The new restaurant with decades of heritage bringing classic French cooking to Stretford Mall

Josephine Sandwith grew up running around restaurants. Her parents ran the much-loved French bistro Beaujolais, first on West Mosley Street and then Portland Street in the 70s and 80s.

So of course rather that the stress, hard work and long hours of hospitality, she went into teaching instead, known for its general relaxed vibe and casual work ethic.

But the pull of restaurants was always there, and six years ago, with her husband Dean, they started the Stretford Canteen pop-up supper clubs. First off taking over their local greasy spoon cafe in the evenings - Pine’s Pantry on Moss Road - they moved to various temporary venues in and around South Manchester.

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Their ‘French-ish’ menus, as Jo calls them - French with a British, nose-to-tail twist - found them gathering a loyal following for their nomadic cookery, but now, they’ve thrown open the doors of their first actual restaurant. It’s a daunting but exciting step.

“My mum used to take me into work as a baby, so I grew up with it,” she says. “So that was the reason I decided not to do it! I did lots of other things, working as an artist, embroidery designer, teacher, but there’s a part of me that, whenever I’d see an empty space, I’d think ‘that would make a great restaurant’.”

So after taking redundancy from teaching, the opportunity to make a change suddenly presented itself. “My husband was always interested, and I would always say ‘it’s a really hard life, it’s not glamorous, it’s not what people think it is’,” she goes on. So starting as a pop-up seemed the best way in which to dip a toe in, and luckily, neither were deterred.

“We’re here, and we’re doing it!” she says. “And we had every opportunity through Covid and lockdown to walk away, but we’re