London born rapper Professor Green is set to open fast food restaurant in Glasgow’s west end, and has revealed the reason for choosing Scotland as his first locationGeorgia Burns Trainee Trends, Showbiz and Lifestyle Writer and Maja Grantham
18:56, 11 Dec 2025
Professor Green set to open fast food restaurant in Glasgow’s west end
A well-known UK rapper has made a stop in Glasgow to reveal more about his latest venture: a brand-new fast food restaurant opening in the city’s west end. Professor Green visited Byres Road, the future home of his first permanent food business, PG Fast Food, where he shared why Glasgow felt like the perfect place to launch the project.
The rapper – whose real name is Stephen Manderson and who hails from Hackney, London – has previously experimented with a food pop up, but revealed why he picked Glasgow as his first permanent spot, explaining: “It’s no coincidence – some of the masterminds that ran German Donner Kebab (GDK) are my partners in this, and this is their next endeavour, their office is just down the road in East Kilbride.”
The pop star and documentary maker first surprised fans in October when he posted a video on social media announcing his plans to come to Glasgow for the launch of a new fast food venture.
Known for hits such as Just Be Good to Green and Jungle, Stephen explained why Byres Road stood out as the perfect setting for his latest project. “It’s a wicked location, there’s loads happening here. You’ve got students, you’ve got residents and you’ve got tourists.
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“You know it feels like a melting pot of people, and there is great footfall and a great vibe. I think we work well with some of the other shops that are here, so I think we will fit right in, but stand right out,” the rapper said.
Having visited Glasgow many times and even played at the iconic Barrowlands on his first ever tour, he said he always felt the city would be a natural fit for his venture. He said: “I started coming to Glasgow 22 years ago, the first time was on tour with Streets.
“We did five dates in Scotland; it was my first ever tour, actually,” he stated. “I remember some of it. I have been back to Barrowlands since and done it in my own right, I’ve also played SWG3. I have never had a bad gig here, I mean the people in Glasgow are wicked I love them.”
While discussing the idea behind the restaurant, Stephen added: “PG Fast Food is all about disrupting what people know to be fast food, and to try and remove this idea that it has to be bad food.
PG Fast Food is the rappers latest venture
“I have got a four-year-old son, who I eat with all the time, cook with and eat out with, and I am really keen to try and shift the narrative a bit, to encourage people to have a healthy relationship with food versus food always having to be healthy.
“I think that food should be indulgent at times, and it is something that I want my son to be able to explore and be curious about that and not be worried. I think that it is a really important message we can get across in the DNA of the restaurant.
“I have been involved since the very first tasting session, and we went through a couple of incarnations before we got to PG Fast Food.
“It was quite a different concept previously, and it has been amazing to be a part of that journey. I was with Atif last night, and I said to him ‘I want to understand the nuances of this business, every aspect of it, even if I just have to sit silently and observe’ I want to really understand every nook and cranny, and I want to really lend my talents to wherever they are needed.”
The rapped has a “massive passion for food” and even joked that he has more chefs numbers on his phone than he does fellow rappers.
He added: “Most of my mates are chefs, although to be fair they never really cook for me. Their staff do when I go into their restaurants but when they come to mine its always me doing the cooking.”
Growing up in an “incredibly multicultural” area, he said his love of food developed from life in a working-class community where, even if people didn’t have much, sharing food was a meaningful way to connect. Stephen explained: “It was something you always got offered when you went to someone’s house. You didn’t have much but you always got offered a plate of food, and people’s parents being from all over the world, it was an introduction to so many foods that I otherwise wouldn’t have eaten at home, my diet at home was quite beige.”
When asked about his favourite venue in Glasgow, he didn’t hesitate to pick the Barrowlands. “There is, there is history in the walls,” he said.
“You walk in you smell it, and I will tell you something about Scotland, I was like why are people chucking beer at me? What have I done wrong? Turns out that’s a celebration and it means they love you, but that took me a minute to get. It’s better a cup of beer than a cup of anything else eh?”