Chubbys: End of an era as famous takeaway which served generations of clubbers and pubgoers is demolished

Chubbys on Cambridge Street, in the city centre, served kebabs and burgers to generations of hungry clubbers and pubgoers over 40 years before closing in August 2020 to make way for the £480 million Heart of the City II redevelopment.

The 1863 building has now been demolished, save for the facade, along with the neighbouring Tap & Tankard pub. It will be replaced by a three-storey building housing a cafe, restaurant and bar, along with retail and office space.

Chubbys was opened in the early 80s by owner Mehran Behizad and it soon became a staple of Sheffield city centre nightlife. It was particularly popular with revellers at the nearby The Limit nightclub before that closed in 1991 and with the fondly remembered Josephine’s nightclub, which ran until the late 90s.

Mehran had come to Sheffield in 1973 to study industrial design at the then polytechnic. He met his wife in the city and they decided to stay in the UK and start a family together. It was after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 ruled out any imminent return to his homeland that he set up Chubbys with various business partners, later becoming the sole owner.

One of the most popular items on the menu was the ‘sexy’ burger – so called because it came with nothing on it. The cheese sauce was also renowned, with one fan recalling how they only had to look at their shirt the next morning to know they’d visited Chubbys as it would be covered with the stuff.

Errol Edwards, a former reporter at The Star, wrote affectionately about the venue after its closure was announced, saying: “Chubbys was as much a part of the night as jostling for a place at the bar for drink or queuing for a club or impressing, or not, on the dance floor…. You never knew what you’d be doing on a night out, which pubs or clubs you would enter – but at the end of the night you knew Chubbys would feature.”

Chubbys owners had said when they announced its closure that they hoped to reopen elsewhere, but they were unable to find a suitable location.