COVID-19 won't stop Fish Friday as restaurant finds safe ways to keep tradition
Ches's Famous Fish and Chips trying to 'provide some normalcy' for people
Normally on Good Friday, Ches's Famous Fish and Chips in St. John's would have lineups down the street — frying up codfish and potatoes for people who don't eat meat on the religious holiday.
The COVID-19 pandemic means the restaurant won't be serving up the usual thousands of fish suppers this year, but Vicki Barbour says they're working hard to safely fulfill a local tradition.
"This is always our busiest day of the year," said Barbour, whose grandfather, Ches, opened the restaurant in 1951.
"We're just extra busy this year trying to figure out how to do it safely," she told The Current's guest host Piya Chattopadhyay.
Barbour spoke with Chattopadhyay about why people in St. John's "just can't get enough" of the Friday fry. Here is part of their conversation.
How are you keeping customers safe this year?
Normally we'd have lineups down the streets, dining room to be changed, the takeout area would be full. This year, we were not having any of that. People have to call. I'm going to answer the phone.
Then I process it through credit cards. Then we're asking everyone to stay in their cars. We call them one at a time. We say: 'Your order is ready.' We bring it over, lay it on a table right by the front door. We step back, the customer comes in, takes their food. I sanitize the table and sanitize the doorknob and we start again.
Contrast this to last year or the years before. What does this Fish Friday normally look like?
Normally, Good Friday is all hands on deck. It's sort of like a reunion. We even have former staff come back and help us out in this location. We have 20, 25 people working. Today, it's just the family. There's six of us here. Me, my mum, my dad, my aunt, my sister, my cousin. That's it.
So obviously, the capability is way less. The amount of product that we're gonna go through is way less. The sales are going to definitely be way less. I'd say one-tenth of what we would normally do.
But, you know, it's not about that this year. It's really about being able to provide some normalcy for people so that this tradition of getting your fish and chips on Friday is still there.
And so normally and in other years, how much fish do you go through? How many potatoes do you go through to make fries?
Well, for all locations, combined, there are six of us regularly. We'd go through about 5,000 pounds [2,268 kilograms] of codfish and over 15,000 pounds [6,804 kilograms] of potato.
How much cod do you have today?
We might have 150 pounds [68 kilograms] here. Basically, our take on it is we are going to keep serving fish today until we either run out, which is the most likely scenario, or we run out of stamina, which is also kind of possible.
Describe this tradition of eating fish and chips on Good Friday, because many Christians and other people don't eat meat on this day. But what is it about fish and chips in your province?
You know, it's really a St John's thing. When we started expanding our restaurants outside of St. John's, we were surprised that when Good Friday was coming it wasn't as big of a deal.
It's really about being able to provide some normalcy for people so that this tradition of getting your fish and chips on Friday is still there.- Vicki Barbour
I think it's just one of those things. Fish was very common. And back in the day, fish was very cheap. Potatoes were very common and also very cheap.
It's a foodstuff that Newfoundlanders identify with, you know, fish and chips. And then if we can just deep fry it, it's even better.
I think a lot of people are identifying with this right now. They're thinking, "I'm going to make fish and chips tonight at home if I have fish and what should I do?"
One thing people don't realize about deep-fried fish and chips is the fish is actually steamed because it gets this nice coating of the batter over it. When fat hits that fryer right away, that starts to crisp up so that fish is actually steaming in its own natural juices. And it's so good. When you do it right, it's white, it's flaky on the inside, the outside is crisp and golden and we just can't get enough of it.
Written by Justin Chandler. Produced by Mary-Catherine McIntosh. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
