A new café exclusively serving toasted sandwiches has opened today (22 October) on Manchester’s Portland Street.

Founder Barry Chui told British Baker the concept for the café came from a night where he was home alone, with nothing in the fridge except a half block of mature cheddar, and a tin of beans in the cupboard next to his toastie-maker.

Chui predicted that ‘Cheesy Bean’ (£3.50), a two-cheese mix of cheddar and mozzarella with baked beans, would be the most popular filling, alongside the ‘English Brekkie’ toastie (£3.50), which contains bacon, scrambled eggs and baked beans.

The café will create its toasties on Kingsmill bread, which Chui has chosen due to its “consistent shape, the slices being virtually square and the white being nice and soft”. There will also be a wholemeal option available. Chui said the bread and fillings would be sourced from wholesaler Bookers.

In addition to sweet and savoury toasties, Frankie’s will sell vegan brownies, as none of its current sweet toastie fillings are suitable for vegans. It will also sell coffee with a ‘Selfieccino’ option, where customers can print an image on top of the milk foam to personalise their beverage.

“With the response we’ve had so far, it looks promising – there are obviously more die-hard toastie fans than I had thought,” said Chui.

“If it takes off, I’d love to open more stores across Manchester, then spread out to other cities,” added Chui.