Popular city centre food stall announces 'heart-breaking' closure this weekend

A food stall that served up some of the ‘biggest’ sandwiches in the city centre has announced it will be closing its doors for good this weekend.

House of Hoagie, based within the Mala ‘secret garden’ bar on the corner of Dale Street and Lever Street in the Northern Quarter, has became known for its loaded sandwiches, serving everything from cheesesteaks to shrimp specials, since opening in September last year.

The street food stall, from the same team behind burger shop House of Bun, was described by the Manchester Evening News shortly after its launch as being ‘too good to be kept secret’. Their sandwiches featured bread from Manchester locals The Bread Factory, whilst meat came from Stockport's own Littlewoods Butchers.

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But posting on social media this week, the owners of the sandwich venue announced they would be closing down on Sunday (June 30) after just nine months in operation. Thanking loyal customers since opening, the post said they were ‘really grateful’ for the support and appreciation it received.

The post said: “This is the last weekend house of hoagie will exist, but it’s ok…First and foremost we want to say a huge thank you to everyone that's come on down and eaten with us at mala, filmed with us, reviewed us and supported us over the past 9 months all of you are awesome.

“We know we’re not a big place, or have a massive following, but what we do have, we’re really grateful for and you guys have allowed us to move forward with this project; our second food stall business, for this long and it’s been such a good experience. The amount you learn doing these things even on a small scale is huge and completely irreplaceable with anything else and that’s because of you guys, so thank you.”

Staff at House of Hoagie added that House of Bun, which is based at Radcliffe Market in Bury, would continue to operate at normal and serve up its famous burgers. The post continued: “We’ll still be smashing out the highest quality burgers we can from @houseofbunmcr but as for house of hoagie, after this weekend the ‘door’ is closed.

“We’re still throwing out hoagies till this Sunday so you’ve got all weekend to get your last fix, but before then we just want to say, thank you.”

The post was met with upset from those who had a chance to try out their famous hoagies, with one person posting: “no stop it this is heart-breaking. How am I supposed to go on without the manny cheesesteak. sending u all so much love!!”

Another wrote: “Omg no way. such sad news guys. Your hoagies are unbeatable!” One other person reacted to the news by simply posting a sad face emoji.

The Mala space, which is just a short distance away from Piccadilly Gardens, opened in 2020 as an outdoor venue inspired by Alpine villages featuring a pastel-filled garden with cabins designed to look like cable cars, individually decorated huts and picnic tables.

Featuring an ongoing calendar of live music and entertainment, the space also includes food and drink from the likes of Fuku and House of Habesha, which serves up street food 'with a twist' like Ethiopian tacos and spicy lamb loaded fries.

House of Hoagie will be open from 12pm to 9.30pm until Sunday. Mala is at 8 Dale Street, Manchester, M1 1JA.