketing suite and show apartment for Local Blackfriars.

The interior will feature wood-panelling and open fires in the original building, while casual dining and an open kitchen is planned for a single-storey extension set to be built to the east of the old pub, which faces onto the which will face onto the development’s courtyard gardens.

The project will see the construction of a link between the Black Friar and the modern building.

There will be a 20-25 cover fine dining restaurant on the first floor and a kitchen on the third floor with the potential for a chef’s table.

Aiden Byrne’s MCR restaurant, formerly Manchester House, closed its doors earlier this month.

Manchester House slipped into administration in October 2018, but Byrne reopened the restaurant under its new name two months later before announcing that it had closed for good this month.

Salboy founder and director Simon Ismail said: “We always envisioned a new and exciting use for this historic pub and getting Aiden on board demonstrates our commitment to delivering the very best – whether its new homes or a new restaurant.”

Byrne said: “It will bring a whole new experience to this part of the city with the ground floor providing the hustle and bustle of casual dining and the pub providing the ‘local’ for Blackfriars.

The restaurant is being funded by Salboy and Domis alongside “a significant personal investment” from Byrne and his wife Sarah.

A planning application is due to be submitted early next month with the restaurant set to open in the summer.

Domis will undertake the fit out.

Salboy has also recently submitted an application to build 115 more homes on nearby Queen Street, designed by Jon Matthews Architects.