Business is booming as customers queue round the block for Northampton award-winning chippy
Soaring temperatures didn’t deter loyal customers from queuing up outside a popular chippy in Northampton that reopened this week
The winner of the Northampton Chronicle & Echo’s Chippy of the Year award 2019, Nick’s Plaice, reopened this week much to the delight of Kingsley.
Owner Nick Panayis closed the shop on Kingsley Park Terrace ten weeks ago when the lockdown was announced for the safety of staff and customers.
The shop reopened on Monday, May 18 and that evening customers were queuing outside the shop along Kingsley Park Terrace as far as The White Elephant pub – with social distancing measures in place.
Nick Panayis said: “We’ve only been open six days but business is booming already. Some customers who would come in once a week have been in every day since we reopened.
"You would not believe how busy we've been, we ran out of fish on Monday at 8pm, I had to say 'we've only got burgers and pies left' until 9pm when we closed. It's been phenomenal.
"Customers were commenting on how much they had missed us. It was as if they hadn’t had fish and chips in years – they said they had missed us, the service, the food.
Nick’s Plaice is restricting customer numbers inside the shop to two at any one time and ensuring social distancing is adhered to in the queue outside.
They have also put screens up in the shop and staff Charlotte White, Hollie Goldson and Nick Panayis wear gloves to serve customers.
Nick is also planning on introducing meat onto the menu – in particular steak. He added: “I am working on introducing rib eye, sirloin steak and pork chops onto the already hugely popular fish menu.
"Soon we will be offering our customers charcoal grilled steaks, which they can wash down with alcoholic drinks of their choice as I’ve also recently obtained an alcohol licence.”
He puts the popularity of his shop down to the freshest ingredients, homemade sauces, fantastic staff and winning the all important Chron award.
He added: "Since I won the Chron award it's been the best five months since I've been here for ten years.
"We are really happy to be back at work and really missed our customers.
"We would like to say thank you to the wonderful people of Northampton."