One of Glasgow’s best pizza restaurants is coming to the West End this weekend in what will be an exciting addition to Ashton Lane’s food and drink scene.
Sano Pizza currently has three restaurants in Ireland split between Dublin and Cork, and opened their first premises in Glasgow in May 2022 in Finnieston. Last summer, they opened a second Glasgow location on Bell Street in the Merchant City.
The idea for Sano came about after twin brothers Raymond and Tony MacHugh visited Naples. All pizzas in Naples are made using a sourdough base, and cooked in traditional stone ovens at 500 degrees. Not only were these pizzas delicious, they had a much lower salt content. The other thing that struck the twins was how affordable the pizzas were – everywhere they went in Naples, the pizzerias were jammed packed with people, out enjoying fine food at affordable prices.
They set off to open a Neapolitan pizzeria in Dublin, purchasing two traditional stone ovens direct from the manufacturer in Naples. Not long after that, they found a site and opened their first Sano Pizza in April 2018 in Temple Bar.
Here is a first look inside the restaurant on Ashton Lane.
1. Sano Pizza
Speaking about why Sano is opening on Ashton Lane, co-owner Ray told us: “It seemed logical to bring something affordable to Ashton Lane. As you know, Ashton Lane can be expensive. Jinty’s is very well priced so I think it was quite a good match as well. We actually considered doing a Guinness pizza as a trial. That’s being tested just now, but we’ve got to perfect that before we roll that out. We would like to have that link with what’s happening downstairs." | Sano Pizza
2. Sano Pizza
“Jinty’s have invested a lot of money in the back garden which has a license for around 300 people out the back which is great. Upstairs isn’t a huge site and we’ll probably have about 36 or 38 covers. We’ve stripped out the kitchen and put a brand new kitchen in, and stripped the whole place back to the basics. So that we can fulfil the demand, our prep will now be done between Finnieston and Candleriggs which is why we’ve invested in a new electric van that’ll basically do a pickup everyday. Although we do have the capability to make stuff there, we’ll be making our own tiramisu and cannoli in the restaurant. Everything we make is made fresh. Sano is Italian for healthy which is the purpose behind it." | Sano Pizza
3. Sano Pizza
Speaking about Sano's place on Ashton Lane, Ray said: “Pizza is for sharing. We see that being really successful should we get a summer as people will buy pizza and we’ll cut it into slices for them to share. It will be sliced for them to make it easier to share outside in the beer garden at the back." | Sano Pizza
4. Sano Pizza
“We are very excited about opening on Ashton Lane and it will eventually build up. In the big Sano’s we offer cocktails and a selection of draught beers. We’re not going to have that in there, we’ll have one beer on draught, wines and bottled beers. The Guinness will obviously come from down the stairs. I think it’s just a perfect fit.” | Sano Pizza