PG Sachdev and his wife Lilawati, known as Lily, opened their grocery shop on Cotton Street East in Ashton-Under-Lyne in 1972.
The Ashton Sweet Mart was opposite the Tameside Hippodrome, so when the cinema showed Indian films and newsreels for the local expat community which had gravitated to this East Manchester neighbourhood, they found they had a captive audience.
They’d sell a selection of homemade sweets and savouries – samosas, pakoras, sweet dhokla – a welcome taste of home, for the audience to eat in the intermission or take home afterwards.
“My grandma used to make a special chickpea and potato curry at the time too,” says Prital Sachdev, grandson of Lily and PG.
“People used to come all the way from Bolton and Blackburn just to eat that.”
Lily’s handmade treats were a hit. By the 80s, and with the help of sons Harish and Rajesh, the family business had expanded to include the ASM cash and carry on Oldham Road, which had in one corner a cafe that was an early version of what would become Lily’s, named after the family’s beloved matriarch.
She sadly died a year before Lily’s first proper restaurant opened in Ashton, on the site of The Alexandra social club on Dean Street, but her legacy is here on the walls, a mural depicting the family’s Gujarati lineage, which traces back to Porbandar, the home city of Mahatma Gandhi.
And though the cuisine at Lily’s is heavily Gujarati influenced, the family – Prital’s grandparents, aunts and uncles – actually arrived in the UK from Nairobi, where Indians from the Gujarat region had been migrating since the late 1800s.
The family were all brought up vegetarian, which, when it translated to opening a restaurant, proved a bit of a leap. Prital says that people thought they were ‘insane’ opening a curry house without meat on the menu.
Places like Bundobust might have popularised vegetarian Indian cuisine since, but when Lily’s opened, they were out there on their own.
“[Maybe] we were insane,” he says. “Not many people had heard of vegan food back then. But now, it’s the big trend isn’t it. But I was there before everyone. 2007, we opened. When we did open, people were laughing, saying ‘are these guys nutters doing vegan food? What is vegan food?’
“As time grew, and people started eating our food, customers who started coming then are still coming to this day. For the grace of my grandma’s name Lily, it’s taken off.”
“I would say I’m a leader, everyone else is a follower,” he jokes. “But I’ve always been vegetarian. Never eaten meat in my life.
“[In Gujarat] we eat things like undhiyu, gathia, jalebis, chapatis, kichri, that’s like our staple diet.”
The menu at Lily’s is a tour of this vibrant region in the North West of India, as well as dishes from the south too, like crisp dosas stuffed with soft potato masala, and the ubiquitous chaats, probably the most famous street food in India. There are even some great Indo-Chinese influences too, on their sweet and sour sizzlers.
And as a nod to where they came from, the even have a whole grocery store on site – selling everything from sweets to samosas to spices to cupboard essentials for making your own chaats at home.
Anyone who’s either veggie, veggie-curious or vegan in Manchester and Greater Manchester will know Lily’s – not to mention its takeaway deli in Chorlton, which recently scooped accolades at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards.
And it’s all thanks to Lily Sachdev’s sweets and samosas. And a cracking chickpea curry.
Lily’s will be giving Uber Eats customers 20% off (up to £10) when you spend £30 or more from Friday 14 Feb to Friday 21 Feb.
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