Mole Face Pub Company founder John Molnar has extended his business capacity significantly with the Cod’s Scallops, a “hybrid of a fully-fledged restaurant and fish & chip shop” a mile from one of his four Nottingham pubs, the Wollaton Arms.
The pub’s industrial equipment makes potato-prep fast and efficient: chips are transported in a refrigerated van, and the same happens in reverse with fish from the shop. Cottage pies and fish soup prepared at the pub go down well with shop customers, many of whom are Wollaton regulars.
Molnar’s fishmonger advises on the catch of the day and buys from 15-20 coastal suppliers, ensuring inclusion of lesser-known fish such as pollack and coley. Chips are cooked in traditional beef dripping and customers can enjoy wine or beer from the licensed shop, which also serves cakes.
Hint of sweetness
An unusual combo of sweet potato chips and smoked haddock helped Craig Vit boost sales during a quiet period in January at Enterprise lease the Cricketers Arms, in Wisborough Green, West Sussex. Vit was experimenting with uses of sweet potato chips and found his new fish goujon starter so successful that it has become a more permanent feature on the menu.
“We sandwiched a small goujon of smoked haddock between two sweet potato chips and tied them with fine strands of steamed leeks before coating them in breadcrumbs and sold about 25 portions as a starter or light snack,” explains Vit.
“So now we add it to our main menu and buffets. Our twist on classic fish and chips offers a tasty, simple dish that our customers wouldn’t readily cook at home.”
Quiz on the side
General manager Chloe Wallace found that many of freehold the Ferryboat Inn’s quiz fans visited the local chippy for their Friday supper before attending the quiz at the quayside pub at Helford Passage, Cornwall.
So Wallace researched prices in local chippies and found it to be £6-£7. “Normally we charge £10.50 for a really good-sized piece of fresh local beer-battered haddock with our hand-cut chips and a good dollop of mushy peas,” says Wallace, “so we scaled ours down to the local price to maintain our GP and quality. Many quizzers now choose to dine weeklyhere.
“Having this dinky main course leads many customers to purchase a dessert. As word spreads, some people come down just for a mini fish & chips, without a side order of quiz!”
Fresh look
Variety and presentation are key at freehold the Horse & Jockey, in Ravensden, Bedford, where real-ale battered monkfish cheeks, chips, pea purée and home-made jalapeño tartare sauce is served by Darron and Sarah Smith.
All the fish is wrapped in newspaper, and a mini chip-basket is used to serve monkfish or cod cheeks, which Sarah says hold their shape and texture well.
The GP is 75%. The pub’s Billingsgate menu, offering two courses for £19 on Friday evenings, was inspired by their fishmonger, who delivers twice a week from the London market. “He was picking some unusual fish for us to try, so we developed this menu — now 75% of our customers choose it,” says Sarah.
Tracey and Daniel Prince serve hake in traditional barm cake with chips (£5.45) at their freehold the Crown in Worthington, Lancashire.
Keep on trucking
Freehold the Full Moon at Morton, Nottinghamshire, capitalises on demand for fish & chips with outside catering in its Nippie Chippie van. Its “full fish & chip shop experience” cooks fresh Grimsby fish, to order with hand-cut chips & pea purée, real tomato ketchup, cider or malt vinegar and sea salt. Sausages and veggie burgers are also available.
Functions include weddings, birthdays, and village or corporate events. “We arrive 15-30 minutes before the client wants us to start serving,” says head chef and general manager Rebecca White.
“All we require is a power point and parking space. We can serve 100 portions in one-and-a-half hours, or 100 goujons-and-chip portions in one hour.”
Better batter
Nick Otley owns Otley Brewing Company and a small pub chain including Pontypridd’s Bunch of Grapes. Beer and food-matching is high on Otley’s agenda.
He says: “We actively support Welsh producers, whom we believe to be amongst the best in the world in their fields, and adopt a strict sustainability policy in respect of farming and fishing. As well as cod, we serve pollack, whiting, John Dory and coley. At the Bunch of Grapes, we suggest matches for all dishes. Deep-fried pollack in our own O1 light beer batter, served with home-made tartare sauce and hand-cut chips (£10 on bar menu) is matched with traditional bitter, Otley O1 or a guest beer.”
A recent pub addition and Otley’s first outside Pontypridd is the Kings Arms in Pentyrch, where fish & chips costs £11 and is also available to take away.
Family favourites
Children’s menus don’t need to skimp on quality. The menu for younger visitors at Monmouth’s freehold Inn at Penallt includes home-made fish fingers, chips and beans. And at the London Brewing Company’s Bull in London’s Highgate, leaseholder Dan Fox favours light alternatives such as crab fritters with salad and/or chips for younger customers (£4.95).
“The crab isn’t bulked out with potato, as so many pub fishcakes are,” says Fox. Fresh Portland crab from the Bull’s family-run supplier is used to ensure satisfaction.
Family dining is a priority at freehold the Coastguard in St Margaret’s Bay, Kent. Three-course lunch in the garden served on family-style platters for up to 12 includes special children’s platefuls, such as fresh cod goujons with home-made ketchup, while adults can enjoy platters of fresh local seafood with lime & coriander. Rugs and toys are provided.
Fish feasts
At a Mitchells & Butlers’ Premium Country Dining pub, the Lyttelton Arms in Hagley, Stourbridge, West Midlands, Fabulous Fish Fridays showcase the chefs’ talents with fresh fish and shellfish specials plus white wines at half price. “The evening attracts between 100 and 200 covers and word-of-mouth is one of our best forms of publicity,” says Lyttelton Arms team leader Sarah-Jane Wills.
“We always offer a choice of at least three fish dishes, such as plaice, cod and swordfish.” On the main menu, salmon & caper fishcake, poached egg, mango Hollandaise (£7.95/£10.95) partners well with Belgian chips & mayonnaise on the side
for £2.95.
The Inn at Farnborough in Oxfordshire offers Friday fish cakes & fizz for £12.95. Easter plans include celebrating Good Friday with a menu of sharing fish treats and a glass of Prosecco for £25 per person.
Economies of scale
“Only serving fish & chips at Friday lunchtimes gives us an important point of difference,” says Punch lessee Jeffrey Bell at the Gunmakers in London’s Clerkenwell.
“Regulars spread the word — last Friday one brought 18 colleagues. We sell 50-100 high quality fish lunches, usually using cod (£14). We source it from James Knight in Mayfair, batter it using a guest ale such as a Redemption, Trinity or Sambrook’s Wandle, serve it with triple-cooked chips and mushy peas and spice up our home-made tartare sauce with jalapeño.
There are no such restrictions on Spirit’s Taylor Walker fish & chip offer: the chain sells more than 25,000 fish & chip dishes weekly and more than 1.5 million a year, including its chip shop platter of hand-battered fish & Whitby breaded scampi with chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce and pickled onions.
Take it away
Freehold the Five Bells at Colne Engaine in Essex, offers fish & chips to take away on Thursdays and Fridays, when customers can phone in with their orders between 6pm and 7pm. The pub sells between 30 and 50 portions a night.
Staff engagement with customers, Facebook and website promotion are more effective than press adverts in promoting a takeaway service, says the Horse & Jockey’s Sarah Smith.
“As many villages in rural Bedfordshire have lost their pubs and shops, our fish & chip takeaways fill a significant gap and boost our beer and wine sales.”
From Monday to Saturday the pub sells about 30 portions of haddock, monkfish or cod cheeks, scampi or fishcakes with chips, jalapeño tartare sauce and lemon wedge, wrapped in eye-catching recycled Financial Times newspaper.
Brewer Shepherd Neame recently added a fish & chip counter at the Spanish Galleon, in Greenwich, south-east London, where customers can eat in or take away.