One of Manchester’s most popular curry cafes has announced the imminent closure of its flagship site. Chorlton’s Chapati Cafe on Wilbraham Road, is well-known for its home-cooked Gujarati-influenced food, and its daily changing menu of ‘rice and three’ curries.
Chapati Cafe was founded by husband and wife duo Dan Hall and Priti Chauhan-Hall in 2014 and has been a much-loved part of Chorlton’s food and drink scene ever since. Just last year, the couple opened a second branch over at MediaCity, initially as a takeaway to comply with lockdown restrictions.
Dan took to Twitter and Instagram earlier today to announce the sad news that their Chorlton flagship would be closing once they had secured someone to take over the leasehold. The MediaCity branch, meanwhile, will remain open.
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He said: “A little update on our Chorlton site. As you know we’ve reduced the hours of operation recently. A combination of factors, some relating to the rising costs affecting the food industry, to a certain extent staffing and some matters more of a family/personal nature have meant we need to refocus and revaluate how we operate, and more importantly the size of the operation.
“After careful consideration and deliberation, the result is that we are downsizing our business for a while and unfortunately this means releasing the leasehold at Chorlton to allow another business to take advantage of the amazing space. We will continue to trade at Media City (so come and see us) Media City will also be in the Deliveroo zones for parts of Chorlton so don’t be a stranger.
“These things take time so we will be looking forward to serving you 12-3 daily at Chorlton for now and enjoying feeding all our amazing, loyal customers.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News following the announcement, owner Dan wanted to stress that while it was a difficult time, he and Priti are both optimistic about future opportunities. “I think a good operator with the right product will do really well in this spot.
“We don’t want to sound all doom and gloom, we’ve absolutely loved being in Chorlton and we still love it, but sometimes you’ve just got to revaluate everything and consider how hard you should be pushing yourself. As a business we’re pretty stable, any staff working at Chorlton on full contracts will be offered hours at MediaCity, so we’re not going to make any redundancies.
“Even the people at college we’re going to put them on the cover rota. And the positive spin is that we’re looking to do new things without the fixed costs associated with having a big site. We’ll be able to focus on other things like street food trading and festivals, which we get asked to do a lot, but don’t have the free time to do."
For many Greater Manchester restaurant and bar owners, the ripple effect of Covid-19 is still being felt. However, now, it is being compounded by the Cost of Living Crisis.
Like many hospitality businesses, the impact of the Cost of Living Crisis has proven to become a difficult obstacle to overcome. As Ben explained: “Most hospitality businesses are having issues with staffing, utility costs and VAT going back up.
“We got through the pandemic and are very proud of that. We kept on every single member of staff, we didn’t let anyone go, but we have got the debt of getting through those two years.
“I think as well, because we’re in the casual dining sector people expect a meal for less than £10. We’re not a posh restaurant that can put prices up £5-10 for a dish, we've got to keep below that price point.”
Luckily, fans of Chapati Cafe will still be able to get their ‘rice and three’ fix over at MediaCity, and those living in Chorlton will be able to order one of Dan and Priti’s homemade curries via Deliveroo. The Chorlton restaurant is currently still serving Wednesday to Saturday 12-3, and over at MediaCity they're serving Monday to Saturday, 11.30am to 7pm.
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