Fish Cottage, Sandsend: ‘We’re a victim of our own success’ - The first fish and chip restaurant in Yorkshire coast village
The Fish Cottage was the first fish and chip restaurant to open in the seaside village of Sandsend - and now it is so popular its owners say it is ‘bursting at the seams’.
The chippy first opened in 2020 at a time when Sandsend didn’t have one and ever since it has attracted a wide range of customers.
The building has gone through various evolutions including a cafe, a bistro and now a seafood restaurant.
Owner Dan Hardcastle, 45, from Harrogate, has family who have lived in the village for years and regularly visited with his children.
“Whitby is the most famous place for fish and chips in the country and outside of Whitby there was nothing for seven miles, which seemed crazy,” the 45-year-old said.
“We looked and saw an opportunity at that location and it was COVID that brought it down.
“Then I think it expanded and one half of it was the telephone exchange for the village that was run by the family that lived in the house,” added Dan.
“So it's got a nice little bit of history and then I think eventually when the family moved out it was turned into a cafe and bistro.”
The business has become so popular that it has reached capacity and Dan is looking to expand its current site.
“Across both sections of the business, the takeaway and restaurant, we can serve a thousand meals a day on busy days,” he said.
“It’s a lot for a small place and a lot of that comes down to the team working really hard in a small and tight environment.
“Turnover wise, we're probably four times bigger than we ever imagined and we never envisioned the business being as popular.
“It’s a great little success story in itself but equally we're slightly a victim of our own success at the moment because we are bursting at the seams when we've had a great summer like this year where we get those peak weekends, the bank holidays.
“When there's so many people wanting to eat with us, it's difficult to manage.
“We’re looking to expand our capacity at the current site to try and allow us to run the business more smoothly and keep that consistency and quality as high as we possibly can.”
The Fish Cottage is popular for its fish tacos, which went viral on social media, and procures its ingredients fresh from the North Sea, unlike most fish and chips shops that use frozen fish.
“Certainly the fish tacos, prawn tacos, that's what we got famous for,” Dan said.
“Classic fish and chips is always going to be up there and the tacos which went viral on social media at one time.
“Fresh seafood is the heart of the business, that's what we chose to model ourselves on and sourcing local suppliers, using fish that come off the dayboat each day and changing the specials according to what's available.
“We only use fresh fresh fish, we don't use the frozen fish which 95% of fish and chip shops throughout the country use.
“We use a supplier which sorts that for us that's always landing from North Sea; North Sea cod and haddock.
“They’re also sustainable but beyond that there's an abundance of lobsters just outside of Whitby and Sandsend so we get local lobsters in, oysters, mussels, shellfish.”
Sandsend is a ‘classy destination’, Dan said.
“One of the things I think that makes Sandsend a great destination is that it’s not being overrun with takeaways, fast food, arcades, like a lot of seaside coasts have been,” he said.
“The great thing with Sandsend is it's really quite a nice classy destination.
“I like to think we've done Sandsend justice in that we've helped make it a food destination.”