Har-Glees

HarGlees!

Top quality fish & chips opens in Westbury high street!

Harlees – a third generation family business – opened recently in Westbury and owner Richard Long says their slogan, “Fanatical About Fish’ is at the heart of everything they do.

The nautically-themed and ambiently-lit shop chain restaurants only use cod and haddock from sustainable sources, to help secure fish stocks for the future and to ensure environmental kindness and responsibility.

Cod and haddock are fished in the cold waters of the Burren Sea off Galway.

“It’s frozen within five hours of being caught on factory trawlers which have their own processing plants on them, and it keeps the quality absolutely superb,” said Richard.

He also sources products directly from fishermen closer to home. “I go down to see fishermen at Weymouth – they don’t know what they’re going to bring out of the sea but they might have some really good stuff and I’ll say, ‘wow, I want that’, and then we can get that nice fresh fish straight out to the shops and put it on the menu board – some nice skate or brill or sea bass – and it’s fresh.”

Richard says what sets Harlees apart from other, nearby takeaways is the customer experience.

“We do things differently,” he says. “We want it to be not just fish and chips, but to be an experience because the very best fish and chips are fresh fish and chips. You cannot beat it straight out of the cooker, on a plate, on a table, piping hot.

“We don’t serve our takeaways in bags so it hasn’t steamed up or anything, so you’re not losing the crispness of the batter. You’ve spent all this time and effort to do this great product, then put it in a bag and it’s gone soggy. We use boxes with steam holes so the air can circulate.”

“We’ve recently developed our own batter – it’s unique to us. Everyone’s got their own recipe but even I don’t know the recipe, it’s that secret!

“It’s a very light crisp batter and our feedback from customers has been so positive so we cook to order.

“We want people to see our logo above the shop and think “Harlees – it’s good, it’s reliable and I know I can go there and know what I’m getting.”

Online ordering

Due to the Covid-19 climate, Harlees is currently offering takeaways only, which can be ordered via their own app.

“We are concentrating on the takeaway and getting the click and collect service right,” Richard explained. “We want people to do click and collect because the advantage with that is you can go online to order it, book your timeslot, come in, pay for it by card, and your food will be ready for you to pick up straight away

“We have been avoiding phone usage purely because it takes us away from doing customer service and the cooking.”

“We all have to move with the times and that’s how we do it,” Richard added. “We want to concentrate on the customers we’ve got and to do that we want to avoid doing phone orders.” On the app the business will be advertising promotions and customers can peruse the regularly updated menu.

Congratulations to The UK’s Best Fish & Chip Takeaway, The Cod’s Scallops who frys in Nortech Superior. For the tastiest results go Superior, the most respected, refined and deodorised beef dripping in the business

It’s naturally lower in trans fats, non-hydrogenated and delivers the highest performance with the greatest economy. Use Superior high frying fat and enhance the taste of your fried food.

A P P R O V E D

Box contains 20kg (4 x 5kg)

Distinguished!

Former bank is now a chip shop and boutique hotel!

By Austen Dack I have been watching with interest over the last few years the introduction and growth of Dan Chuter & Caroline and Gregg Howard’s Chip Shed brand! With a promise to visit coming to fruition in October I visited their new Bourton on Water flag ship to catch up with Caroline and Gregg and of course try their awardwinning fish and chips! Based in the heart of the idyllic Bourtonon-the-Water, the newest addition to The Chip Shed family is a former Lloyds bank! After all these years in the business I really do admire their continuing passion for fish and chips, and you can tell they still really love what they do. Their ethos is simple - to provide the best tasting, authentic British Fish and Chips... and guess what - I believe they have continued to do just that! The search for a perfect location for a new fish and chip shop is not an easy one. They had located the Cotswolds as an

area they would like to explore, and then Bourton as one they would home in on.

Some twelve months later after one or two near misses the old bank came on the market. In the centre of the village it was considered to be a prime site, if relevant permissions could be sought. Bourton-onthe-Water is home to the River Windrush, crossed by five low, arched stone bridges, as well as long-wide greens used by tourists to relax and a Grade-II listed model village. The village often has more visitors than residents during peak times of the tourist season.

The team promised to deliver “So much more than Fish and Chips... We aim to be open in June 2019, so not long to wait before we bring our award-winning fish and chips to Bourton-on-the-Water.”

Once they got the go-ahead the real work started. Converting a bank throws up its own problems. Trying to change internal walls was a challenge. George Howard who oversaw the redesign said. “When we started to knock down the first wall, we realised that being a bank

the walls were fortified, and indeed a lot stronger than normal internal walls.” Other quirky parts include the safe room, (the bars remain), and getting the range into the building, which resulted in it going through the space in the wall where the cash machine used to be!

The business had only been open a few months when the pandemic struck. Gregg said. “Obviously, we had to adapt our offering to suit. We introduced a click and collect service, and only let customers in on a two by two basis.”

Thankfully, they reopened the restaurant (now closed again) and table service outside in time for a busy summer trading. This was only enhanced by the news that the other large chippy in the village ceased trading in 2020.

Once the refurbishment of the shop was complete and it was up and trading, thoughts turned to the rest of the building. Upstairs the bank had several meeting rooms and also a living quarters too. The plan was to modernise and refigure these rooms to create a separate boutique hotel for Bourton, one which would have one of the best views in the Cotswolds.

Enter stage right George again. He was on hand with Gregg and manager Jim Houlston to do much of the hard work himself. The trio even staying there

mid-way thru, when the plush ensuite rooms were still far away dream, and the sumptuous king size beds were replaced with those of the canvas variety.

The resultant rooms, named after foreign currencies (we stayed in the Sterling), are incredible. The desire to provide luxury rooms at the heart of Bourton, with great service and an intention to detail has been exceeded on every level. Rooms are available to book via booking.com

In the evening of our stay we went into the Chip Shed Restaurant to try their fish and chips and more. We all tucked into Amity Fish Company’s Scampi (Jimmy Buchan take a bow), haddock, cod, prawn cocktail, homemade fishcake, battered asparagus, curry sauce, mushy peas, tartare sauce and of course some lovely East Anglian grown chipped potatoes! Washed down with local Cotswold gin (and lager). The food, ambience, & company were all first class.

The Chip Shed journey is not over I am sure for Dan, Gregg and Caroline, and based on their hard work at Bourton nor are their plaudits. What an advert for our industry.

www.chipshed.co.uk www.booking.com/hotel/gb/old-bank-rooms