In the back of Liverpool's most famous fish and chip shop, its owner is in tears.
Byrnes has been feeding its hungry and loyal customers for four generations, ever since Patrick Joseph Byrne opened his fish and chip shop in Stuart Road, Walton in 1932.
The immensely popular chippy, considered by many to be the best in the city, is currently run by Barbara and David Dickson and their sons. In 2019 the family opened a second, larger site on Muirhead Avenue East on the border of Norris Green and West Derby.
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Despite the remarkable and repeated success of this legendary Scouse business, today it is, like so many others, in trouble. And like so many other independent businesses, this trouble has not arrived at Byrnes' doors through anything the family has done wrong.
"We've got really loyal customers. We've got a bloke who comes in who was on a picture for the Queen's Coronation outside the shop, he still comes in. We haven't lost any customers, the overheads have just gone berserk," explains Barbara. She and her husband have been in charge of the business since 1998.
"Everything has gone up. Oil went from £9 a box to £22.50 a box. We can't keep putting prices up, it's ridiculous. It doesn't matter how good your product is, if people can't afford it they can't - that's why we have to lower our overheads."
She says prices started to rise during the pandemic but after Russia invaded Ukraine, things went crazy. "That was it, the flour doubled - peas, peas have doubled in price. It's not like 5%, it is double or treble."
Barbara and her family are now battling a perfect storm of soaring wholesale costs and spiralling energy bills. Oh and next year the business rates the family are charged for the two sites will come in at £7,000.
"Food obviously has to be kept at a certain temperature, once that is on, it's on - it doesn't matter how many customers you get that day," she adds.
With this in mind, the family have made the painful decision to put their second site up for sale in a move that they hope will save the original Stuart Road business.
Barbara, 61, is eloquent, tough and passionate about her family and her business. But as she talks about selling up one of her chippies, her voice starts to crack.
"It's just really, really, really sad", she adds, fighting back tears. The reality is that she has no choice. "If we didn't close Muirhead Avenue then they would both go, if we do sell it, we should save this one", she adds with a resigned expression.
The hope is that customers will move from Muirhead Avenue to the original Stuart Road branch, which was first opened in 1932 by Joseph Byrne, the grandfather of Barbara's husband David. He arrived in Liverpool in the 1920s and after working for an Italian family, he set out on his own.
The chippy has remained in the family ever since and continues to have a hugely loyal customer base. But Barbara says she refuses to charge those customers anymore.
She adds: "Not one single customer has said a single thing about the prices going up. I actually find that quite sad, I get embarrassed about the prices, I know them all, I know their lives, their children and grandchildren - I know people are struggling.
"There's this fella who comes in every Friday and has done for years, he gets the same order every single Friday, he comes in 46 weeks a year. His order in the last 12 months has gone up by £10. It used to be £16.80, now it's £26.80.
"None of us want to serve him now because we are embarrassed. He has never said anything but it makes us feel bad, he is a complete barometer of what's going on because his order is always the same and it has gone up by a third in 12 months. None of us want to serve him. We can't put the prices up again, we just can't. And if we don't do something then we close down."
Barbara cares deeply for the customers she knows so well. She knows they are all suffering too amid this crisis.
One story nearly moves her to tears again. She adds: "This one woman, she's lovely, she's worked all her life and she looks after her husband who is in ill health. She comes in for chips once a week, she's 72 and her husband is 74.
"She is panicking, she says they have done everything they possibly can to save on energy, there's nothing more she can do to earn more money. I feel like crying every time I think of her. They have done everything right, they have worked all their lives. They used to go for a coffee in town together once a week as a little treat but they are going to have to knock that on the head now."
Barbara and her family have also done everything right. They have steered their famous business through turbulent times and retained a remarkable customer base. The current crisis is in no way their fault, but that doesn't change the situation facing them.
Even with the sale of the second shop, she knows things will remain tough. "If you took away what's happened, we would be fine, we haven't lost any customers - none. That's what makes it even harder", she adds.
"We are determined to keep this one going, we've got emotional ties to this place. If anyone is going to survive it I think we should."
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