A pub in Derbyshire has been astounded at the response it has had after introducing a fish and chips-topped pizza.
The Devonshire Arms in the village of Middle Handley launched the new dish via Facebook earlier this month with the intention of it being a two day special. However, due to overwhelming demand, it is keeping the pizza on until the end of August.
The stone-baked pizza, priced at £16, is a complete fish supper with battered haddock, scraps, mushy peas, tartare sauce and double-cooked chips sitting on a curry sauce base.
John Tompkins, who owns the pub with his daughter Alex, comments: “My chef walked in one morning and said he was going to launch a fish and chips pizza, bearing in mind he’s Portuguese. Within 15 minutes of him talking about it, it was on the table in front of me.”
In less than two weeks, the pub has sold almost 600 fish and chips pizzas, with John believing its popularity lies in the fact that fish and chips is a classic that everyone loves.
“Fish and chips is probably our second best seller,” he says. “We are a diverse restaurant, pub and boutique hotel, we do a lot of specials, but fish and chips, pie and gammon are our top three sellers.
“It’s really tasty and if you fold it in half you’ve got a fish and chip butty!”
As well as creating additional sales, the pizza has caused much debate and intrigue among customers and local businesses, with John adding: “The banter it has brought to the table has been great Yorkshire banter with customers questioning whether fish and chips belong on a pizza.
“We have a fish and chip shop near us that has mentioned us, saying ‘don’t worry about a fish and chips pizza, how about normal fish and chips?’. They haven’t used us as a negative, they’ve used our picture to create an interest in conventional fish and chips.
“There’s another fish and chip shop nearby that put it on their Facebook page. I commented on it and they commented back and we’ve had a bit of banter.
“It’s fantastic, especially because it’s hard work right now. Making everything work margin-wise and profitability is hard, but if you don’t reinvent yourself on a daily or weekly basis you sink, don’t you?”
With the initial Facebook post clocking up a reach of almost three-quarters of a million people, the fish and chips pizza is now the highlight of the menu, with John adding: “We printed the daily specials yesterday and forgot to put the pizza on there and quite a few people complained we had taken it off!”
