Tower Garage on Wilmslow Road has been granted Grade II listed status by English Heritage.
The former petrol station, offices and car showroom was constructed in 1962 to the designs of Berkeley Moir, a Rochdale architect.
The garage, which is now home to Aldeli, was originally built as a Total filling station, offices and car showroom and replaced an earlier garage built in 1919.
The building was commissioned by the Total Oil Company in collaboration with the owner, Paul Higham, as a showpiece to market their petrol and oil in the UK.
The petrol station ceased use around 1978 and the building remained in use as a car showroom and offices until 2011 when it was converted into a New York-style deli.
English Heritage has listed Tower Garage at Grade II for its architectural quality, apposite modern design and because it is a rare surviving example of an architect-designed petrol station and motor car showroom of the early 1960s.
The English Heritage report describes the building as having "a highly distinctive rotunda design with a striking, saucer-shaped canopy roof structure that provides a strong architectural and aesthetic statement, as well as practicality, and is illustrative of the use of exciting roof shapes in this period."
They added "its space-age inspired design reflects the influence of America and its popular culture during the 1950s and 60s, embodying the technological bravura and spirit of the space age. In a wider context it also reflects the modernity of motoring and the motor car in the mid C20, and the sense of adventure, freedom and independence that the car symbolised at this time."
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