I work in a chip shop.. what could anyone possibly want to know?!

[Chipshop123]

As above :)

What is Irish curry?

Spicy but not as hot as “hot” curry sauce. It is meant to be like Katsu curry and it outsells our other types easily.

Do you sell Rissoles?

Do you sell gravy and chips

(I’m led to believe these are Welsh things - our best man had a chippy)

Thanks, Maris Piper is what I use for my roast potatoes.

70is Ooh I will google Heston’s chip method!

I LOVE potato scallops, I need to make a trip up North to get some!

I think I need to visit Scotland also, and make myself sick on battered pizza and mars bars lol

We don't sell scollops ( battered potato slices). We sell rissoles to order. Wish we did Irish curry it sounds lovely.
Dripping is delivered in huge, lard line slabs.
Our batter is flour, water and baking powder.

Haha my skin is fairly nice if I do say so myself. I am really funn y about cleansing when I get home though, don't want oil clogging it up.
The fat is easy to burn, especially for newbies. We cook around 170 degrees with the pans off, anything hotter burns the fat ( and stinks). Oddly enough new fat has a horrible smell to my nose.
Batter is changed every hour in hot weather. Lasts longer when it's cool.

Who are your most annoying customers?

Do you sell chicken tikka kebab ? The chip shop ones are incredible.

Also chips cheese and gravy would you look at me weirdly if I ordered? Or would you get it?

There are nice looking battered round things in my chip shop but I have no idea what they are so don’t have them.

I think it’s meat inside, but bigger and thinner than I’d expect a battered burger to be. No menu on the wall so I have no idea what 80% of the stuff is and just have fish and chips. Lots of different round things, some of which I assume are fish cakes.

I discovered pea wet in Hull (along with chip spice - I think that really is just found in Hull and nowhere else.)
My local chippy (now down south) does a 'northern mix' which is chips, peas and gravy. I am attempting to bring my children up proper and feed it to them whenever I can.
Do you have barmcakes or rolls OP?

Also battered burgers! Why are they so good! They are heart disease but I adore them

Beef dripping is solid like lard. You can buy it in the supermarket, it's near the lard. All the traditional fish and chip shops, as opposed to those which are also Chinese takeaways etc in the Leeds area fry in beef dripping. Probably more widespread across Yorkshire too.

What a timely thread! I've joked for years that I'd like to run a chip shop. Six months ago our near but not quite local chippy came up for sale. It's a traditional chippy with a little restaurant on the side.

Would you guys recommend running a chippy? What are the pit falls? I'm not scared of hard work!

The oil fried frozen chips aren't chippy chips.

Chippy chips need to be rumbled, tumbled, chipped and fried in lard. Tough for veggies but tis the way of things.

If someone offered me a chippy and turned up with those takeaway chips I'd be gutted.

I haven't seen a dripping chip shop for years and I travel all over

They're all over Yorkshire. Really hard to get veggie chips here.

Chippy chips need to be rumbled, tumbled, chipped and fried in lard. Tough for veggies but tis the way of things
We are close. We don’t fry in lard but we they are from potatoes and rumbled and chipped each day in the back of the shop. My OH wouldn’t entertain frozen chips, he is a purist (for a southern shop).
To the poster who asked if it is worth it? Long hours, really long hours, and he comes home smelling of oil but he showers rigourously and it goes.
The pay is pretty good but not if you look at hourly rate.
And it is competitive and some nearby shops can get nasty (phoning with fake orders type thing) but he has done it for 25 years and he is very successful. But he is committed and does everything wholeheartedly.
And staffing can be a real pain (currently having a spate of people continually going off sick so it is tough at moment).

@QuitMoaning this place is "only" open 27 hours per week. It closes by 8pm every night they open. Still hard work, but no midnight pub kick out customers!

Do you sell Steak and Kidney Puddings?

I miss them so much. You can't get them here.

Does owning a chippy provide a good income?

Can't believe all of the questions!

How much is fish & chips in your chippy?

@BrassicaBabe We close at 10.30 but he rarely leaves before midnight as there is all the cleaning up. There is a huge amount to do outside of opening hours if you want to succeed. All the hygiene requirements and food prep.

@DollyDayScrean Sorry, no steak and kidney puddings. We are a southern shop and it is interesting how different tastes are for different parts of the country.

@Alienspaceship Not too bad an income, probably £40 to £50k but that works out about £13 ph which isn’t a lot but we do have a business that we could sell if we needed money. (And I have a different job unconnected with the shop so we could survive without it, good to not have all our eggs in one basket).

@Westfacing I think it is £5.20. I shall have to ask him as I am oblivious to things like that.

Oh, an AMA that's interesting! Thank you OP. I don't get to the chip shop much unfortunately but ours used to do scampi which I loved.

We do scampi! Actually I really fancy some now.

Where is OP, I want to find out where we differ, I find it interesting too.

Is your skin gorgeous from the steam?

Lol I was going to ask, does your skin get greasy/spotty from the fat!

Sounds delish tho