Our Story

Shakedowns founder went to Dubai – he was inspired by the hospitality offering and their use of bright colours especially in their American diners. Futuristic brands, trending concepts, huge halal offering, everything Manchester was missing at the time.

The logo was conceived in a hotel room in Dubai with one brief; Simple, recognisable, iconic. Go big on branding. All the inspiration from Dubai lead to one thing, do the opposite of the trend and choose dark colours, yellow and black. This also tied in very well with the synonymous colours of Manchester and its iconic worker bee.

First Store
Shakedown first opened its doors as a dessert and shake parlour on a side street in Withington, Manchester. We heavily leaned into the yellow and black colour scheme and curated atmosphere and character through design and customer service. We specialised in sweet treats serving waffles, shakes, ice creams and a range of old school desserts from an eatery with only four seats. It was small, quaint and our customers loved it.

First store upgraded
Popularity ensued, and prompted the shift to the upgraded version of our first store that remains today. 533 Wilmslow road, Withington the true home of the Beefed Up where Shakedown branched out into the food market with our range of smash burgers, chicken burgers and sides. The Beefed up was an art piece crafted over months of late-night testing. We perfected the beef blend, the seasoning and the sauces before launching the food menu to complement our desserts.

Towards the end of 2019, the COVID pandemic shook the world. As everywhere closed down, Shakedown stayed open. Brining joy to the people of Manchester whilst they were locked down. It was an interesting time for everyone, but we were glad to serve customers through deliveries and collections.

We took a big step forward with our brand and located the site for our second store. Further expansion into south Manchester, Wythenshawe. As well as taking on a warehouse to facilitate expansion and centralised supplies. We wanted to centralise all of the food prep and stock inventory to maintain quality as we expand.

In January, Shakedown’s second site, Wythenshawe, opened as a larger diner with 35 seats, keeping on brand with the black and yellow colour scheme, bright neon lights and corrugated steel sheeting. Same great atmosphere, food, and service from our first site brought into a new area to appease new custom and grow the brand.

Later in the year we found the site for our third store, designs were made and planning was submitted for our biggest and best shop yet!

As our first and second stores continued to grow in popularity, we were busy building the flagship store number three in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. Designed from the ground up with an all new look and feel, out with the yellow in with the white, we complimented the black steel cladding with white tiles and yellow accents and neons. The new Shakedown was born! Support by our rebrand to enhance the minimalism of the brand and give a more premium feel.

September saw the opening of Cheadle Hulme Shakedown and the new look and feel of the brand was thoroughly established. A clean and refined 44 seat diner, nestled in the bottom of an office block was the perfect space to become a centre piece of the community.

Shakedown Withington went back into the building phase to align with the new branding and look. A fresh look, same shop, same food and same great service. Full store refit, improved kitchen flow and more seating for our customers.

We also saw another big step for Shakedown in 2023, we welcomed our first franchisees into the family, a learning curve for the brand as we set out to take Shakedown over the border to Scotland. A site was found in Corstorphine, Edinburgh and the designing and building work began.

Alongside the building works we were training the franchisees ready for store opening. November marked the inaugural opening of Shakedown Edinburgh, an instant hit within the city and region. A scaled back 21 seat diner on St Johns Road, designed around the rebrand established in Cheadle Hulme, bring neons met black cladding once again to breath character into a charming suburb of Edinburgh.

We started with a period of consolidation, working on the process rather than the expansion. Honed our skills, the menu and the service and got ready to go again.

In the summer the search began for store five, and this time we wanted to branch out…

Shakedown Wythenshawe was the final Manchester site to rebrand to our new look and feel diners. In the fall we began works to update the dining area with clean white tiles, black steel cladding and opened up the counter to improve customer experiences.

After a winter in the building phase, store five was ready to go, and Newcastle was about to get its first taste of Shakedown. Jesmond a picturesque suburb of Newcastle was our chosen site to launch a modified concept Shakedown X in the North East. Shakedown X is a compact take-out only concept designed for convenience. Same branding, same feel, same food, smaller shop size.

In the summer, our franchisees in Edinburgh secured their second location, on the other side of Edinburgh the build started, the second shop in the Shakedown X concept, building off Jesmonds success.