![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_AMR_MEN_220825_FF_03.jpg\")
Anthony Bell set up Fresh Fuel ten years ago – and it’s gone from strength-to-strength<\/p>\n‘I just had this crazy idea’Anthony Bell set up Fresh Fuel ten years ago – and it’s gone from strength-to-strength<\/p>\n
It was almost exactly ten years ago when Anthony Bell had decided he\u2019d had enough.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Ancoats and Moston<\/a>, he had become tired of the food options available living outside of the city centre. Street food<\/a>, he says, \u2018wasn\u2019t really much of a concept back then\u2019, and he was bored with visiting the same Chinese, Caribbean and Indian takeaways whenever he fancied a treat.<\/p>\n So, naturally, he decided to change that. By opening his own restaurant.<\/p>\n Now 36, Anthony opened Fresh Fuel, on Rochdale<\/a> Road in Blackley<\/a>, in 2015 with the idea of selling \u2018restaurant quality food in a box\u2019. Thankfully, it\u2019s been popular pretty much ever since it opened and he\u2019s not had to look back. He\u2019s now even expanded the empire with a second Manchester site.<\/p>\n Fresh Fuel, which has become known for dishes like its steak boxes with prawns, its bang bang cauliflower with Chicken and rice, and steak and chicken wraps with sweet potato fries. It\u2019s even a favourite with big names like Aitch and Manchester United<\/a> midfielder Kobbie Mainoo.<\/p>\n Stay connected with our City Life newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t really a thing called street food when I first opened,\u201d Anthony tells the Manchester Evening News<\/a>. \u201cSo, I just had this crazy idea to do a healthy style of street food that existed outside of the city centre.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not only about making something that I wanted to eat myself, but it was also about having good quality food in a takeaway box. I\u2019m very passionate about what we do, high standards have always been at the top of my priority list. I just felt like nobody else was really doing that at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw that there was a gap in the market for someone who cared and I just took it. It was busy from day one, and we\u2019ve just kept up the same consistency and have just kept getting bigger and bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony says that with the immediate success of Fresh Fuel, he has seen \u2018so many imitators\u2019 try to replicate what he does. But, he also says that he\u2019s seen them \u2018come and go\u2019 without being able to make it work for them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still get them to this day,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut, I see it as flattering now. Years ago, I was putting chicken and steak with prawns and people thought I was weird. Now you see it everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been some big corporations who have tried to take us on, and do what we do, and there are times I feel like we deserve more recognition, but we know what we do is special. We don\u2019t need the recognition to tell us that.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony has no chef or culinary training, but grew up on the food his mum and dad would make – bringing together their Jamaican and British cultures to create different concepts.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just always been around cooking,\u201d he explains. \u201cMum was really big on cooking and understood flavours and what should go with what. I was self-taught from that way of thinking really, and it\u2019s got me here. I have just always loved to cook.\u201d<\/p>\n This weekend, Fresh Fuel opens a new store in Ancoats<\/a>. Opening on Henry Street on Saturday (August 23), Anthony sees it as the expansion he\u2019s always been working towards – but he also sees it as a big full circle moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent a lot of my childhood in Ancoats,\u201d he explains. \u201cI spent my summers there with my auntie Pauline, who was a big part of my life. My mum died from cancer when I was 16 so me and my younger sister used to spend many weekends in Ancoats.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mum was born and bred in Ancoats, so I just have a lot of special connections to this part of Manchester. It felt right that this would mark the next part of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony says the original Blackley store, on Rochdale Road, will also continue to run alongside the new restaurant – and has no plans on slowing down anytime soon.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we opened the Blackley store, it was a bit of a risk,\u201d he explains. \u201cThere was no parking, there was no passing trade, so it was always a longshot. But I\u2019ve always said if you can produce something good, people will come and people will travel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had people visit us from Liverpool and Scotland, and we\u2019ve had loads of celebrities and influencers visit us repeatedly. And they\u2019ve come here on their own accord too – we haven\u2019t paid anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cSo this new store is about expanding on that now. It\u2019s a real stamp of approval for the brand now that we have this second location. We can take it to the next level, and scale things up.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Fresh](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_AMR_MEN_220825_FF.jpg\")
Fresh Fuel’s harrisa marinated portobello mushroom with coconut and lime rice(Image: Fresh Fuel)<\/p>\n![\"Popular](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_AMR_MEN_210825_FF.jpg\")
Popular YouTuber Rate My Takeaway with Anthony(Image: Rate My Takeaway)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_AMR_MEN_220825_FF_02.jpg\")
The steak and cheese toastie from Fresh Fuel(Image: Fresh Fuel)<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_AMR_MEN_220825_FF_04.jpg\")
The new Fresh Fuel venue in Ancoats opens this weekend(Image: Fresh Fuel)<\/p>\n