Jamie Pickles and Matt Nellay have reimagined the venue, located in the city’s Northern Quarter, following a short closure with fresh interiors and a new dining room menu.
The food offer covers British pub classics, made using local produce, with starters such as hogget mince on dripping toast; dressed Devon crab salad; roast lamb and gentleman’s relish; and English asparagus with a soft-boiled egg.
For mains, there’s ox cheek pie with ratte potato mash; and salmon with trout roe beurre blanc and mussels; beef burger served in a milk bun, and pork collar with cabbage and bacon. Sticky toffee pudding and a pistachio and cherry Bakewell tart - a nod to Pickles’ Peak District upbringing - appear on the dessert menu.
“It’s nerve racking to make such a big change to a venue which is so significant to so many people. Ask anyone in Manchester and they’ll have a Trof story - we seem to have hosted a lot of first dates here over the years - but we felt that it was time for the next chapter in this beautiful building’s history,” says Nellay.
“We love pubs, and we’ve always wanted to do that elegant, city centre pub which you see so much across London - being able to do that with fabulous northern produce including cask ales from Thornbridge and meats from Marcus at Littlewoods right in the heart of the Northern Quarter is a privilege we will take very seriously.”
The Trof is located in a building that dates back to the 1880s and was opened as a neighbourhood bar in the early 2000s by Adelaide Winter and Joel Wilkinson, before it was purchased from Mission Mars by Nellay in 2022. He joined forces with Pickles to open Trof in 2023 before launching open-fire restaurant Stow together on Manchester’s Bridge Street in November 2024.
“The Trof sits right in the heart of what was Manchester’s market district and hopefully the menu pays homage to that - fabulous veg, great quality meat, excellent bar snacks - all served with well cellared cask ale and a great wine list - this will be a pub truly for Manchester’s people and we can’t wait to get it open,” adds Pickles.