A young couple have taken over the reins at a popular Nottingham chippy that has passed from generation to generation. Christina and George Ellinas are the new faces behind the counter at The Priory Fish and Chips.
The takeaway, off the A52 Derby Road near Priory Island, has reopened after a week-long revamp. It now has a fresh new look, switching from green to orange, both inside and out. Close to homes in Beeston, Lenton Abbey and Wollaton, there have been a series of managers over the years but now the latest generation of the family are at the helm.
Christina and George are the daughter and son-in-law of Helen and Andy Kavalieros, who run Andy's Fish Bar in Aspley. Helen said: "This shop goes back in my family decades. It was my uncle John's shop originally, Steve's Fish and Chips. It opened as a brand new chip shop in 1981, before that it was a veg shop. My cousin Helen ran it for many years and then we bought it in 2000."
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Just like the Kavalieros family, who also own Andy's Fish Bar in Bilborough, George has fish and chips in his DNA. He has moved to Nottingham from Redditch, where he worked in his father's award-winning chip shop. Three years ago George was named one of the top ten young fish fryers in the UK, aged just 23, in the national Fish and Chip Awards 2020.
The secret of a good chip? George said: "Cooking it with love and listening and always learning new ways. Customers can expect friendly faces and good quality here."
All the family were helping out behind the scenes on opening day, including Helen's brother Nick, who runs Steve's Fish Bar in Alvaston.
Helen said: "It's been all hands on deck. We make our own mushroom and onion gravy, which is my grandad's recipe from Derby and we brought it to Nottingham.
"We have got a good name for ourselves in Nottingham and when people do polls we do get mentioned. We opened in 1996 - it was a Blue Marlin and very run down before we took it over. We worked at it and it is a successful business and that's all we want for this shop, for the kids now. It's a well-known shop, the passing trade, buses and I didn't realise until this week how many people there are around. There's a lot of people on foot."
The menu kicks off with chips priced £2 for a small portion, £2.60 medium and large £4.20. Fish prices range from £1.80 for a fish bite, £5.50 for a small fish and £7.90 for a large cod or haddock. Pies, sausages, burgers and kebabs (doner, chicken and halloumi) are sold. As well as gravy, the mushy peas and chilli sauce for kebabs also homemade.
New to The Priory's menu is southern fried chicken, a best-seller at Andy's Fish Bar, which customers say is better than KFC. Helen said: "We'll see from there. Sometimes you can try and do too much and it doesn't work so you need to make sure you perfect the product you're selling."
The chippy opens for lunch from 11.30am to 2pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 4.30pm to 9pm. Because the new cooking range couldn't be fitted last week the chippy will be closed on August 1 for it to be installed. The three-pan cooker will allow the chippy to serve gluten-free fish and chips for the first time.
